Most of the old clips still shine, and there were one or two good details. Milton Keynes was mooted as a hometown but ruled out for being too obvious, before Norwich was settled on. Roger Moore's father was apparently fooled by the episode of Knowing Me, Knowing You where Alan is waiting to interview for the Bond actor, who never shows up. But nobody with half an eye on Partridge over the past two decades will have learnt much.

Aside from the occasional flash of disagreement, such as Marber’s rejection of the script for I’m Alan Partridge, which moved Alan away from his studio audience into the Travel Tavern, this round-up held back where we wanted more. Perhaps everyone involved still has too much at stake to really let the juice out, but the scale of arguments and differences that must have arisen over the years were only ever hinted at.

What was clear is how crucial the arrival of the writers Rob and Neil Gibbons has been to Alan's recent revival. They submitted scripts to Coogan in 2008, and since then they have been involved in everything Alan has done: among them Mid Morning Matters, Alpha Papa, Scissored Isle and the two brilliant books, I, Partridge and Nomad, which so brilliantly skewer the vapid celebrity memoir.