'But the CGI would be weird'

Steve Coogan has suggested it would be ‘quite appealing’ to make a show charting Alan Partridge’s early life.

However, he conceded it might be a challenge to pull off, joking that he’d need ‘CGI to get rid of my crow’s feet… That would be weird CGI to try and make me look 18.’

He made his comments to radio presenter Chris Moyles on his Radio X show this morning – after the DJ jokingly put himself forward to write a script filling in some of Partridge’s backstory.

‘Oh go on, have you got a suggestion?,’ Coogan replied. ‘So, the idea of doing a prequel in Alan’s life and going back and telling stories, that isn’t contemporaneous, is quite appealing…’

His comments came after a discussion of how detailed a biography had been built up about the hapless broadcaster over his decades as a comedy character.

‘He's been around so long and we've obviously constructed this life,’ Coogan said. ‘It's like the iceberg thing… if there's a bit poking out above the surface, there's all this other stuff you can't see.

‘We had to build a life for him… where he went to college and people he knew in the past. And it's all written down. We can't contradict it and we have to respect that. It is a fictitious life that’s created.

‘But  sometimes we do slip up and diehard fans know this stuff, they go "well, you said that then…" So sometimes we have to employ an archivist to really go back and say, "let's make sure."

‘We can put in details he hasn't spoken of before, but we can't just ride roughshod…’

Coogan also repeated his explanation as to how Partridge ended up back on the BBC hosting This Time – ascribing it to the Corporation addressing fears it was in a metropolitan liberal bubble in the wake of Brexit.

‘Alan might not be woke – well he attempts to be, but he's clearly not part of the woke generation,’ Coogan said. ‘However, the BBC knows that it has to satisfy those kind-of un-woke, Brexit - northerners especially - who elected Boris Johnson. There are huge swathes of them out there.

‘And part of their remit is they can't just be pandering to the metropolitan elite, they have to reach out to those people up there. Who better to do that than Alan Partridge, so that's why he got the job.’

Coogan was speaking as the second series of the Partridge podcast From The Oasthouse has been released (review) and his new film The Lost King, about the discovery of Richard III’s remain in a Leicester car park, hits cinemas

• The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X airs on weekdays from 6:30am to 10am and Saturdays 8am to 11am.

Published: 28 Sep 2022