Alan Gordon Partridge (born April 1955) was a disk jockey and (occasional) television presenter. He hosted both the radio and TV series of Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge, as well as various radio shows for Radio Norwich and North Norfolk Digital, presented various documentaries, and co-hosted This Time with Alan Partridge.
Biography
Early life
Alan Partridge was born at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King's Lynn on 2nd April 1955, to Lionel Partridge and Dorothy Partridge. Raised in Norwich (12 Cecil Road, since demolished), he was an only child, and was bullied for several years by Steven McCombe, who coined him the nickname "Smelly Alan Fartridge". At school, Alan won an essay-writing competition on sport, which he later attempted to use in 1988 as 'credentials' at a job interview for Saxon Radio. He was a scout of the North Norwich district (stationed in Costessey), and attained the rank of Patrol Leader. Partridge later attended Sir William Dunwoody's Grammar School for Boys, where he achieved 7 O-Levels (4 "B"s, 2 "C"s, and one "D" in French, which he later retook to get a "B") and 2 A-Levels (a "B" in General Studies and a "C" in Art, having dropped French).
Early career
In 1974, Alan went to university at East Anglia Polytechnic. He chose to commute from his home in Norwich (although this made him somewhat of an outcast), and would often walk alone around the Swaffham countryside singing his favourite pop songs. He later said that he "regretted going to university deeply". Partridge first met his future wife, Carol, at a cafe called Rita's in southern Norwich, and they later married at St. Edmund's Church in Caistor St. Edmund on 13th April 1978. Their first child, Fernando, was born on 6th June 1980.
Partridge woked for 94 months in hospital radio station Radio Smile, at St. Luke's Hospital in Norwich, unpaid, from 1975 to 1983. After leaving, he promised to return for one week every year - a promise which was never fulfilled as "work commitments [had] made it simply unfeasible". Alan was scouted by Rich Shayers in 1983 for an experimental record shop radio station, where he worked with fellow DJs Paul Stubbs, Philip Schofield, Jon Boyd and Brian Golding. Although the station collapsed within a few weeks, Alan became a radio traffic reporter in 1984, and by 1988, he was a sports reporter at Saxon Radio, which he described as a "dizzying but exhilerating slog". He was soon "poached" by various other stations until he joined Radio Norwich in the late 1980s. There, Partridge worked on magazine show Scoutabout, which he described as "great fun", but was primarly a sports reporter. In 1990, he found himself at the centre of "breaking news" whilst covering the British Archery Championships at Taverham Archery Club, when contestant Chris Curtis accidentally shot a steward; Alan's commentary of events was played on various radio news bulletins and he was subsequently invited to apply for a position at BBC Radio 4.
Success on radio
After a 90-minute interview, a written exam, a series of psychometric tests and the submission of full portfolio of his work, Alan was offered a job on news programme On the Hour by Steven Eastwood. He quickly made arrangements to leave Radio Norwich for good, but decided to "unresign" upon realising that On the Hour was a weekly show.