Steve Coogan interview

"I wanted to do someone who is sort of quite nice," he smiles. "Virtually all the characters I've done have been not very nice people. So that was the challenge and for 90 minutes it's very difficult to do a character you can empathise with. I wanted to do a character who is much closer to me, there are no wigs or moustache. I just wanted to do something different.

"If I had just replicated the stuff that I do on TV, even though it might have made people laugh it wouldn't have done anything for me. I was trying to do something more like Ealing comedy, which gives you a gentle kind of tempo but with a character you cared enough to want to know what happens next. It works as long as you don't think too much about it," he adds with a wry smile.

Coogan was also keen not to surround himself with his large circle of comedy buddies for the movie. "It was very important that I didn't cast it with people from the comic fraternity," he says. "Ben Miller (from TV's Armstrong and Miller Show) is the only one I knew before the film, everyone else I hadn't met before, which means it's not too clubby and they bring something fresh to it."

However, audiences are in for a bit of a surprise with the casting of a familiar face - Omar Sharif.

"He liked the script," says Coogan of the veteran Hollywood star. "And, I think he got good wages for two days work. I knew we needed someone of calibre and legendary status otherwise it wouldn't work. It's great that we have someone like that in the film but I'm glad he's not on screen for too long because when he appears, we just disappear. He sucks all the energy out which is okay for a scene, but we had to get rid of him quickly," he grins.

Coogan will be back scene-stealing on the small screen himself soon in a new TV series, Dr Terrible's House of Horrible, a spoof of the Hammer Horror movies.

There's also his role as co-director of his own production company Baby Cow, a creation he's more proud of than any of his alter-ego characters.

"It's very important to me," says the Manchester-born star. "Just helping other comic talent get their stuff up and running is great."

But for all his innovative projects and new comic creations, the question on everybody's lips is will the unforgettable Alan Partridge be making a comeback? Happily Coogan confirms that he will.

A new series is in the pipeline although just like his comic creator TV's most embarrassing presenter will return a different man.

"He won't be as downtrodden as he used to be and the next series won't be as dark," reveals Coogan. "It's great fun being him," he beams. "When people say 'Alan Partridge is brilliant' I say. 'I know, I think he's brilliant too'."