A Partridge a day keeps the doctor away… Give us this day our daily Partridge… Yes, Alan Partridge fans are in for a treat with the news that Armando Iannucci is to tweet out unused Alan quotes every day for the next 40 days.


The director and writer has vowed on Twitter to glean the best lines from a 200-page document of unsued Alan Partridge material he has compiled over the 22 years since the character was created for Radio 4 and tweet them out one at a time for the next 40 days.

Iannucci generously tweeted two lines today to his 344, 351 Twitter followers. The first centres on an unused altercation between Partridge – played by Steve Coogan – and the hotel worker and former soldier Michael who appeared in I’m Alan Partridge 14 years ago:

“In a parallel universe, Michael, you’d be in a zoo. Alien ape children with suckers would look at you. You’d have a tyre, so you’d be happy.”

The next line reads: “I’m thinking of opening a range of train-platform tea-bars called Leaves on the Line. It’s just a bit of potentially lucrative fun.”


The Partridge bonanza is carefully timed to coincide with the new Partridge film Alpha Papa which Iannucci has co-written and which will be released on 7 August.