Alan is one of the greatest characters in TV history. You'd be hard-put to find a finer series than series 1 of I'm Alan Partridge (though series 2 has it's merits, such as the Bravealan episode mentioned here, and the Bond episode which is priceless). The sex issue is an interesting take on Alan because Coogan himself is quite well know for his 'sexploits', it seems that Alan is the opposite to him in that respect.

>The sex issue is an interesting take on Alan because Coogan himself is quite well know for his 'sexploits', it seems that Alan is the opposite to him in that respect.

Though I know very little about his "tabloid life" (outside of the Courtney Love thing) I thought about this myself...albeit after the article was written.

A lot of times characters (great characters, anyway) are born from the channeling of the writer's and / or actor's own frustrations. Alan suffers from severe sexual repression but, in this case, I'm not sure that Coogan himself does.

If that's the case, then the fact that he "plays" it so well speaks volumes about his success as an actor.