The women in Alan Partridge's life

I'm Alan Partridge is returning on Monday November 11, marking a return to our screens after five years for Steve Coogan's hapless TV presenter.

In the new shows, Alan is living in a caravan with new girlfriend Sonja, played by former Coronation Street actress Amelia Bullmore, while builders work on his house.

Bullmore, right, who played Steph Barnes in the long-running soap, even travelled to Kiev to research the life of her Ukranian character.

And she said recording the series was "very, very last minute, real seat-of-your-pants stuff", as the cast are allowed to improvise.

"The production team lock it at the last possible moment to allow for improvements, should something even better come along," she said. "That's great - and scary.

"In the rehearsal week that runs up to the recording day, the script gets fatter; it's like a bad dream," she laughs, adding that she was terrified of getting a script that was 70 pages long which had to be whittled down to 28.

She said Coogan "is pretty pressured on a Friday when we record".

"He has a million lines in his head and he's got to remember it all, and he only got his script the day before, so he 's a big concentrating machine. But, when you see what he pulls out of the bag on a recording night, you can see why."

Felicity Montagu, who plays Alan's downtrodden secretary Lynn, is also full of praise for Coogan, and co-creators Armando Iannucci and Peter Baynham.

"These guys really know the business," she says, "They all have different facets that complement each other.

"Working with Steve is like going around in a Rolls-Royce. You can just fly with him, which is just terribly, terribly exciting."

"I think Steve takes things into a different league with Alan Partridge. He can stand on his own in a West End show in front of 1,000 people, making them laugh .It's his genius, really.

"I've always thought it was a bit like Peter Sellers, because he has this innate ability, whereas the rest of us are just struggling behind him."

Click here for a sneak preview clip of the new series

Published: 28 Oct 2002