Alan Partridge: Every TV Show And Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

While Partridge had originated in On The Hour and The Day Today, it wasn't really until he got his own show that the character we know and love started to emerge as a fully formed self-important, cringe-inducing, tragicomic ABBA aficionado and scaler of the north face of Chatmandu.

Spoof chat show Knowing Me, Knowing You, in which Alan interviews a variety of guests mostly played in different guises each week by the same talented cast of regular actors brought over from The Day Today (Rebecca Front, David Schneider, Doon Mackichan, and Patrick Marber, who also co-wrote with Iannucci and Coogan), really allows for a more long-form exploration of the character's foibles, wringing maximum cringe out of every encounter.

KMKYWAP, as Alan awkwardly attempts to acronymise it, really hit its peak in the fourth episode, presented "live from Paris" with a French co-host. Alan at his most Richard Madeley is in way over his head with a series of pretentious, high-brow guests, including Front satirising Vivienne Westwood's then-recent appearance on Wogan.

This leads to a hilarious celebration of Alan's own unique fashion sense, defined by the man himself as "sports casual", while sauntering up the Champs-Élysées or lounging in front of Notre Dame ("the classic English gentleman abroad: it's David Niven, it's Stewart Granger, it's Nigel Havers, it's a green blazer. The look: imperial leisure"). It should be celebrated for the joy of the Alan Partridge blazer badge alone.