Alan Partridge web series to be broadcast on TV
It has been confirmed that Alan Partridge's Mid Morning Matters - the online web-series featuring Steve Coogan as hapless DJ Alan Partridge - will receive a TV broadcast.
Production company Baby Cow have packaged the online videos into a series of six half-hour long episodes and are currently in the process of negotiating the show's sale to a broadcaster.
Discussions are said to be in the very early stages with no confirmations made, but Broadcast magazine reports that Baby Cow are currently talking to the BBC, as well as looking at the prospect of international sales.
It is expected the episodes will be shown on TV in October.
Alan Partridge's Mid Morning Matters, which was created using sponsorship money from the Foster's lager brand, has become an online hit. Consisting of 12 short episodes between 10-15 minutes each, the videos feature Coogan's most famous creation presenting his radio show on North Norfolk Digital Radio. Since launching in November, the series - which also co-stars Tim Key and is written by Coogan, Armando Iannucci, Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons - has gained over 4 million views.
It has also been announced the company is planning to make a second series, but it not yet known if Foster's will again be involved in the financing.
Alan Partridge originally appeared in the BBC Radio 4 satirical comedy On The Hour (and its TV version The Day Today) as the show's idiotic sports reporter. This was later followed up by mock chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You With Alan Partridge and the sitcom I'm Alan Partridge.
Plans are also underway for production of an Alan Partridge feature film. Coogan confirmed in April that the movie, which will be set in Norwich, will be filmed in 2012. He said: "We're writing it right now and going to shoot it next year. I don't know who will direct it, but Pete Baynham and Armando Iannucci are writing it with me. We've already started it."
Coogan is also currently writing a spoof Alan Partridge memoir book with Iannucci, plus Rob and Neil Gibbons. Titled 'I, Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan', the book will look at the fictional Norwich resident's life, including his less than stellar career as a DJ at Radio Norwich and his home life at the Linton Travel Tavern. Publishers Centuary say the book, which will be published in October to coincide with the TV broadcast "promises to be everything that Alan Partridge fans have been waiting for, offering Alan's utterly hilarious outlook on his life and career so far."
Here is the first episode of Alan Partridge's Mid Morning Matters: