Fish out your chamois leather driving gloves and Roachford CDs because Norwich's finest, Alan Partridge, is returning for a second helping of cinematic mayhem. Henry Normal, the co-founder of Steve Coogan’s production house Baby Cow, told the Guardian that a sequel to Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa and a new Sky series are both in the pipeline.
“We are planning a sequel, yes, that will be great,” Normal revealed at Advertising Week Europe. “We are also looking at doing more Mid Morning Matters and another Sky special, a little bit like Coast with Alan Partridge, except I don't think he goes out of Norfolk.”
According to Normal, the writing team will fire up almost immediately. “We start writing now”, he said, “[and] I think we make it at the end of summer.”
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, which pooled the scribing skills of Coogan, Armando Iannucci and brothers Neil and Rob Gibbons, saw the breakfast DJ-turned-TV-celebrity-turned-breakfast-DJ-again facing down deranged former North Norfolk Digital employee Pat Farrell (Colm Meaney).
Will the sequel follow **the Under Siege **or Die Hard formula of inserting Partridge into the jaws of danger at a major transport nexus – say, Diss train station – or follow the recent trend for “darker” follow-ups, Dark Knight-style? With any luck we'll find out soon.