Steve Coogan/Peter Sellers

Denied the chance to play his comedy idol in a biopic, the Alan Partridge star has found another way — on stage

Robert Meakin

THOUGH RICKY GERVAIS AND SACHA Baron Cohen were hot on Steve Coogan’s heels during those early years of the new century, top dog status among his peers and critics remained largely assured. With three triumphant television series featuring Middle England alter ego Alan Partridge in the bag, this dedicated student of comedy history was hankering for the next game-changing move. The 1970s northern lad who had religiously recorded Monty Python television repeats knew all too well his heroes never stood still. And to further raise the stakes, the biggest hero of all was suddenly looming large. “Who better than Coogan?” was a familiar refrain among London comedy cliques when it emerged in 2003 that a screen adaptation of Roger Lewis’s still definitive biography, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers,…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 2025

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