Actor Steve Coogan has expressed his desire to perform more live shows as his character Alan Partridge, following the highly anticipated release of his latest BBC documentary series. Partridge is set to return to the airwaves later this year in the new series ‘And Did Those Feet…with Alan Partridge’. Speaking in a recent interview with BBC Radio 2, Coogan shared that he is interested in returning to the stage as Partridge soon, after the most recent ‘Stratagem’ tour in 2022.
Coogan also mentioned that his involvement in more dramatic roles, such as portraying Jimmy Savile in ‘The Reckoning’ and starring in the Laurel & Hardy biopic ‘Stan & Ollie’, has helped him to return to the Partridge character with a fresh perspective. He noted that having the opportunity to explore different topics and subject matters and write other things made it easier to come back to Alan. “As long as I can do that and I get the balance right I like to come back to Alan because he’s like putting a warm dressing gown on. It feels so easy”, Coogan stated.
The new six-episode BBC series ‘And Did Those Feet’ will be the first time the North Norfolk presenter has returned to the network since the last series of ‘This Time with Alan Partridge’ was broadcast in 2021. The synopsis released by the corporation says: “What begins as a documentary about homecoming soon morphs into something more personal as Alan realises that the happiness he thought he’d feel at being back in Norwich just hasn’t materialised. Something’s missing.” The series, written by Coogan alongside Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons, is set to run for six 30 minute episodes, with the broadcast date yet to be announced.
Earlier this year, Coogan faced criticism over a Partridge joke during a sketch for Comic Relief about Ukrainian refugees. The character and Sidekick Simon (played by Tim Key) were reading out callers’ most and least charitable acts. “Grant in Bristol says his most charitable act was taking in a family of Ukrainians for a year,” said Simon. Partridge then asked: “And the least charitable?”, before Simon replied: “Turfing them out, he’s got rid.” “Marvellous, well actually a friend of mine did that for a family of Ukrainians,” Partridge added. “Still friends with them, they still wash his cars.” The sketch led to many people on social media describing the line as “awful”, “stupid” and “unfunny
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