Back in the early 2000s, it seemed like Steve Coogan might kill off Alan Partridge. He’d spent a decade playing the hubristic Norwich broadcaster in TV and radio projects like On the Hour, The Day Today and Knowing Me Knowing You, culminating in a second series of BBC sitcom I’m Alan Partridge. The series had brought him two Baftas, but Coogan would later admit that there was a time he considered the character to be an “albatross” around his neck. But 20 years later – after numerous TV series, a feature film, a book deal, a podcast, and two live shows – the idea of Partridge simply disappearing in the early Noughties is impossible to imagine. The character has become Coogan’s life’s work. Far from an albatross, he’s become an inseparable part of Coogan’s identity – like Rod Hull and Emu, if Emu was surgically grafted onto Rod Hull’s face.
And yet, for many Partridge fans, I’m Alan Partridge still represents the character’s apex, even after all these years. (The first episode of I’m Alan Partridge aired on the BBC 25 years ago today.) Many of the mimetic, endlessly parroted Partridge lines originate from within the series’ 12 episodes. Without I’m Alan Partridge there would be no “Dan!”. No “Monkey tennis”. No “Best of the Beatles”. But – can I just shock you? – maybe Coogan really should have done away with his alter-ego back in 2002.
