It's 25 years since he checked into the Linton Travel Tavern and became Norfolk's most famous fictional broadcaster. So has Alan Partridge been a blessing or a curse for the county? CHRIS BISHOP reports

Alan Partridge, the hapless, tactless sports casual-clad radio presenter played by Steve Coogan soon became as synonymous with his adopted county as mustard or Cromer crab after I'm Alan Partridge landed on our TV screens in November, 1997.

Some failed to see the joke initially. The following year, the EDP described him as the man who had done his best to ridicule the county.

But co-creator Armando Iannucci called it "a kind of social X-ray of male middle-aged Middle England".

"I’d like to tell you about a very special place," Partridge himself once extolled. "Whether you know it as East Anglia, the Plump Peninsula, Home of the Broads, Albion’s Hind Quarters, or quite simply the Wales of the East, this is Norfolk."

Essex student Emma Hampton was a big comedy fan for whom Partridge would go on to become an unlikely inspiration.

"When I first watched Alan Partridge I wasn't living in Norfolk," she said. "I didn't know what Norwich was about, so it was a big part of my introduction.

"I came to university through clearing. My mum was trying to persuade me to look at UEA, she said: 'Go on, you like Alan Partridge don't you?

"It's not the only reason I moved here, but it was like a light-hearted prod."

Not long after she settled into her studies, a cryptic article in the EDP in early 2013 reported Partridge would be filming in Sheringham for what would go on to become the film Alpha Papa - a hostage taking bus romp across the county which begins with radio presenters being made redundant and ends with AP suffering gunshot wounds after a tense confrontation on Cromer Pier.

The article gave the location and time, which Miss Hampton surmised meant the crew were trying to attract some extras. She turned up and ended up in a crowd scene before being invited back for a second day of filming.

"I got to meet him, I got selfies, there were pictures of me in the press," she said. "It was really lovely."

Now a city councillor for the University ward, Miss Hampton believes Partridge has helped to put the city on the map, in a similar vein to Basil Fawlty's impact on the palm-fringed English Riviera resort of Torquay.

Sculptors Gavin Fulcher and Nic Dutton created a statue of Partridge, which went on display briefly outside the Forum in Norwich in 2020.

The work, which received blanket media coverage, is currently in storage.

"I just thought it would be funny, I didn't expect the reaction to it," said Mr Fulcher.

"He's always been synonymous with Norwich. I remember when I went to university in London and told people I was from Norwich, they'd say: 'Alan Partridge.

"What I like about people from Norwich is they've got a good sense of humour, they take it the way it's meant to be."

Partridge's success spawned spin-offs including Welcome to The Places of My Life, an hour-long tour of Norfolk, broadcast on Sky Atlantic which earned a BAFTA.

Norwich Market was a fertile source of material.

No longer the home of snide smurfs stuffed with used bandages with hats made from socks, opined Partridge in the Sky Atlantic show, its stalls offered a free buffet to those who could flit between traders offering free samples of their wares.

Josh Worley, president of the Norwich Market Traders Association, said: "I think if anything it's probably done us favours.

"I don't know of that many stalls that give away free samples any more but any mention of the market is good exposure for us."

After a quarter of a century of coverage, and with more Partridge projects in the pipeline, the county should be getting used to that exposure now.