Steve Coogan

Meet the men who made Alan Partridge funnier than ever

We talk to Neil and Rob Gibbons, the writers behind a triumphant TV comeback for Steve Coogan's alter ego.

By rights, Alan Partridge should have been dead as a character years ago, the last drops of humour long since wrung out of the local radio presenter from Norwich, but Steve Coogan keeps finding ways to make him feel fresh.

It's not so much a reinvention as a layering process. Coogan knows we know Partridge, so he doesn't waste time or insult his audience by writing unnecessary scenes to re-establish his character: rather it feels as if we are starting where we last left off and the pleasure comes from Partridge continuing to reveal more of himself than he actually intended. As the cracks in his public persona widen, he becomes a genuinely darker, more complex, more interesting character. And more sympathetic - though that could say more about my attraction to the twisted.

The set-up was a parody of any number of early evening TV documentaries in which a minor celebrity fills an hour of screen time by pottering around some fairly dull places, talking to fairly dull people while trying to convince everyone it's all enormously interesting. On its own, this would have made good comedy, as there were also sideswipes at Bear Grylls' and Dan Snow's annoying presentational tics of adding drama to the tediously mundane. But with Partridge it's always what you don't expect that makes him so well worth watching. His piece about Norwich city hall that started off as a riff on The King's Speech and ended with him fantasising about Hitler making a victory speech from the balcony with the bronze lions below raising their paws in Nazi salutes was just wonderful.

There were any number of other great moments, such as Partridge taking over the fruit and veg market stall and saying: "I had a go at doing the things it's taken Mike 25 years to learn, and it was a piece of piss. But I like Mike. He's a sort of village idiot from years gone by"; or Partridge test-driving a Range Rover, saying: "I bet you think we just included this because I wanted to have a go in one"; you just know there are out-takes like these in every documentary maker's editing suite.

Subtitled 'Welcome To The Places Of My Life', this is Steve Coogan's broadcaster buffoon on a new channel for a guided tour of his native Norfolk - the "Wales of the East", as he would have it. The last series of Partridge on the BBC fell short of the usual brilliance but the recent autobiography and those beer-sponsored online shows seem to have revitalised him.

Aha! Alan Partridge, elder statesman of broadcasting

As Steve Coogan's alter-ego Alan Partridge returns, Michael Deacon salutes a gloriously awful anti-hero.

Comedy gold: Steve Coogan's The Man Who Thinks He's It

Pauline Calf, Tony Ferrino and, of course Alan Partridge - can character comedy be considered standup? In this show, the nakedness of one man and a microphone is everywhere.

Steve Coogan on the return of Alan Partridge

Alan Partridge (Steve Coogan) makes his eagerly awaited return to our screens with the first of two new specials for Sky Atlantic...

Growly Alastair Campbell, former Downing Street director of communications and strategy, diarist, Burnley supporter and ebullient Tweeter, chairs for the first time. So expect lots of needling from Ian Hislop, who'll doubtless have something to say about Campbell's appearances before the Leveson Inquiry (he's the first of tonight's Leveson alumni; Steve Coogan turns up on Graham Norton).

But the big question is will Campbell have the skill to rein in guest panellist, big, loud hirsute Ross Noble, who tends to overwhelm any panel show he's on if he's not kept in order? Returning to the show is Lord Sugar's flint-eyed right-hand man, and Countdown host, Nick Hewer.

Steve Coogan's last big attention-grabbing television appearance saw him sober-suited and angry giving evidence about press intrusion and phone-hacking to the Leveson Inquiry last year.

Tonight he joins Charlize Theron and Jon Hamm on Graham Norton's big red sofa, presumably to discuss his travails at the hands of an unforgiving press and the return of his monstrous, brilliant creation, embittered Radio Norwich DJ Alan Partridge. There will be a Partridge film later this year and a TV series is set for Sky Atlantic.

Steve Coogan: 'Day Today-era Alan Partridge was crude'

Steve Coogan and Armando Iannucci have explained how the character of Alan Partridge has evolved over the years.