Steve Coogan

Is Alan Partridge morphing into Tommy Saxondale?

Steve Coogan's inability to escape his most successful character was mined for some of the best material in The Trip, his 2010 collaboration with Rob Brydon and Michael Winterbottom. For a minority however, myself included, it's Tommy Saxondale that's the more complex character and one that has managed to seep, intentionally or otherwise, into the version of Alan Partridge we meet in the 2013 feature-length outing Alpha Papa.

Alan Partridge stars in Norwich Christmas lights

Norwich lit up a Christmas lights display in tribute to Steve Coogan's fictional radio DJ Alan Partridge.

Comedians in politics: An open letter

Rupert, you hobble yourself from the outset by challenging something which no one is proposing: giving Steve Coogan a job outside of the Alan Partridge series. No one is saying that, not me, not you, not David Mitchell, not Russell Brand, not Robert Webb.

Alan Partridge: I wish I'd had one fewer children

Regrets? North Norfolk Digital's legendary DJ - who bears an uncanny resemblance to comedian Steve Coogan - has a few. Like having one too many children, mocking the owners of Japanese cars.... oh, and shooting a man dead on his TV talk show.

It will be interesting to see how master baker Paul Hollywood copes perched on a sofa chatting without some dough to knock about and knead while he talks. He'll be doing just that in his new daytime series, which starts on Monday.

Joining him tonight is Steve Coogan who has had an impressive year, thanks to his diverse roles in The Look of Love, Alpha Papa and What Maisie Knew, but also because he won Best Screenplay for Philomena at the Venice Film Festival.

Adding bite to the evening is Dracula star Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

Ambassadors is the low-key acerbic comedy drama set in a British embassy in the fictional central Asian country of Tazbekistan. The first episode had some tonal problems as it struggled to establish whether it wanted to be funny or clever, and often failed to achieve either.

But it was OK, and at times mildly amusing, which already put it out in front of most of the competition. That said, you expect better than occasionally mildly amusing from David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who maintained a level of demented brilliance in Peep Show for years.

And in the second episode they were indeed much better. Some of the improvement could be attributed to a wonderful turn by Tom Hollander as an obnoxious prince who stumbles luxuriously around the globe as a trade envoy creating international crises - a great comic idea, and one wonders who could possibly have been its inspiration.

More than that, though, it was a matter of characters falling into place and the place finding its character. Webb is oddly convincing as a cynical idealist assistant to the ambassador, and Mitchell shows a conflicted steeliness and sensitivity that goes some way beyond his stock gift for the florid rant.

The writing, by James Wood and Rupert Walters, was sharper too. Several plot strands were neatly combined, and there was an impressive resistance - as shown with the Prince Mark storyline - to succumbing to the obvious. Rather than bash you over the head with jokes, it takes a more diplomatic approach. And I don't care what Steve Coogan says about him, Mitchell has persuaded me on this one.

Steve Coogan may 're-animate' Alan Partridge for sequel

Steve Coogan has said that he may "re-animate" Alan Partridge for a sequel to Alpha Papa.

Steve Coogan interview

Lurid tabloid tales about his private life turned Steve Coogan into a Hacked Off warrior. But with his latest film, Philomena, a hot tip for the Oscars, he may be entering a new phase of life.

Steve Coogan's press freedom letter to David Mitchell

Last week, Observer columnist David Mitchell wrote a piece in which he argued against the involvement of politicians in press regulation. Here Steve Coogan, a supporter of the campaign group Hacked Off, responds.