Alan Partridge will return to BBC as "voice of Brexit"

Aha! Step aside, David Davis. Take a hike, Michael Gove. Do one, Boris. Ta-ra, Theresa. Here comes the natural voice of a Hard Brexit: Alan Partridge.

The former 90s chat show host and sports presenter, who once punched BBC commissioning editor Tony Hayers in the face live on TV while wearing a stuffed partridge on his fist, will make a glorious return to the BBC next year, and it’s the perfect time for the character’s comeback, says Partridge creator Steve Coogan.

“It’s conceivable, because in this age of Brexit, [the BBC] might think they need to get in touch with the ‘Little Englanders’ they ignore,” Coogan told The New European.

Coogan is in no doubt to which way Partridge would have voted in the EU referendum. “Alan would have voted Brexit for sure. Hard Brexit, given the choice. He’s a Brexiteer because the Daily Mail told him to be.”

It has been 15 years since there was an Alan Partridge show on the BBC – 2002’s second series of the brilliant I’m Alan Partridge. Since then he’s appeared on parody web series Mid Morning Matters, Sky Atlantic one-off Alan Partridge: Welcome to the Places of My Life, and had a big screen comedy outing in the form of Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa.

Coogan will begin prepping the new show later this year, to be broadcast in spring 2018, and he’s clearly taking the challenge of bringing the character back seriously. “You always have to work really hard at it,” he says. “The standard of the comedy on Partridge is so high, that you have to match it, or people go, ‘Oh, they’ve lost it.’ So, you are making a rod for your own back. But that’s good, because you have to do good stuff, and people like it, and they go, ‘Oh! That’s brilliant.’”

We can’t wait to see Alan back, especially given his past track record with our European neighbours.