When Alan Partridge interviewed Tony Blair

Armando Iannucci recalls the odd moment

comedy Armando Iannucci has been recalling the time Tony Blair was interviewed by Alan Partridge at the 1996 Labour Party conference.

Then Labour leader, the politician was apparently led to believe the stunt would go down with young supporters.– but wasn’t quite sure who Partridge was.

Speaking at an Intelligence Squared event on Monday, and reported in The Times diary column today, Iannucci recalled getting the call from from Labour HQ.

He drafted a script but said Blair, who ‘deferred everything to Alastair Campbell’, his spin doctor, seemed disengaged.

When the leader arrived, he was introduced to Iannucci and Steve Coogan and asked where Alan Partridge was.

Armando

‘It had to be explained to him that it was a fictional character,’ Iannucci said. Coogan later said Campbell had told him that if anyone from the press asked, he was to say Blair had ‘a great sense of humour’.

Blair said on the BBC’s Newscast in 2020 that he was a fan of Partridge, and mentioned the interview, and prompting the podcast to unearth a short archive clip of the moment:

Tony Blair reminded us of the time that he was interviewed by Alan Partridge at the 1996 Labour party conference. We raided the BBC archives... #BBCNewscast pic.twitter.com/0UpHnW1H6a
— Dino Sofos (@dinosofos) September 4, 2020

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Published: 27 Mar 2024