I'm Alan Partridge: Series 1, Episode 1 - A Room With An Alan

TV sitcom
BBC Two
1997 - 2002
12 episodes (2 series)

Deluded, insincere, tactless and largely talentless TV chat show host Alan Partridge is reduced to hosting a back-water local radio show. Stars Steve Coogan, Felicity Montagu, Simon Greenall, Phil Cornwell, James Lance and more.

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Series 1, Episode 1 - A Room With An Alan

Despite being reduced to living in a roadside motel and presenting an early-morning programme on Radio Norwich, Alan still dreams of launching a new show on the BBC. However, his meeting with chief commissioner Tony Hayers does not run smoothly.

Broadcast details

Date: Monday 3^rd November 1997
Time: 10pm
Channel: BBC Two
Length: 30 minutes

Cast & crew

Cast
Steve Coogan	Alan Partridge
Felicity Montagu	Lynn
Simon Greenall	Michael
Phil Cornwell	Dave Clifton
Sally Phillips	Sophie
Barbara Durkin	Susan
David Schneider	Tony Hayers

Guest cast
Terence Booth	Peter Linehan
Philip Fox	Estate Agent
Matthew James	Waiter
David Prescott	Stephen Brai

Writing team
Steve Coogan	Writer
Peter Baynham	Writer
Armando Iannucci	Writer

Production team
Dominic Brigstocke	Director
Armando Iannucci	Producer
Peter Fincham	Executive Producer
Nick Arthurs	Editor
Dennis De Groot	Production Designer
John Whitehall	Composer

Press

The first thing we see in Alan Partridge's hotel room

The opening episode of the first series of I'm Alan Partridge, A Room with an Alan, was broadcast on the 3rd November 1997. What is the first thing we see Alan Partridge doing in his room at the Linton Travel Tavern? Oh, the usual stuff. Some bad programme ideas. The first of many dream sequences. But the very first thing we see is him doing is reading a newspaper article about Tony Hayers... the person who is about to deny him his second series.

A Young(ish) Perspective, 26th June 2025

I'm Alan Partridge: A Room With An Alan

The episode marked the first time we saw Alan outside his 'TV work'.

The Comedy Blog, 10th June 2020

Monkey Tennis may yet see the light of day

Peter Bradshaw's timely reminder about the re-emergence of Alan Partridge in Brexit Britain (The revenge of Alan Partridge, G2, 6 November) is underlined by the inclusion in recent TV schedules of such absurd real-life programmes as The Ganges with Sue Perkins and Gordon Ramsey on Cocaine, which might have been dreamed up by the great man in a previous television incarnation. Alan's previous suggestions of Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank and Monkey Tennis are surely now ripe for production.

Quentin Falk, The Guardian, 7th November 2017

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