Multi-award-winning Steve Coogan stars as Alan Partridge, chat show host extraordinaire, in this spoof chat show series which starts on BBC Prime on DStv on April 18 at 21h00. “Celebrity guests” played by regulars (and co-writers) Patrick Marber, Rebecca Front, David Schneider and Doon MacKichan.

The tasteless studio set is, in Alan's own words, 'modelled on the lobby of an internationally famous hotel', and even features its own fountain. Each week, Partridge starts the show with some forced chit-chat with his band leader Glenn Ponder (who fronts a different combo in every episode, each with a clichéd middle-of the-road name such as Chalet, Debonair or Bangkok) before using a strangled metaphor to describe the night's show. In fact, Partridge's incredibly mangled, overdrawn metaphors are his trademark, alongside his crass questioning and nebulous grasp on his guest's careers. Partridge is woefully unable to hide his true feelings, and his disdain or jealousy of his guests is often badly hidden underneath a false, forced smile and questions which betray his boundless egotism and his contempt.

This is described as “very funny stuff, much of it excruciatingly so - straight out of the theatre of embarrassment - making viewers squirm as well as laugh”.