Coogan talks Partridge at new film premiere

Actor Steve Coogan has said he is planning to "cryogenically preserve" his wildly successful Alan Partridge character "in a morgue" before maybe bringing him back to life at a later date.

Coogan, 48, was in Soho, central London, to attend the premiere of his latest film, Northern Soul, about the 1970s' dance craze based around venues such as the Wigan Casino.

He said his secondary school teacher character in the independent film was inspired by "about 20 sarcastic and cynical" teachers who taught him growing up in the North West.

Asked if he was thinking about another Partridge film in the wake of the box office success last year of the Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa movie, Coogan confirmed the North Norfolk Radio DJ is not done yet.

"We will do a few more shows for TV and then lay him to rest and get on with other things," he said.

"I'm not going to kill him off, we'll just cryogenically preserve him, put him on ice, put him in a morgue, chill him.

"Maybe we'll bring him back at a later date but I think you can slip into overkill sometimes with a character, best to leave the audience wanting more, you don't want to oversaturate people."

In Northern Soul the actor plays stern Mr Banks, whose two young pupils fall in love with the 1970s' dance scene.

Commenting on his character, Coogan said: "Northern Soul was a music that was an escape for many people from a dreary damp northern existence in the mid-1970s, which seemed to be danker and damper than it is now, before all the regeneration.

"One of the things they were escaping from were these rather depressing, sarcastic, cynical secondary school teachers.

"They weren't all like that at the time but there were a few of them and I play one of those, based on about 20 teachers that I had myself."