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Chronicle Live

Entertainment

Barbara Hodgson

Alan Partridge live in Newcastle - Steve Coogan brings comedy favourite back to the stage after 13-year absence

Steve Coogan Alan Partridge Newcastle

He hasn't made a live performance for several years it seems but now Alan Partridge is returning to the spotlight with a tour bringing him to Newcastle.

The cringey but much-loved presenter has been conspicious by his absence from the touring scene over the past 13 years but Geordie fans soon will be able reaquaint themselves with Steve Coogan's comic creation when he takes to the stage at the Utilita Arena over two dates in May.

Speaking ahead of the launch of his spring tour of new show Strategem, Coogan, who first introduced Partridge to the world more than 30 years ago, initially in radio show On The Hour, said: "“It’s about getting back in the saddle. I like writing drama and doing different things but I just need to remind myself that I can do this.

"There’s enough great stuff written for the show that I can’t wait for people to see, and once it gets up on its feet, it’ll be good. I know it’s good - because we all laughed at it.” He added of the show's title: "It sounded slightly affected and pretentious so we wrote the word down. We knew the show would be some kind of a public address which would then give us enough leeway to chuck in other stuff.”

Fans are told they can expect inappropriate musings and clumsy turns of phrase from his alter-ego when they catch up with the hapless presenter who, it appears, has certainly not been idle during his absence from the live circuit, having had memoirs published - the first of which was I Partridge: We Need To Talk About Alan - and been involved in a film, web series, podcast and TV's This Time With Alan Partridge.

Back on stage, and with the help of big screen backdrops, he will be conducting interviews with some old friends too. Coogan describes the upcoming show as a cross between a Ted Talk and West Side Story, saying: "There will be singing and dancing to keep people entertained but there will also be a heavyweight element to it."

He added: “Alan will be trying to impart his accumulated wisdom and put it into some form that has cogency, so that he can ‘help’ other people. It’s an all-encompassing, almost cripplingly broad attempt to cover all potential personal problems that people might have in processing the modern world, so Alan helps people navigate the rocky waters of gender, equality, diversity, sexual identity.

"Whatever the most precarious and dangerous landscapes that are out there, we’ll put Alan’s walking bits on and let him stomp all over them.” Coogan, whose career takes in starring roles in films Philomena and Stan & Ollie and TV dramas including a three-parter about Stephen Lawrence; MeToo drama Chivalry and BBC's The Reckoning in which he plays notorious sexual predator Jimmy Savile, says his return to Patridge will be "like a warm bath".

He admits to some "necessary" anxiety about the tour but explains: "I’ve got to a place now where I’m really comfortable with it; I don’t have to do it, I choose to do it. And that way, it will always be enjoyable. If the moment comes when I’m doing it because I have nothing else worth doing, that’s when you’re in trouble.”

He added: " I’m also looking forward to connecting with an audience. Despite covid and now the war which is depressing and tragic, people will always want to laugh. This form of interaction is as old as the hills.

"Social media is quite new but standing on stage and entertaining people is very simple and pure. I’m craving that.” He'll be at Utilita Arena on May 4 and 5. For information about the tour see here and for tickets see the arena website here or Ticketmaster here.