Alan Partridge creator Steve Coogan has pulled out of his final Cardiff show hours before it was due to start. The comedian and actor - who has embodied the character for over 30 years - has performed in the Welsh capital for the last two nights as he tours his latest show Alan Partridge Live: Stratagem.
However, it was announced hours before his final show at the Motorpoint Arena on Saturday, May 21 that he was pulling out of the performance due to illness. The show has now been postponed until a later date.
In a tweet, the venue said: "Due to illness, Steve Coogan is unable to perform tonight. The show is postponed. Please retain your tickets until further notice."
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The show sees Partridge - whom Coogan first played in 1991's On the Hour for Radio 4 - don a head-mic and "inform, educate and entertain in approximately equal measure" with his carefully devised roadmap for a better tomorrow. On the tour, the actor, who last year was spotted filming scenes as Jimmy Saville on a Welsh beach for an upcoming BBC mini-series, is also visiting venues in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Leeds and Bournemouth.
However, Cardiff was the only city where Coogan was due to perform three nights in a row. Ahead of his performances in the capital, he told WalesOnline that he was looking forward to being on stage in front of Welsh audiences.
"Whenever I've come to Wales in the past there are always great audiences, they really embrace laughter.," he said. "When you go around the whole country, England, Scotland and Wales, you notice the differences in audiences.
"There are some areas, which will remain nameless, where you think 'oh, it's going to be a bit muted tonight.' And then there are certain places where you know you'll get loud laughs, and Wales, Cardiff in particular, is definitely a place where you'll think 'we're going to have some fun tonight'."
He also revealed that he was at loggerheads with his The Trip co-star Rob Brydon on whether they should bring the beloved half spoof travelogue-half sitcom to Wales. "We haven't done one for years, but we haven't ruled out doing another," he said. "I must admit I do miss doing them," he said, but adding that he thought there needed to be a break before another series..
"I'd love to do another one with Rob in a year or two. I want to go to Ireland and Rob wants to go to Wales. Rob says 'why dont' we go to Wales?' and I say well, let's go to Ireland! Or let's go to France, or Los Angeles - oh no we don't want to go to America, America is boring. But the first series we did, we did the north of England and I bloody loved it. So, watch this space."
