Steve Coogan on Alan Partridge’s return to the BBC.
After a fifteen year absence those “sh*ts at the BBC” (his words, not ours) have finally given Alan Partridge another series. Steven Coogan returns to his character’s original home channel after a stint on Sky Atlantic and even a film, 2013’s Alpha Papa, and it would appear that Alan may be tackling more relevant topics than youth hosteling with Chris Eubank.
Steve Coogan told The New European,
“Alan would have voted Brexit for sure. Hard Brexit, given the choice. He’s a Brexiteer because the Daily Mail told him to be. [But] because he has got a show on the BBC, we have a problem because we have to explain why he’s a failure but that he has a show. The logic of what he is doing has to make sense. It’s conceivable, because in this age of Brexit, they [the BBC] might think they need to get in touch with the ‘Little Englanders’ they ignore.”
Coogan was quick to acknowledge the weight of expectation for his cult character creation, “That’s going to be tough. It’s always difficult to make good comedy. You always have to work really hard at it. The standard of the comedy on Partridge is so high, that you have to match it, or people go, ‘Oh, they’ve lost it’. “So, you are making a rod for your own back. But that’s good, because you have to do good stuff, and people like it, and they go: ‘Oh! That’s brilliant.’”
The new season is due early 2018. As Alan would exclaim, “Jurassic Park!”