A-has from the past!

Unseen Alan Partridge footage in new BBC documentary

The BBC is to mark the return of Alan Partridge with a documentary about the character’s rise featuring archive footage never previously broadcast.

The hapless presenter is to have a new show on BBC One next year, with creator Steve Coogan suggesting the Corporation had welcomed him back into the fold to reconnect with Brexit-voting Little Englanders that their cosmopolitan values ignored.

But before that, BBC Two is to air a retrospective about his first 25 years, from a sports reporter on Chris Morris’s On The Hour to a rounded, pathos-laden character.

As well as Coogan himself, other contributors to Alan Partridge: Why, When, Where, How and Whom? will include collaborators such as Armando Iannucci, Patrick Marber, Peter Baynham, Rebecca Front, David Schneider and Doon Mackichan – as well as writers and directors, Neil and Rob Gibbons, who inherited the Partridge mantle and reinvigorated the character with Coogan.

And the unseen clips will include improv sessions, rehearsals and outtakes.

Why, When, Where, How and Whom? will be part of BBC Two’s Christmas offering that also includes:

• Reece Shearsmith, Steve Pemberton, Mark Gatiss and Jeremy Dyson with three new episodes of The League of Gentlemen to mark their 25th anniversary. Shearson has tweeted that they will be shown on December 18, 19 and 20.

• Eric & Ernie’s Home Movies, featuring footage of them off stage, as family men and friends, as well as at work from summer season in Blackpool to trying to make it in the USA.

• A Christmas special for Ben Elton’s Shakespearean comedy Upstart Crow, featuring Emma Thompson playing Queen Elizabeth I.

• A Christmas special for Two Doors Down

• Ab Fab stars Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders reuniting for a trip to the Champagne region to learn all about how their favourite tipple is made in Joanna & Jennifer: Absolutely Champers.