“The door’s not shut” – The writers of ‘This Time With Alan Partridge’ on the future of the show

There could be a spin-off from Partridge's co-host Jenny

The writers of This Time With Alan Partridge have spoken of what the future might have in store for the show, revealing that “the door is not shut” on the series – and that there’s room for a spin-off about one of the characters.

The latest series for the fictional Norfolk fallen TV star saw him back at the BBC presenting a The One Show-style magazine programme. While Partridge is set to return in a new Simon Schama-style historical documentary series about Britain, writers Rob and Neil Gibbons have spoken of what could still come from the This Time format.

“We’re putting it in a drawer for now,” they told Digital Spy. “It was never intended to definitely be a one series thing with a huge catastrophe at the end, that’d be too similar to what’s gone before with Alan. So the door’s not shut.”

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They did however, say that there was potential for a spin-off based on Partridge’s This Time co-host Jennie Gresham (played by Susannah Fielding) – adding that there was “plenty of mileage” in the character.

“We didn’t want her to be just the butter-wouldn’t-melt voice of reason, the one the audience align with. It’d get boring,” said the Gibbons.

“So in the first episode we had her ‘accidentally’ steal a joke from Alan and use it herself on air. The uncertainty that created in Alan – was that really an accident or is she fucking with me? – immediately put some more interesting flesh on the bone and from there we wanted to keep her motives unclear.”

As for Partridge’s next series, Rob and Neil Gibbons will once again direct and share writing duties with Coogan. The show is provisionally titled And Did Those Feet, With Alan Partridge. Production has begun on the BBC One show, with filming due to begin in May.

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Made by Coogan’s production company Baby Cow, also on board is Dave Lambert, who was responsible for producing the Partridge documentaries, Scissored Isle and Welcome to the Places of My Life.

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