Coogan: I'm a bit like Partridge (From Knutsford Guardian)

Coogan: I'm a bit like Partridge

4:16pm Thursday 5th July 2012 in Entertainment News © Press Association 2013

Steve Coogan has confessed he has similarities with his TV alter ego Alan Partridge.

The 46-year-old comic actor is best known for playing hapless radio DJ Alan - and confessed: "There's a lot of me in him."

Steve admitted: "There's a part of me that's a bit embarrassing and some of the things Alan says are things that I might think. But we obviously edit those thoughts. Alan doesn't, he just says them. So I think the reason people identify with him is because a lot of the things he says, people have secretly thought.

"I think they find it quite cathartic because although Alan's foolish and bigoted sometimes, his heart's in the right place. He's not a nasty person and people do care about him. However foolish he is, people don't want him to be humiliated - they want him to come out OK."

Steve is back with a new six-part series, Mid Morning Matters: Special Edition, which kicks off on July 9 on Sky Atlantic. Alan Partridge: The Movie is also set to be released next August.

"It's important to me to do other things in my career, but Alan makes me laugh," he explained.

"It would be different if I didn't like doing the character, but I do. When we're sitting in the writing room we laugh. We spend all day laughing even though it's work. It's a pleasure."