Steve Coogan films two new specials

Steve Coogan is to make two hour-long specials for Sky Atlantic, as well as a TV version of his internet series, Mid Morning Matters.

It is the first time the character has jumped broadcaster from the BBC since he first appeared as a sports reporter on Radio 4's On The Hour 20 years ago.

The first of the two specials will be entitled Welcome To The Places of my Life, in which Partridge will take viewers on a tour of his beloved Norfolk. In the second, Alan Partridge On Open Books With Martin Bryce, he will be interviewed by a character played by Friday Night Dinner creator Robert Popper in front of a book club..

I'm Alan Partridge aired on BBC Two in 2002, but in 2010 he returned for the online series, set in the fictional radio station North Norfolk Digital, as part of Foster’s investment in comedy.

Those shows will be re-edited for a six-part ‘special edition’ series for Sky, with a second series to follow in 2013.

Coogan said: ‘Alan has been off the TV for too long but he is even more excited than me about his chance to have a second bite of the cherry. Alan feels the second decade of the millennium is the right time.’

Partridge, who published an acclaimed ‘autobiography’ last year, is also set to make his big-screen debut next year.

Sky Atlantic will also screen a two-part series, Steve Coogan's Stand Up Down Under - a behind-the-scenes look at his Australian live tour.

Sky’s head of comedy, Lucy Lumsden, said: ‘Sky Atlantic is providing our best writer-performers the space to feel creatively free. Who better to kick off our new season of comedies than the phenomenally talented Steve Coogan?’

Published: 18 May 2012