James O'Brien meets Steve Coogan | LBC

James has been looking back at some of his all-time favourite guests on Full Disclosure. He's dug deep into the vault and plucked out an episode that really stands out. It's a classic with one of his very first guests, the comedian and actor Steve Coogan.
Steve Coogan is such a private individual for someone who's so incredibly well-known. He rarely does interviews. James waited 25 years to get one with him. So when it happened in 2019, James was both incredibly nervous and incredibly excited. Steve talks about everything from his early life in Manchester, the creation of Alan Partridge and conquering Hollywood.
This episode was originally released on the 6th of May 2019.

[@richardboland1935]

"You can laugh at someone and you can love them at the same time" - Steve Coogan

[@aw4925]

I grew up at the same time as Steve and had 2 brothers who introduced me to 'alternative' comedy and music ( for which I am very grateful). Listening to Steve's explanation of how it all came about for him made me appreciate again that influence people can have on you and also why I gravitated towards Steve Coogan's humour myself. He is very intelligent , articulate and self aware all of which have made him extremely skilled at what he does. Brilliant actor too. Loved the interview.

[@hobbes4583]

Coogan really has a niche for himself in the world of comedy. I always like his stuff, whether a small role or a lead.

[@sratus]

I do like that he always gives a shout out to Rising Damp when talking about influences growing up. Rossiter was one of the best comedy performers we've ever had and that was a wonderful sitcom. There are shades of Rigsby in Partridge.

[@dezmundo1251]

100% agree - I think there's a shared sense of someone who is desperately clinging onto sanity

[@sratus]

@@dezmundo1251 Yes, both characters are also petty, vindictive, lacking in self-awareness & frustrated with their lot in life.

[@henryjohnfacey8213]

Thank you for your very interesting interviews. Thank you. Ps I wish I was so elucid. My father attended school in the 1920s. He was lucky he went to school in plimsolls most were bare foot. No chance to attend Grammar school. End of WWll he spoke Arabic fluently. Depriving children of a decent education is just Heart braking. BBC, R3, R4, World Servise, educated me. So much appreciated. Greetings from Yorkshire.

[@heffo67]

Excellent interview. It was really interesting. Very glad you reposted it, I missed it first time round. Thank you!

[@ibp2007]

It was a pleasure. Thank you.

[@bobadams7654]

I think that Alan Partridge is amazing - he plays the character of Steve Coogan so well. He really brings him to life.

[@bobadams7654]

Are you joking? I've been listening to Alan's Norfolk radio program for years, long before he started playing Steve Coogan. Ps There's another actor, Tommy Saxondale, who sometimes impersonates Steve Coogan.

[@fredflintstone8998]

Agreed. Partridge is a gifted mimic.

[@MichaelCarrow79]

@@bobadams7654 prer Dave Cliftons show tbh

[@bosshossmotorcycle385bhpwi9]

​@@MichaelCarrow79 Dave Clifton is brilliant. Partridge plays him excellently.

[@adam-cr5ht]

He's a chameleon. Partridge also portrays James o Brien in this very interview.

[@Nigel_Pugh]

I've never watched, or even listened to a podcast before, but I thought this was brilliant. Steve Coogan is incredibly talented and came across really honest in this. Let's not forget also, a great bit of interviewing by James. Very insightful.

[@Miss-Placed.1]

I've always enjoyed Steve's work and have to applaud him for taking the part in The Reckoning. Unfortunately I couldn't continue watching it beyond the first half of the first episode but from what I saw, his portrayal of Saville was very accurate. Great interview 👍

[@garethwilkinson3456]

No, I won't be observing that type of darkness.

[@KevinRowe-v1h]

Brilliant interview. Really enjoyed it. Coogan seems a really decent guy.

[@GWills-ys6rd]

Coogan is a very challenging person to interview as he is so uncomfortable with self-analysis. But his work is simply sublime no matter the genre due to his exhaustive and innovative craft. He's a 100% authentic national treasure without any doubt whatsoever. The world would have been a much duller place without him!

[@terri6854]

Back of the net!

[@randyschwaggins]

I think his only work of note is Partridge...and that's not to say that is a simply brilliant legacy in itself...because it is. However apart from that central work of genius...I would have to say Coogan hasn't really made the most of his talents...despite landing some very lucrative roles in Hollywood movies.

[@GWills-ys6rd]

I disagree, how about taking a look at more of his work!

[@philipgalvin1796]

Shepherds and Butchers to Greed via the Trip and Philomena

[@whahappened8398]

@@randyschwaggins you've not seen his portrayal of Savile ?

[@DrakeBurroughs]

Steve comes across as a truly remarkable individual. Astute, reflective and insightful, with a vision and talent that needed to be nurtured. As he spoke about his childhood, I could see the 12 year old boy inside of him. "In actual fact", a phrase he uttered 3 times, was one my dad used.

[@martinlaver007]

I have so much time for both Steve and James. Great watching/listening.

[@kc8923]

The Reckoning is one of the best, if most disturbing, TV dramas ive seen for a while. Steve Coogan's portrayal of Jimmy Saville was chillingly accurate.

[@doodlefisher234]

How do you know it was accurate

[@elmexingles]

@@doodlefisher234maybe because he knows what saville looked like/acted like? Weird comment

[@zorls]

@@doodlefisher234 Based on reports. Only false bits really are not shaming the BBC enough.

[@estebancomulet]

Fantastic interview. You think you kind of know someone, but despite all the tabloid scrutiny you realise how little they actually inform (they are unedifying pieces of trash). But learnt more about Coogan here than I have my entire life, beyond what we see of him in his comedic and dramatic roles. Great job James.

[@lesleywhite123]

That is a perfect description of drama school. It’s so enlightening hearing what Steve is articulating and also made me feel a lot better about my own experiences 😊

[@bernarddodd9788]

All I want to say to this incredible and insightful man is, thanks for the full belly laughs my family have had and shared an expansion of joy.

[@isabella6206]

Just a few words thank you for this, as I was of the time just pure magic describing the times from all the shows before and the grammar school trials ,the education books the comedies and comedians there was one name missing Harry Worth.

[@steeleye2112]

He has made some of the greatest and most underrated comedy films of the last 50 years. Will never understand why they didn't get more attention.

[@andrewpinner3181]

Thanks guys for a great interview !

[@Domzdream]

I still watch ‘I’m Alan Partridge to this day. It’s just brilliant!

[@neilewart4347]

We all know Partridges on the TV and Coogan has created a character who can keep going for ever.

[@bobadams7654]

Yes, Partridge plays Steve Coogan extremely well.

[@chrisbrown1057]

Great stuff james and steve. You are both from 'my world' of adoptees, irishness, and comedy!

[@ShelleyBERRY-sl8kg]

Absolutely love this interview… thank you.

[@paulthompson2991]

Wonderful interview - thank you

[@stephenfarrow1351]

Talking about Tony Wilson without saying that Steve played him in 24hr Party People. Brilliant.

[@taekwanlew]

"Manchesters biggest w4nker being played by Manchesters 2nd biggest w4nker" Peter Hook

[@michaelmulhall5007]

@@taekwanlewHooky is one too talk

[@bethhughes6800]

You got there before me Michael 😂

[@billyhodges7194]

Steve is an incredible actor and a wonderful person and very grounded for such a famous person, I love especially the trip and saxondale and his interpretation of tristram shandy was brilliant

[@Alan_Connor]

Great interview, the most candid I've seen Steve in that situation. kudos to James.

[@stephensuddens9146]

Excellent interview. Thoroughly enjoyed it

[@samilede]

Omg, I'm utterly shocked! I've watched and listened to so much Alan Partridge over the years, I thought that's what SC actually sounded like in real life!!

[@tomstickland]

Same here and I thought I understood these things.

[@showtimeshowcase]

It’s was great as a young person to see Coogans run and see characters who, living in the working class north midlands, I could recognise as being from a world I knew.

[@lancedsouza1547]

Excellent actor and highly talented.

[@MancunianToryDespiser]

Steve’s a national treasure. He truly is the finished article.

[@garethwilkinson3456]

May I say The Trip. I gave up on impressions then.

[@AlienWooshie]

Fantastic interview!

[@georgiajeff912]

I really enjoyed this. Thank you very much. Brilliant. 👏👏

[@andrewrobinson2565]

Steve Coogan and Harry Enfield are interesting in that they are much more comfortable in character than as themselves. Great interview 👍🤩👍.

[@brianpdeburca5029]

Enjoyed very much. Thanks

[@suerawson8034]

Just great 👍 so revealing & captivating,l hung on to every word.Cheers to Steve & James. 🥂💕

[@ANonymous-p5x5n]

So glad I found this. Great interview.

[@ernie_hudds]

I love the honesty and thoughtfulness of Steve Coogan and there's nothing pretentious about him. I think it's a northern thing :D

[@adriftinaboat3452]

When many on my working class estate were buying colour TV’s in the late 60’s early 70’s, my socialist working class dad bought a second hand piano. I’ve never looked back 😊

[@jaxcoss5790]

Brilliant stuff. We had a colour TV, but I was always an avid reader. My parents encouraged me to read even more when colour TV rolled up. I actually still love both.

[@DrakeBurroughs]

Very doubtful that they bought them as they were hideously expensive. More likely rented, as ours was - 26" with touch screen controls and concertinaed screen doors - even though I presumed my dad had bought it. Watching "The Persuaders" as the first programme was like being beamed into the future.

[@patcampton7163]

Many people dont understand aspiration in the working class, the poor or the left. In my parents working class home books were considered important. We didnt have a television for quite a while, but we went to the cinema, the art galleries and museums.

[@stevenandrewlee44]

Buying the encyclopaedia stuff totally resonates.

[@joshuaDstarks]

James, they need you back on LBC. Your guest hosts are getting walloped.😂

[@PDCRed]

Replacing James with a far-right, populist charlatan, albeit temporarily, really spoils my morning.

[@kinomusic9110]

​@@PDCRedMaybe get a job then.

[@Rendell001]

@@kinomusic9110 Hilarious... maybe they should get you on LBC then?

[@Sophienfreya]

@@PDCRedwho is it?

[@denisesf5]

James' face at the 34:27 mark is priceless! I laughed so hard 😂😂 Being Canadian I don't know who Steve Coogan is but this excellent interview makes me want to check him out... Thanks James!!💚💚

[@ianbroome6652]

you are in store for a treat. Alan Partridge is quite special.

[@phily8093]

You're aware of that insufferable, smug, giggling schoolboy, that is James O'Brien, but you don't know the creative genius that is Steve Coogan? That's not right.

[@thadtuiol1717]

How can you not know who Coogan is?

[@jamesmullarkey3667]

Steve Cougan is fantastic check out his characters still relevant & funny after all these years Characters are amazing Paul & Pauline Calf, Partridge, Saxondale, Darren Thicket. He’s a legend

[@niallglennon83]

@@thadtuiol1717 Maybe because the whole world doesnt revolve around the UK.

[@amandarosannabarboza6449]

Amazing interview. It was very interesting indeed. I do agree with the comments on the video, Steve Coogan is very intelligent, articulate and self aware.

[@pblossom3757]

We were only allowed a black and white portable television because our father said we needed to use our imagination.. We had monument shelves filled with books and even now memories of laying on the carpet looking up at the book spines is so evocative .. Adore books even now 😍

[@TheLucanicLord]

We really had to use our imagination - t'telly didn't work! In the snow, uphill etc.

[@patcampton7163]

Yes, like my family. I too still love books.

[@pblossom3757]

​@@patcampton7163👏📖👏😍

[@TomNoles007]

We weren't allowed eyes, we just had to imagine everything, dad gave us some rocks to help us imagine Ben Hur once - I later discovered I had imagined the chariot scene with frightening accuracy. He got 4 years for helping us imagine Planet of the Apes...

[@pblossom3757]

​@@TomNoles007😅love this 😂

[@TheObliviousi]

Very enjoyable, thank you

[@markcross8649]

James O’Brien, a media personality that makes Alan Partridge look deep, insightful, honest and charismatic

[@Scotlanz]

54:18 James O’Brien is just like David Brent laughing at Finchie. 😂

[@chrissieedghill-crump9745]

Brilliant interview 👏

[@itsdebs]

Definitely relate to his Irish parenting, my mum was part of the shoeless population too.

[@hoolley]

My mum too. I remember when I went to Ireland as a child and trying to copy my cousins as they were bare footed. It was only when I was older that my dad told me it was because they were poor

[@coolvideos8864]

13:00 "Stop getting bond wrong!" I know you thought it! lol

[@capricornsounduk6023]

I inherited the calved black and white tv from our living room. When it got aged I’d have to thump the top of it to assist the vertical hold setting. I’ve got the vids of my nephews playing computer games. Now AI. Some transition!

[@juliestone9371]

Paul Calf was my first intro to Steve as well. Can't believe uni students didn't see the joke 😂

[@musicaltheatresongbook2512]

I was born and brought up in Alkrington about the same time as Steve, on Mount Road. I get the aspirational bit, typical of many families there including mine.

[@patchso]

Really interesting interview. Worth the wait :-)

[@blatherskite3009]

Excellent interview. I could've listened to another hour of that.

[@kamcg1049]

That's worth a follow-up interview. There is more to share...

[@RalphBrooker-gn9iv]

Certainly share some cultural touchstones with Steve. But I failed my 11+. That sent me to a Catholic grammar instead of the local Big One. Drifted aimlessly through school. Listened to Monty Python records. Learned all the sketches. Would recite them with friends at school. Could do impressions. Went into the army. Found myself there.

[@db7altered]

Nice interview. Felt like it should have been twice as long.

[@jorge2757]

Thank you thank you thank you ❤❤❤

[@Steventrafford]

That must have been a trip! Great interview

[@rudegirlnycloy]

Philomena was a tragic, yet beautiful film. I cried my eyes out. Well done Steve Coogan. Great interview but what's with the neon lights. They serve no purpose other than to provide an unwanted distraction.

[@bombazine2]

Fantastic interview and the first one I’ve heard in this series

[@stevebrown8163]

Thank you

[@pjl7592]

The thing i find most impressive about this interview...the camera angles.

[@stuartphoenix6117]

That interview wasn't long enough, we need part 2.

[@CarlCraven-r7v]

Mr. Coogan is Pure Genius....X.

[@londonlady227]

Coogan should get a Bafta for his performance as Savile. If they have the guts.

[@icarus3604]

Wouldn’t that be a political hot potato?

[@londonlady227]

@@icarus3604 I did state that. That's what I meant by saying "if they have the guts".

[@icarus3604]

@@londonlady227 I’m agreeing

[@londonlady227]

@@icarus3604 Aah yes. Sorry, this medium. I hope they do and the Baftas stand up to them.

[@icarus3604]

@@MADCHESTERUTD-me7cu Have you listened to the interview of Coogan where he explains the thought process and the BBC’s reasoning behind making ‘The Reckoning’ ?

[@patriciafinn5717]

Love both these guys❤

[@Celt_Dowunder]

Parallel life story incredible. He got famous - I didn’t LOL. Love his intellectual perspective. Great interview. You let him speak and inform us. Brilliant mind - a comedic Prophet. Thank you. I’d love to see him live. Australia is a long way away from my home in Ireland and this took me back there. Grateful!

[@adriennethomas7174]

For someone with such a brilliant facility with words I found him remarkably inarticulate and needing help from James but once warmed up....brilliant!

[@sarahadam8334]

brilliant interview, steve coogan legend

[@christophertalbot9064]

Brilliant interview

[@davidgerrard8661]

Must have been great to surf the Zeitgeist in the early days, I actually knew someone like Paul Calf in the early 80s so that resonated with me 100%. Saw John Thompson doing Bernard Righton in a pub in Hulme a bit later when I'd moved to Manchester. There was such a buzz there when I first visited, just had to move there. I lived the Hacienda even when it was a draughty, empty shed 😂 Can still feel the echoes of those days now. Great to heat Brian Glancy get a mention and the wonderful Caroline Aherne😍

[@mrsmiggins9465]

Caroline😢

[@davidoneill913]

Enjoyed that.

[@johncallaghan4616]

Regurgitated or no, just superb ! Keep at it James ! JCHK

[@annepoitrineau5650]

Thank you James for this!

[@PaulHooton-w8w]

Love these guys both so articulate. I could listen to them all day . Just finished The reckoning Steve Cogan as Jimmy Evil oops Savil compelling viewing harrowing experience viewing at times how Savil got away with his henis abuse of under age girls and boy's boys . Steve Cogan played Savil to a T ..at times I thought it was Savile

[@bethhughes6800]

Me too, I had to keep reminding myself

[@tomstickland]

Alan Partridge is such a strong image in my mind that I barely recognise him as Steve Coogan.

[@manic_miner]

Thank you to both of you. I really enjoyed this!

[@phil7222]

Great interview.

[@snshull]

If they ever make a film about Harold Lloyd, Steve Coogan should play the role.

[@monkeytron5061]

I’ve never seen Coogan be like this. It’s great.

[@capricornsounduk6023]

Steve Coogan as Partridge. Trump taking himself seriously. I remember the episode where he was touring on stage talking total tosh. Partridge was a wheeze. Trump is serious!!!

[@TomNoles007]

Have you been polishing that shoehorn, it has a lovely shine to it?!

[@kaboomblueskies]

It would have been great if the old woman eating the boiled sweets had said "Ey you, Watch your f***ing language." But probably funnier because the original sounds so true.

[@Davidonezero]

I avoided watching Grease at cinema to watch Peter Sellers Pink Panther for same reason 🕵️‍♂️

[@WilliamMcPherson-ln7wc]

Obrien trying to be nice feels awkward,im used to him bullying callers on his radio show.

[@hughjass8430]

Yes, bit like Bradley Walsh on the Chase. Engaging, polite, funny with celebrities....... Depressed, sullen, caustic with civilians It's the British way!

[@stevemsmith1]

Slightly annoying that James keeps trying to Finish the sentences of his guests. Understand that it's how he has to keep things moving along but I could detect a level of irritation. He should focus on great questions and then get out of the way for the answer.

[@djbeard001]

Steve just wants to spit his story out. But James is desperate for some sort of reciprocal matey laugh-in. James keeps talking over Steve. It would be better if he spoke less and just let Steve talk. It’s not funny but it’s interesting.

[@PaulRoseGuitar]

Fascinating stuff.

[@manccyclist]

Totally absorbing 🙏

[@NeverBelieveALie]

Bag O’Shite 💖

[@Tellhimhesdead-m1y]

James- I`m not sure if this is live and you can read my message so... it`s ok being insufferable on the radio, but let Steve finish what he`s saying. Stop ending his sentences for him and let him do his own thinking as i`m pretty sure he knows what he is doing. Chow.

[@akinsamuel2007]

Alan Partridge interviews Alan Partridge 😂

[@ashleybarker937]

The respect for James really shows. Makes for a great interview/conversation

[@curlykipper]

Looking forward to reading the transcript

[@ronancunningham3995]

Great stuff

[@Midlander1956]

James! “messing everything up?” Tut tut, “messing up everything”……