S6 EP1: Steve Coogan on falling out of love with Alan Partridge, playing Jimmy Savile, and sobriety

The Louis Theroux Podcast

Spotify Studios

Comedy, Arts, Society & Culture

4.1 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2025

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Louis sits down with writer, actor and comedian Steve Coogan in the first episode of the new series. Steve discusses falling in and out of love with Alan Partridge, literally wearing Jimmy Savile’s shoes in ‘The Reckoning’, and being sober after his ‘delayed adolescence’. Warning: 1970s mother-in-law jokes are included. Warnings: Strong language and adult themes. If you’ve been affected by the topics discussed in this episode, Spotify have a website for information and resources. Visit spotify.com/resources Links/Attachments: TV Show: ‘On the Hour’ (1991 – 1992) - BBC Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008pcbq TV Show: ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ (1994 - 1995) - BBC https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108828/ TV Show: ‘I’m Alan Partridge' (1997 – 2002) - BBC https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129690/ TV Show: ‘Alan Partridge’s Mid Morning Matters’ (2010 – 2016) https://tv.apple.com/gb/episode/episode-1/umc.cmc.6t24k6qmgn78pjfz5iueck40u?showId=umc.cmc.9x6rfy298smgramzarjelucq&action=playSmartEpisode Philomena (2013) https://tv.apple.com/gb/movie/philomena/umc.cmc.65o05voqje46icxfetp55hwcb?action=play TV Show: ‘The Reckoning’ (2023) - BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0g4swnr/the-reckoning TV Show: ‘How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge)’ (upcoming show) - BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002hcbk Book: Easily Distracted, Steve Coogan (2015) https://www.waterstones.com/book/easily-distracted/steve-coogan/9780099585930 TV show: ‘The Thick of It’ (2005 – 2012) - BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b006qgrd/the-thick-of-it TV Show: ‘Veep’ (2012 – 2019) - HBO https://tv.apple.com/gb/episode/fundraiser/umc.cmc.ytcqma5k9ovyykhsnnm9asnk?showId=umc.cmc.5ir3dmyl42miy9h2gxvz551ql&action=playSmartEpisode TV Show: ‘Blankety Blank’ (1979 – 1990) - BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m0010b7c/blankety-blank Les Dawson playing piano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nNGlaiVypU TV Show: ‘Spitting Image’ (1984 – 1996) - ITV https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086807/ TV Show: ‘Blackadder’ (1983 - 1989) - ITV https://www.itv.com/watch/blackadder/2a7295 TV Show: ‘Not the Nine O’Clock News’ (1979 – 1982) - BBC https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080253/ TV Show: ‘The Trip’ (2010 - 2020) - BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b04v5fy3/the-trip TV Show: ‘When Louis met...’ [Jimmy Savile Episode] (2000 – 2002) - BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0g3zjn9/when-louis-met-series-1-jimmy-savile Louis Theroux: Savile (2016) - BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07yc9zh Jimmy Savile & Steve Coogan 1989 clip: https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/celebrity/steve-coogan-jimmy-savile-impression-201622-20231021 Book: In Plain Sight: The Life and Lies of Jimmy Savile, Dan Davies (2015) https://www.worldofbooks.com/en-gb/products/in-plain-sight-book-dan-davies-9781782067467 TV Show: Des (2020) - ITV https://www.itv.com/watch/des/2a7844 TV Show: ‘Appropriate Adult’ (2011) - ITV https://www.itv.com/watch/appropriate-adult/1a6304 TV Show: ‘Foyle’s War’ (2002 – 2015) https://www.itv.com/watch/foyles-war/25410 A Beautiful Mind (2002) https://tv.apple.com/gb/movie/a-beautiful-mind/umc.cmc.2iqk0c0jh9ocfk2jtv2yda0k1?action=play Credits: Producer: Millie Chu  Assistant Producer: Maan al-Yasiri Production Manager: Francesca Bassett  Music: Miguel D’Oliveira  Audio Mixer: Tom Guest Video Mixer: Scott Edwards Shownotes compiled by Elly Young Executive Producer: Arron Fellows     A Mindhouse Production for Spotify  www.mindhouse.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Three, two, one.
0:09.1	Hello there.
0:10.0	Welcome back to a brand new series of The Louis Theru podcast.
0:28.7	And for our first episode, I'm joined by none other than the talented actor, writer and comedian, Steve Coogan.
0:39.3	Steve is perhaps, well, not perhaps, he definitely is, best known for his iconic character, Alan Partridge, the Norfolk-based disc jockey, who's graced our screen since 1991,
0:44.3	right up there with David Brent Basil Fulte. He's a legend of television.
0:50.0	Off the back of the character's first appearance as a hapless sports presenter on the BBC Radio 4 program On the Hour, Alan Partridge became a fan favorite fronting series like
0:56.0	Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge. That's legendary. Based on the Abbasong,
1:02.2	that's where it comes from, and gave birth to the catchphrase, aha. He would say,
1:07.2	Knowing me, Alan Partridge, knowing you, random celebrity. Aha!
1:14.4	Yeah, I didn't do it quite right, but you get the idea.
1:19.3	Later on, there was a sitcom, I'm Alan Partridge, for which the writing team won two Bafters,
1:20.9	then came a hiatus.
1:22.5	We talk about that.
1:24.1	He kind of fell out of love with Alan. Alan became an albatross, a monkey.
1:29.8	Choose your species. Nevertheless,
1:36.5	they got back together. There was a rapprochement between Steve and Alan with a series of digital shorts in 2010 called Mid-Mourning Matters with Alan Partridge, written with a new writing team,
1:41.8	Rob and Neil Gibbons. That was funded by Fosters, the Lager Company. Random fact. But outside of Partridge, Steve is an award-winning actor, writer and producer of films. In 2013, he co-wrote, produced and starred in Philomena. Have you seen that? My friend Dame Judy Dench is in it. It's actually a brilliant film and well worth the watch. We don't
2:01.5	talk about it in the chat. Sorry. More recently he starred as Jimmy Saville in BBC's The Reckoning,
2:07.6	the famous DJ and Sex Offender, who I made two documentaries about. Yes, we do talk about that.
2:14.9	This one was recorded in person in this very studio in September this year.
2:19.9	We spoke in the run-up to the release of the new series of Alan Partridge, which came out on
	...

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