The BBC has announced that Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge is set to return to the airwaves in a new series, This Time with Alan Partridge, later this year as filming on a new series has begun.
The show will see Alan (Steve Coogan) handed a career lifeline – the chance to stand in (temporarily) as co-host on This Time, an evening weekday magazine show.
His first return to live television since his 90s chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You was cancelled after a guest was fatally shot on air, This Time is the perfect shop window for a man of Alan’s gravitas and will, or should, see him finally recognised as one of the heavyweight broadcasters of his era.
The show itself is a heady mix of consumer affairs, current affairs, viewer interaction, highbrow interview and lightweight froth; very much the sweet spots for a man whose CV boasts over two decades of weekday local radio. And with an array of diverse subjects on the agenda, it promises the perfect fit for a man whose broadcasting style has been described as ‘equidistant between chitchat and analysis.’
Joining Steve Coogan on the sofa will be Susannah Fielding as his female co-presenter Jennie Gresham, and Tim Key as Simon ‘formerly Sidekick Simon’ Denton. Full casting is still to be announced.
The show, which will run with six thirty minute episodes is Written by Neil Gibbons, Rob Gibbons, Steve Coogan. Directed by Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons. The producer is Ted Dowd and the executive producers are Christine Langan and Steve Coogan. A Baby Cow production for BBC.
