Steve Coogan
Created | Updated Mar 9, 2007
Stephen “Steve” John Coogan
born
on October 14th 1965in a town named Middleton (which the locals refer to as Middy). Middleton is a town located near Rochdale and is part of the Metropolitan County of Greater Manchester1.Rochdale is an English town famous as the birthplace of the Co-operative Movement2. Middleton is a former Lancashire mill town.
Steve Coogan (stand-up comedian and actor) is one of 6 children born to Irish immigrant parents. Brendan Coogan was a former host of the television programme Top Gear3. Brendan Coogan is one of Steve’s brothers.
There are 14 primary schools, 4 secondary schools and 1 further education college in the Middleton area – none of which appear to have made life easier for Steve Coogan.
One of Steve Coogan’s better known creations is Alan Partridge who featured in Coogan’s 1997 comeback ‘I’m Alan Partridge’ in which he stars as the face of the graveyard watch at Radio Norwich after an illustrious if somewhat disastrous short career at the BCC. “I’m Alan Partridge” is a six episode BBC series. A second six episode BBC series of the same name was produced in 2002.
Alan Partridge also featured in the 1994 six episode BBC series “Knowing Me, Knowing You”. “Knowing Me, Knowing You” is the theme song for the series and features the band ABBA4. ABBA is Alan Partridges favourite band.
Steve Coogan is less famous in Rochdale than:
Basil d’Oliveira5
Bill Oddie6
Cyril Smith7
Gracie Fields8
“Here we go ‘round the Mulberry Bush”9
Louise Joy Brown10
Lord Byron11
Lisa Stansfield12
“The Grand Old Duke of York”13
the Rhubarb Triangle14
Max Clifford15 who is a self proclaimed celeb’s public relations guru probably doesn’t know Steve Coogan or Alan Partridge and he wasn’t born in Middy or anywhere near the Rhubarb Triangle (although that could be a mute point).
Steve Coogan has not appeared on Celebrity Big Brother16. If he had he might have met Shilpa Shetty17.
1Greater Manchester County Council – although it was abolished in 1986 it continues to exist in law and as a geographical reference2The Co-operative College et al. 2005., Rochdale Pioneers Equitable Society. [online]. Available from: http://archive.co-op.ac.uk/pioneers.htm [cited 08 March 2007].3inane television motoring programme4a Swedish pop band5a South African cricketer who became a British citizen in 1964 whilst playing 1st class cricket for Worcestershire and now living in Rochdale near Middleton6ornithologist, actor and ex. Goodie7retired MP8singer and supreme stand up comedian9a song about Wakefield prison – which is near Rochdale10first test tube baby born in Oldham (near Rochdale) July 25th 197811British poet and Greek hero12a famous singer from Rochdale13commonly attributed to be written about the battle of Wakefield referring to Richard, the Grand Old Duke (of York)…there was no battle of Rochdale or Middleton although the Margaret Thatcher inspired Tory government of the 80’s did cause the 1984-85 Miners Strike by closing many mines in the general area bringing the NUM's Arthur Scargill to even greater prominence…Scargill (who was born not far from Middleton) is now leader of the Socialist Labour Party an organisation with possibly the worst looking website on the Internet14officially Wakefield is the capital of the Rhubarb Triangle – Wakefield is close to Rochdale which is close to Middleton15a British publicist16is it any wonder17one of Leo Sayer’s buddies on CBB
