This Time With Alan Partridge viewers can't stop laughing over Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid comparisons

The fictional broadcaster made his return to BBC One on spoof show This Time
Natasha Sporn26 February 2019

Alan Partridge may have made his triumphant return to BBC One with an evening show, but fans couldn’t help but think they were watching Good Morning Britain.

The fictional broadcaster – portrayed by Steve Coogan – found himself in the prime-time spotlight after stepping in for an ill presenter on The One Show spoof This Time .

Fans were beside themselves at the half-hour comeback, which was the first of six new episodes, but were unable to resist comparing Partridge and co-host Jennie Gresham to Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid.

One wrote: “Can totally see now that @Misssusannahf took inspiration from @susannareid100's reactions to @piersmorgan for her role. Brilliant! #ThisTime #AlanPartridge.”

Another said: “Laughed like a drain at #ThisTime. How I've missed Piers - sorry, Alan Partridge on our telly boxes.”

“I’m sure #ThisTime is based on @piersmorgan #awkward But #entertaining,” added somebody else.

Even the ITV show’s official Twitter account was stunned by the similarities, tweeting a split of Morgan and Reid with the This Time presenters and asking fans to “spot the difference”.

Others pointed out Partridge is more in line with another GMB favourite, Richard Madeley, who often stands in for Morgan.

Madeley often amuses breakfast show viewers by “going full Partridge” during his interviews, most recently when he described writing on naked remain campaigner Dr Victoria Bateman’s chest before asking who wrote it .

Morning co-hosts: Many viewers were reminded of Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid 
ITV

Susannah Fielding, who plays Jennie in This Time, admitted that she drew inspiration for her character from Reid after watching her sparring with Morgan on live TV.

The actress explained: “Susanna Reid is a God in terms of her patience levels. But it’s that fine balance between keeping the smile on, but also controlling him – but not being able to say anything and actually being able to shut him down.

"That was fun to play. I did quite a lot of research and there were quite a lot of women trying to not let on how disappointed they are with their on-screen partner.”

Fielding said that she “studied Reid’s straight-faced indignations” to help with the role.

Alan Partridge - In pictures

1/26

This Time With Alan Partridge is on BBC One, Monday at 9.30pm

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in