Biggest Fans

After winning Gold for Best Comedy Podcast at the British Podcast Awards, Alan will be back with 11 episodes, offering his perspective on some of the smallest issues facing the nation today. Topics include stately homes, British porches, what life was like in 1994, the health of his assistant, and his return to modelling, to name a few.

Besides new hobbies and familiar ramblings, the new series takes a more serious turn as like many great men before him whose lives were lain waste by a single poor decision, he faces a criminal case that could alter the course of his life forever.

With a known love of the Norfolk countryside, Alan has also broken fresh ground – quite literally – as he delves into horticulture for the first time to promote the return of the new series.

The series includes an episode where Alan collaborates with award-winning Norfolk-based designers, Carey Garden Design Studio, as they bring to life a bold new venture – the creation of an Alan Partridge Sound Bath Garden, set to debut at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival this Summer.

Fans of Norfolk's best loved broadcaster with a taste for horticultural excellence, will therefore be able to immerse themselves in the first-of-its-kind real-life garden from 1- 6 July at the garden festival.

Alan said: "As someone not poor enough to have ever lived in a flat, gardens have been a feature of my domestic life for decades.

"So I can think of nowhere I'd rather announce the new series of my podcast than here alongside the Royal Horticultural Society which – after the Royal Society, the RSPCA, the RSPB, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, the Royal Society of Ulster Architects, the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers, the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene and of course the Royal Society of St George – is arguably our most respected Royal Society."

An Audible Original, From the Oasthouse: The Alan Partridge Podcast, series four, has been written by Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons and produced by Baby Cow for Audible.

The new series is available to pre-order now and launches exclusively on Audible at on 30 June.

via Podcasting Today (https://podcastingtoday.co.uk/wp-content/webp-express/webp-images/uploads/2025/05/The-Alan-Partridge-Podcast_SERIES-4_Cover.jpg.webp)

To age, they say, is to decline. Yet some things actually improve as they get older: certain wines, His Majesty King Charles, certain cheeses and, most of all, the Alan Partridge podcast, now back for its fourth series.

What will this series offer that the first three didn't? Nothing, that's not the point. Instead it will continue, just as before, to draw back the curtain, open the cupboard and provide full loft access to the life of one of the most fascinating men in north Norfolk (Alan Partridge).

Once again, Mr Partridge will delight listeners by casting his net over some of the smallest issues in the UK: stately homes, British porches, what life was like in 1994, the health of his assistant and his return to modelling.

But he'll tackle the big issues too. For the dark shadow of the British justice system looms large of his life. Many great men have fallen before the law, their fortunes and reputation lain waste by a single poor decision. Jonathan Aitken, Lester Piggott, and there are probably others. Now comes the turn of Alan Gordon Partridge as he faces a criminal case that could alter the course of his life forever while providing a narrative arc around which the series can hang.

Here are the chapter titles for the new series. They are spoilers, so they're hidden.

The Garden
This garden, devised by tv character Alan Partridge (played by Steve Coogan) in collaboration with leading designers, offers a contemporary rethinking of the outdoor space. A tribute to structure, to durability, and to personal resonance, the garden reflects Alan's meticulous approach to design, aesthetics, and materials. Visitors are invited to experience a space that is both purposeful and forward-looking.

The rear boundary fence is a standout feature, crafted from Norfolk-grown Larch with a brave design showcasing the Alan Partridge name in sound wave form. Larch was sourced exclusively from North Norfolk Estates, ensuring quality and local provenance. All metalwork throughout the garden is finished in the same gold used on Subaru GC8 Impreza alloy wheels, combining technical precision with subtle distinction. Path edging is galvanised, featuring visible spangle for a robust and striking finish. The path gravel is a self-binding British limestone blend, offering durability and wheelchair accessibility, in keeping with best practice standards observed in Royal Estates.

Alan's approach to this garden highlights careful sourcing, local ties, and a demand that excellence in execution is non-negotiable. Every element, from recycled plastic signage materials to the handcrafted oak signpost from Dartmoor, represents an ethos of thoughtful modernity and resilient tradition. Alan's high standards ensure that literally nothing here is merely decorative; literally everything is deliberate, practical, and rooted in authenticity.

Plants
Planting choices reflect a blend of personal significance and regional identity. Acer campestre (field maple), the only native British Maple, is used for its historical links to musical instrument crafting. Music, and the instruments that make it, being a foundational pillar of the Partridge brand. Other plantings, such as Verbascum pulverulentum (hoary mullein), are enjoyed by Mr Partridge on the route of his regular countryside rambles. The palette, inspired by the Norfolk landscape, includes Achillea, Digitalis, Scabiosa, and wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare).

Garden legacy
The garden will be relocated to Pensthorpe Nature Reserve (https://pensthorpe.com/).

#inspiration

Got your big scissors, Alan?

pics by David Betteridge

#handfan

The fourth series of From the Oasthouse, the podcast hosted by Steve Coogan's most enduring creation, Alan Partridge, opens with testimonials from listeners, delivered against a jaunty, daytime TV-style soundtrack. The reviews, which are uniformly glowing, are read out by "the boys and girls from the Norfolk Young Conservatives . . . who are a credit to themselves, to their schools and to their farms." Partridge goes on to point out how his down-to-earth, man-of-the-people status puts his fellow podcasters, such as The Rest is Politics' Rory Stewart, in the shade. "Do you think Rory has ever been inside a leisure centre? Has he ever been to a funfair? Has he had a cooked breakfast in Morrisons? Of course he hasn't."

Listeners with long memories will know how, in reinventing himself as a podcaster, Partridge has in fact gone back to his roots. Coogan's character made his debut in 1991 as a sports reporter on BBC radio's satirical On the Hour, which yielded the spin-off Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge. Since then, there have been sitcoms, chat shows, a feature film and a clutch of memoirs. But rarely has Partridge sounded so at home than in pod world, where he has the freedom to be his hapless, supercilious self, unfettered by scheduling constraints or the producers' mute button.

The new series finds him variously embarking on a digital detox; orienteering in Suffolk and taking shelter from the rain in an empty stately home; preparing for a photo shoot for a feature in a trade magazine for ferries; and getting stuck in the glazed vestibule of his assistant Lynn's house while she is out at a funeral ("It's like being in a zoo"). These deliciously random set-ups invariably lead to extensive Partridge monologuing.

While the unedited rambling of podcast hosts is one of the curses of the medium, here it is welcome, allowing glimpses into the complex psyche of a local celebrity as he relays his inner thoughts, reflects on his surroundings and makes occasional clumsy attempts at human interaction. Trapped in Lynn's porch, he is recognised and laughed at by passing schoolgirls, which prompts him to decry today's teens and their idea of humour. When he was young, he notes airily, he "used to laugh at really straightforward, solid stuff like a saucy postcard, a man dressed as a woman, maybe a chimpanzee riding a bike . . . They'll probably film this and put it on Tic Tac [sic]."

Behind the bluster and malapropisms is, of course, virtuoso writing that captures Partridge's singular delusion: that he is swimming boldly against the tide and is unjustly maligned and misunderstood. You might think that, after nearly 35 years, his schtick had grown tiresome. But, bolstered by the simplicity of audio, in From the Oasthouse he is in his element, which is to say unfiltered, inappropriate, pure Partridge.