Steve Coogan

Alan Gordon Partridge is the best - and best-loved - radio presenter in the region. Born into a changing world of rationing, Teddy Boys, apes in space and the launch of ITV, Alan's broadcasting career began as chief DJ of Radio Smile at St. Luke's Hospital in Norwich. After replacing Peter Flint as the presenter of Scout About, he entered the top 8 of BBC sports presenters. But Alan's big break came with his primetime BBC chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You. Sadly, the show battled against poor scheduling, having been put up against News at Ten, then in its heyday. Due to declining ratings, a single catastrophic hitch (the killing of a guest on air) and the dumbing down of network TV, Alan's show was cancelled. Not to be dissuaded, he embraced this opportunity to wind up his production company, leave London and fulfil a lifelong ambition to return to his roots in local radio. Now single, Alan is an intensely private man but he opens up, for the second time, in this candid, entertaining, often deeply emotional - and of course compelling - memoir, written entirely in his own words. (Alan quickly dispelled the idea of using a ghost writer. With a grade B English Language O-Level, he knew he was up to the task.) He speaks touchingly about his tragic Toblerone addiction, about the time he got locked in the boot of a Rover 800 when an experiment to see if he could fit in it went wrong, and the painful moment when unsold copies of his first autobiography, BOUNCING BACK, were pulped like 'word porridge'. He reveals all about his relationship with his ex-Ukrainian girlfriend, Sonja, with whom he had sex at least twice a day, and the truth about the thick people who make key decisions at the BBC. A literary tour de force, I, PARTRIDGE: WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT ALAN charts the incredible journey of one of our greatest broadcasters.

We Need to Talk about Alan

I, Partridge

Patrick Marber

Armando Iannucci

Peter Baynham

Alan Partridge

Steve Coogan was born and raised in Manchester in the 1960s, the fourth of six children. From an early age he entertained his family with impressions and was often told he should 'be on the telly'. Failing to get into any of the London-based drama schools, he accepted a place at Manchester Polytechnic School of Theatre and before graduating had been given his first break as a voice artist on the satirical puppet show Spitting Image. The late eighties and early nineties saw Coogan developing characters he could perform on the comedy circuit, from Ernest Moss to Paul Calf, and in 1992 he won a Perrier award with John Thomson. It was around the same time, while working with Armando Iannucci and Patrick Marber on On The Hour and The Day Today, that Alan Partridge emerged, almost fully formed. Coogan, once a tabloid fixture, is now a respected film actor, writer and producer. He runs his own production company, Baby Cow, has a raft of films to his name (from 24 Hour Party People to Alpha Papa, the critically-acclaimed Partridge film), six Baftas and seven Comedy Awards. He has found huge success in recent years with both The Trip and Philomena, the latter bringing him two Oscar nominations, for producing and co-writing. In Easily Distracted he lifts the lid on the real Steve Coogan, writing with distinctive humour and an unexpected candour about a noisy childhood surrounded by foster kids, his attention-seeking teenage years and his emergence as a household name with the birth of Alan Partridge.

Easily Distracted

Live 'n' Lewd

with Alan Partridge (the chat show host from Hell) in 2 episodes from his original BBC Radio 4 series

Knowing me, knowing you 2

Knowing Me Knowing Yule with Alan Partridge (video).

A-ha! A series of hysterically excrutiating encounters with guests played by Rebecca Front, David Schneider, Patrick Marber and Doon Mackichan.

BBC Radio 4 Comedy

Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge

With Alan Partridge

Knowing Me, Knowing You: Volume 3

The Award Winning BBC Radio Comedy Now on BBC Television

Knowing Me, Knowing You

There's a new chat show in town as the hit programme comes live from BBC Television Centre and Alan ushers on a variety of guests. There's also a whole edition of the programme broadcast from Paris.

The TV Series

Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge

A room with an Alan. Alan attraction. Watership Alan

I'm Alan Partridge

Rob Gibbons

Neil Gibbons

The official script for the box-office smash movie, featuring every ruddy word (and stage direction) of Alan's seamless transformation from natural-born broadcaster into fully fledged and occasionally fully dressed hostage negotiator. Contains deleted scenes and an exclusive Foreword by Steve Coogan. With a television career behind him and a much-coveted breakfast slot in his spiritual home, regional digital radio, there was only one place left for Alan Partridge to turn: Hollywood! Or rather, an Anglo-French funded co-production for the big screen. Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa sees Alan face his biggest challenge since he spent six months in a travel tavern, and is almost certainly the first time he has handled a loaded gun since he was a prime-time BBC2 presenter. When his beloved income-source North Norfolk Digital is taken over by a faceless media conglomerate, Alan's inimitable instinct for self-preservation leads to a violent and bloody siege on the radio station by an unhinged, nay mentalist, DJ, and a hostage crisis for which there can be only one man with the chat to diffuse it ... Featuring a cast of old and new Partridge favourites, including Sidekick Simon, assistant Lynn and Michael the Geordie, Alpha Papa is proof that while the jury's out on whether you can keep a good man down, it's an outright fact that you can't keep a good regional broadcaster off the airwaves.

The Script

Alpha Papa

The official script for the box-office smash movie, featuring every ruddy word (and stage direction) of Alan’s seamless transformation from natural-born broadcaster into fully fledged and occasionally fully dressed hostage negotiator. Contains deleted scenes and an exclusive Foreword by Steve Coogan.

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa: Script (and Scrapped)

Armando Ianucci

Alan Partridge is Britain's most remarkable broadcaster. He's scaled the giddy heights of a short-lived TV chat show, and the crashing lows of twenty-six weeks in a motel equidistant between Norwich and London. He's survived the death of a guest on air, his wife leaving him for a fitness instructor, an encounter with a mentalist fan, being crushed beneath a dead cow and incomplete sex with a woman he was supposed to be sacking. He's suffered a breakdown, Toblerone addiction, weight gain and his autobiography Bouncing Back being withdrawn and pulped. But Alan continues to bounce back - resilience and Gordon are his middle names. He's still playing his eclectic mix of music and hosting phone-ins on subjects as controversial as 'Should the police learn Kung-Fu?' and 'How long could you survive on just crisps?' Alan Partridge: Every Ruddy Word charts Alan's incredible journey - from his first, unforgettable radio chat show, to the recent construction of a house to his own specifications. Why don't you join him? Join him . . .

Every Ruddy Word

Alan Partridge is our most remarkable broadcaster. From the giddy heights of his short-lived TV chat show to the crashing lows of six months in a travel tavern, he's done it all. Whether shooting dead one of his guests on air; being crushed under a dead cow; having incomplete sex with a woman he was supposed to be sacking or encountering 'mentalist' fans, Alan remains a formidable presence. And despite suffering a breakdown, Toblerone addiction and skewering his foot on a spike he always bounces back. Every Ruddy Word is the complete story (with additional never-before-seen material) of one of Britain's most-enduring comic heroes. 'Charts every line of Mr Blazer's plummeting career from radio to TV to corporate video presenter. A treat.' The Times 'The man is a monster.' Guardian

Steve Coogan

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