Steve Coogan

Book extract: Alan Partridge on Noel Edmonds

In an exclusive extract from his new book Nomad, Alan Partridge unpicks the many insults of his TV nemesis, from humiliation at the Our Price Christmas party to the shame of a BBC safety tutorial.

For the British, sitcoms aren't just entertainment, they're much more important than that. Over the past half-century, they've been a means for us to discuss race, gender, sexuality and - again and again, deep into the past and no doubt far into the future - class. This cheery accompaniment to the BBC's sitcom season enlists Steve Coogan, Graham Linehan and many more for a whistlestop survey of TV's funniest, sharpest half

The stars who got their big break at the Fringe (Link expired)

Here are just some of the actors and comedians who made their name in the capital.

Steve Coogan finds love again with Laura Hajek, 26

Just two months ago, he was seen engaging in a blazing row with his now ex-girlfriend Daisy Lewis outside London's exclusive Groucho Club. But now Steve Coogan, 50, has apparently found love once again, as he was spotted stepping out with pretty new girlfriend Laura Hajek, 26 - and she looks just like his Downton Abbey star ex.

Steve Coogan on Caroline Aherne

'She used to make me cry with laughter', Coogan pays tribute to his friend of over 20 years.

As creeping gentrification sounds the death knell for London's smut-central, Soho, Michael Winterbottom reprises the area's neon-lit, 1960s and 70s heyday with this affectionate portrait of soft-porn lord Paul Raymond. Steve Coogan almost engages our sympathies as the millionaire nightclub owner and pornographer, but it's a superficial film that leans heavily on Raymond's awkward relationship with his daughter Debbie (Imogen Poots).

In Alan Partridge's Scissored Isle, Alan set out to make amends for calling someone a chav. He began in Manchester, "spiritual home of the needy", and so it was always going to get worse. Whether quizzing a freegan with relentless untact on what he would actually eat - "An egg in a sock? A condom full of grapes?" or pondering his recurring anxiety dream - "stuck in a lift with Diane Abbot" - he still represents flawed humanity at one of its most extreme ends, with an exuberant lack of self-awareness.