'There are people in Norwich who love Alan Partridge'

Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge is wearing a black suede jacket and orange and blue checked shirt. He has fair orange-y highlights and is looking pensively at the camera. Photo strictly embargoed by production company BBC until Fri 3 October.Image source, Rob Baker Ashton/Baby Cow/BBC
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Actor Steve Coogan is back as Alan Partridge in his latest BBC One series called How Are You?

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It is back-of-the-net time as one of the nation's most enduring comic characters returns to our screens, but Alan Partridge creator Steve Coogan says the fictional Norfolk broadcaster polarises opinions in the county.

The tactless TV host is back with a crowd-funded documentary called How Are You? which sees him superficially delving into the issue of mental health in his trademark ego-fuelled way.

It signals Partridge's most recent return from the wilderness after he fled to Saudi Arabia following his BBC sacking for a rant on magazine show This Time.

Filming for the latest series has taken place in Norfolk but Coogan - who plays Partridge - says he receives a mixed reception on the streets.

"I think the people who don't like Alan wouldn't say anything to me in the street, and the people who do like him like to say 'hello'," Coogan told BBC Culture reporter Paul Glynn, during an interview about the new show.

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Alan Partridge returns from Saudi Arabia to take a deep dive into mental health issues in his own inimitable way

A trailer for the latest Partridge series, broadcast from 3 October on BBC One, shows scenes from Norwich city centre and the cobbled medieval landmark Elm Hill.

Coogan also filmed at a cheese stall on Norwich market last year, possibly in a nod to one of his character's best-known phrases when he tells a TV executive to "smell my cheese" while shoving a cheese wheel in his face.

Paula Taylor, from The Cheeseman stall, said at the time the actor visited "about eight or nine years ago, but it was lovely to see him come back to smell my cheeses - he's such a nice man".

Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge looks animatedly at the camera with a sign behind him saying: Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge.
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Alan Partridge came to national prominence in 1994 in spoof TV chat show, Knowing Me, Knowing You, after beginning his career as a sports presenter on the TV news parody, The Day Today

Coogan, 59, said while Partridge had wound his way back to his home county of Norfolk, he understood why local people had opposing views about him.

"Of course, there are some people who love Alan Partridge in Norwich and think it's great and lean into it," he said.

"And there are others who really don't like it and think it trivialises the rich cultural history of Norwich and subsumes much more important things about the county and the city.

"And I think they're both right... I get both those points of view."

Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge in a radio studio with an old-style phone behind him. He has headphones on and is drinking from a Radio Norwich mug. He is wearing a blue, grey and black patterned jumper.
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After losing his TV show, the fictional broadcaster took on the twilight shifts at his local Radio Norwich station for I'm Alan Partridge, which ran on BBC Two

In the Norfolk seaside resort of Great Yarmouth, BBC Radio Norfolk asked people for their opinions about the spoof local radio DJ.

They veered from "never heard of him" and "he's just for the turnip heads" to "friends in New Zealand and America, who I've worked with... always ask me about Alan Partridge - they love him".

Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge sits at a desk looking over it to the side. He has his hand up and is wearing a checked shirt and padded leather jacket. He is looking hopeful. Lynn is sat next to him, clutching a handbag on her lap. She is wearing a navy jacket and a cream with a pussy bow. She is looking surprised.  Photo strictly embargoed by production company BBC until Fri 3 October.Image source, Rob Baker Ashton/Baby Cow/BBC
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Alan Partridge and his long-suffering assistant Lynn, played by Felicity Montagu, appear together again in How Are You?

For a county so intertwined with the ever-smug presenter - who first appeared on the BBC Radio 4 parody news show On the Hour in 1991 - there have been those who have been proud to champion his roots.

In 2020, sculptors Nick Dutton and Gavin Fulcher unveiled a brass statue of the star, emblazoned with his trademark greeting of "a-ha", temporarily outside Norwich's Forum building, which made an appearance in the 2013 feature film Alpha Papa.

Superfan Paul Wassell, who also runs a Facebook page which revels in Partridge philosophy, staged a festival fittingly called "We're Just Fans, Alan" in 2021.

Covid meant the original date was postponed, but Mr Wassell said activities, including Partridge's game show idea of monkey tennis, had been on the bill at the Norwich venue, doubling for the divorcee's one-time Linton Travel Tavern lodgings.

Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge, with a sweeping fringe and dressed in a light blue safari suit with a crisp white shirt and baby pink tie. He is outside with blurred crowds behind him.Image source, PA Media
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The world premiere of Alpha Papa was held in Norwich's former Anglia Square cinema after a campaign by fans

Since his radio beginnings, Partridge has presided over chat shows, sitcoms, a feature film and podcast - with regular trips to Norfolk a requirement for his creator.

A successful social media campaign to host a world premiere of Alpha Papa in Norwich saw Coogan don Partridge's powder blue safari suit and issue a statement.

In it, he mocked: "Any suggestions I've hastily cobbled together the lunchtime Norwich screening in response to a local Twitter campaign will be met with the full force of the law."

Coogan also starred in Michael Winterbottom's A Cock and Bull Story, filmed at Felbrigg Hall, near Cromer, in 2004.

Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge at the wheel of a cruiser on the Norfolk Broads. He is wearing a captain's hat. a white shirt and cravat and is posing at the camera, with his arms wide open.
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Watership Alan was an episode of I'm Alan Partridge, which ran from 1997 to 2002, and saw the ill-informed broadcaster anger local farmers on a Norfolk Broads trip

The actor, originally from Middleton in Greater Manchester, said he had grown to feel an "attachment" to the city and county.

"I sort of have an affection for it that I didn't really have because I didn't know it," said Coogan.

"So I feel schizophrenic. I'm a northerner, but I know that Alan's from Norwich."

Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge is sitting in a glass-fronted radio van, with actor Colm Meaney behind him. There are Radio Norwich posters in the window.
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Steve Coogan and Colm Meaney acted scenes outside The Forum in Norwich during the filming of Alpha Papa

As an awkward outsider always trying to fit in before dropping a social faux pas, Coogan said Norfolk's geographical uniqueness was a perfect mirror for Partridge's character.

"Norfolk and Norwich, which is a wonderful part of the world, are quite unusual," he said.

"We chose Norwich as a home for Alan, partly because of its geographical location.

Also we didn't want to tread well-worn paths... there are lots of comedies from Liverpool and the north and Birmingham, The Midlands, and we see Only Fools and Horses - Cockneys.

"So you say, 'what's more interesting?'. And there's something about the fact that Norwich/Norfolk is not a thoroughfare of the country, it's out on a big fat peninsula and it feels interesting and different.

"It's not north and it's not south. It's sort of on its own."

Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge is wearing a light blue suit jacket, a cream tie and trousers. He has his arm round Katrina, who is wearing a bright pink hat and strapless black and white strapless dress. They are stood in a field in front of a Range Rover.Image source, Rob Baker Ashton/Baby Cow/BBC
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Alan Partridge cosies up to some new friends including Katrina, played by Katherine Kelly, in How Are You?

How Are You? It's Alan (Partridge) begins on BBC One at 21:30 BST on Friday 3 October, when all six episodes will be available on iPlayer.

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