Comedian and actor Steve Coogan started his career on Spitting Image, and has since appeared in a number of films and TV shows, including A Cock And Bull Story and The Trip, but he’s perhaps best known for his alter-ego, local radio DJ Alan Partridge.

As the first Alan Partridge film – Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa – hits the big screen, Coogan, who hails from Middleton, chats about what he has in common with the character and why he’d like to be more optimistic

YOU SAID YOU NEARLY WENT MAD PLAYING ALAN PARTRIDGE FOR SO LONG WHEN MAKING THE FILM, HAVE YOU RECOVERED?

I have yes. Alan is a funny character for 90 minutes, but if you spend seven weeks constantly being him, always stuck in a room with him – imagine that. It does send you a bit crazy. Plus, filming was very intensive, I was shooting scenes, then running back up to the writing room to work on scenes.

DID YOUR WORK START TO TAKE OVER YOUR LIFE?

It did. I often found myself thinking “What would Alan say about this?”. You start having conversations in your head – but that’s good because that’s how you come up with ideas. I did find myself muttering on the train as Alan and suddenly realising that people were looking at me, though.

HAVE YOU GOT A LOT IN COMMON WITH ALAN?

Alan is a lot of my worst fears, so sometimes the things he says are the things that I really hate. For example, I might put the kind of thing that people with really odious views might say. But other times, Alan might say things I secretly think but haven’t got the guts to say. Alan is quite liberal, as am I, but sometimes I want to say quite illiberal and un-enlightened things out loud too.

IF YOU HAD TO HAVE ONE OF ALAN’S TRAITS, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Wow, which one. I think unmitigated optimism. He’s always optimistic and I’m not, so I’d quite like that.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN TEMPTED TO KILL ALAN OFF?

Not really. It’s weird, a lot of people have asked me that over the years. I used to wonder why everyone was so obsessed with killing Alan.

Barry Humphries is never asked if he’s going to kill off Dame Edna, she’ll die when he dies, and the same is probably true of Alan – as long as I can do other things too If I was just playing him the whole time I might be tempted to push him off a cliff at Beachy Head, but for now I think he’ll always be there. In the background, in a box. As long as I can put a bolt on it. And lock it.

THERE’S ONE SCENE IN THE FILM THAT INVOLVES YOU BELTING OUT A SONG WHILE DRIVING, WAS THAT AS FUN TO FILM AS IT LOOKS?

Yes it was fun. I’d been listening to the track over and over to try to remember the words, but I wanted to make it funny but simply singing along isn’t funny.

So I tried to get it exactly right, including all the ums and ahs in the song, in a weirdly obsessive way. It was quite enjoyable because it's the sort of thing you only ever do when no one else is looking.

IS IT TRUE THAT YOU'RE TAKING THE TRIP TO ITALY, WHAT CAN WE EXPECT?

Yes, you can expect more of the same really. I think it’s a bit more interesting, it looks very beautiful and we ate some wonderful food. Of course, we also had a lot of arguments and differences of opinion. There weren’t any spaghetti fights, just ideological differences about our world views. There’s also lots of impersonations and childishness, followed by bouts of sophistication.

  • Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa was released yesterday. Review – page 18.