Steve Coogan: I don't want to abandon Alan Partridge

Steve Coogan, who breathes life into Norfolk's favourite local radio DJ, has said he has no plans to "abandon Alan Partridge." In fact, the 48-year-old star, who played journalist Martin Sixsmith alongside Judi Dench in Bafta-winning film Philomena, says he will "do something else" involving the comedy character.

"I don’t want to abandon Alan Partridge," Coogan told press at tonight's Bafta ceremony. "I just want to show I can do something else."

"I quite like the Alan Partridge pony – I like riding it occasionally. I’ll do something else with Partridge but I want to do other things," he added. "What gets me out of bed in the morning is to do something challenging that might fail."

Partridge or not, future projects for Coogan, who produced and wrote Philomena, might not even star the man himself.

"Some of the projects we’re developing, I don’t think there’s anything for me in them," he said. "They’re for women – they’re good, strong roles for women and I’m not a woman."

His Philomena collaborator Jeff Pope has an idea of what his role might be though. "He might be a director," he teased.

Philomena won best adapted screenplay at tonight's Bafta ceremony.