Steve Coogan has confirmed that This Time with Alan Partridge will begin filming at the end of the year, with a planned premiere date in spring 2021.
The series debuted on BBC One back in 2019, seeing Coogan’s beloved comedy character taking on a magazine show format similar to that of The One Show.
Predictably, each episode packed some spectacularly awkward gaffes and ended on a particularly chaotic note, but it’ll take more than that to stop Partridge from broadcasting to the nation.
“We’re in the middle of writing another series of This Time,” he said in an interview with Digital Spy. “We’re shooting at the end of the year. We’re scrambling to get it together. It will be broadcast next spring, sometime.”
It’s unclear whether the series would require social distancing measures to operate, but there’s always the possibility of a socially distanced couch between Partridge and co-presenter Jennie Gresham (Susannah Fielding).
The first series of This Time with Alan Partridge was primarily concerned with the eponymous magazine show itself, although there were short interludes between segments which offered a glimpse into the presenter’s private life.
From Coogan’s latest comments, it appears these could be expanded in series two, with the intention of establishing a “parallel narrative”.
“We’re trying to set ourselves a task of having the [chat show] stuff on-screen and then have a kind of parallel unseen story that we get glimpses of, this parallel narrative of what’s going on in [Alan’s] private life and Jennie, his co-presenter’s, private life,” he explained.
“And then, sort of, have those two things go parallel. We haven’t quite realised where it goes but we want it to end up in a strange and unexpected place. That’s all I can say.”
There’s plenty of Partridge content out there right now for fans of the character, with a brand new podcast titled From The Oasthouse landing on Audible and an additional series planned for after This Time wraps up.
In addition, a Simon Schama-style British history series titled And Did Those Feet with Alan Partridge is also in the works, with filming said to have started in May 2019.
Little is known about the series beyond that it involves Alan travelling around the UK and meeting people who can enlighten him on the country’s past.
Coogan described a “documentary series” that matches this description without referencing it by name, meaning it’s unclear whether an additional travelogue could be in the pipeline.
He added: “After that, we’re going to do some sort of documentary series… We’ll definitely do a documentary series where Alan is on the road.”
Alan Partridge: From The Oasthouse is available to stream on Audible. If you’re looking for something to watch tonight, check out our TV Guide.
from Radio Times https://ift.tt/34TSGiA
