Alan Partridge fans love comparing Steve Coogan ’s cringeworthy creation to real-life ITV presenter Richard Madeley because they’ve both racked up broadcasting blunders over the past 30 years. And now, the team behind Partridge has revealed the Good Morning Britain host was a big inspiration for their latest

Alan last appeared on our screens six years ago in The One Show parody This Time With Alan Partridge . But he was booted off the programme when he called viewers “idiots” in a foul-mouthed rant. Now, the disgraced presenter attempts to get back on British screens with a self-produced docuseries on mental health.

Steve’s co-writers Rob and Neil Gibbons admit they took Alan down the self-authored documentary route because presenters like Richard Madeley began changing the TV landscape. “When Alan first started, you saw him as a live broadcaster and in those days, there was an expectation of a certain professionalism that Alan obviously fell short of. But these days, you don’t really have that,” Neil says.

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“People like Richard Madeley are on air because they’re going to say something that’s beyond the pale or a bit daft because that’s meme-able content. So we have to build into the premise ways that Alan can have jeopardy.”

Tackling the mammoth topic of mental health seemed like the perfect new project. “You have to give him a high wire and mental health is obviously a subject that he knows very little about, he’s quite scared of it,” says Neil.

Rob continues, “Alan is desperate to have one more shot at the BBC and I think him and [assistant] Lynn probably thought, ‘What’s hot at the moment? Mental health. Get me on the mental health gravy train, Lynn!’”

Steve, 59, says that approaching such sensitive topics in a Partridge fashion is what keeps him coming back to the long-running character. “He’s quite a good conduit to talk about popular culture and things that are taboo or would be difficult to talk about as me.

“If we feel anxiety or there’s a natural danger, we have to roll the dice. Where we think, ‘If we get that wrong, it’ll be terrible.’ If that’s what we feel, then it’s a good indicator.”

How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge) sees the return of Felicity Montagu as Alan’s beleaguered assistant Lynn Benfield, while Tim Key reprises the role of Alan’s onetime DJ sidekick Simon Denton.

It also introduces former Corrie and In Flight star Katherine Kelly as Alan’s new girlfriend Katrina – who was originally modelled on an ex-PM.

“Alan has a girlfriend who’s younger than him, who’s beautiful – quite clearly a figure in the community but just an awful, awful woman,” says Neil.

Steve adds, “We wanted Alan on the back foot, in the way he’s not with Lynn. We wanted someone who wore the trousers and who was mercurial to him.”

Rob adds, “The original model for the character was Liz Truss, but we’ve moved slightly more into sexy witch territory.”

Despite admitting that he’d think Alan was “a d**k” if he met him in real life, Steve says he’s slowly turning into the character. The comic was horrified when he turned up to set one day in the same shirt that he would be wearing as Alan.

“It wasn’t just a similar shirt – it was literally the same shirt, the same manufacturer in the same size,” he says. “I looked at it hanging up and thought, ‘I guess it’s happened.’”

As a result, Steve has thought about killing Alan off. “Part of me wants to kill him off by actually deliberately jumping the shark in a really bad way – like making a film where I fight with Alan Partridge and kill him but he kills me or something like that.

“Don’t end with dignity on a high, just drive it off a cliff.”