Alan Partridge returning to TV

The BBC is in talks with Steve Coogan's production company, Baby Cow, about adapting his 2010 online series Mid Morning Matters, which attracted millions of views on YouTube, for the small screen. Armando Iannucci has confirmed via his Twitter feed that Baby Cow are also speaking to other broadcasters.

Mid Morning Matters, written by Iannucci, Coogan, Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons, saw Alan's career at a new low: broadcasting via a webcam from the studio of a regional radio station, North Norfolk Digital.

The new series is expected to comprise the 12 online episodes, which run for about 15 minutes apiece, bundled into six 30-minute instalments. The BBC is also said to be looking into the potential of making a second series of Mid Morning Matters.

Besides a handful of Comic Relief sketches, Alan Partridge was last seen on TV in 2003 when a documentary about his life and career, Anglian Lives, was broadcast.

Alan Partridge, a spoof of egregious sports reporters and chat-show hosts, was originally conceived as a character for Radio 4's On the Hour before being given a starring role in his own spoof talk show Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge. He then transferred to TV as sports reporter on Chris Morris's news parody The Day Today, revived his chat show for television in 1994, and was the focus of two series of I'm Alan Partridge, which charted the character's exile from the mainstream and growing eccentricity.

While discussions are still at a very early stage, Mid Morning Matters is expected to reach the airwaves in October.