Alan Partridge: Susannah Fielding inspired by Susanna Reid for role

Susannah Fielding took inspiration from Susanna Reid’s on-air squabbles with Piers Morgan for her ‘This Time with Alan Partridge’ role.
The 33-year-old actress will star as Jennie Gersham opposite Steve Coogan’s inept TV presenter for a BBC revival, and she admitted she turned to the ‘Good Morning Britain’ host’s mannerisms to help form her own character.
Speaking to BANG Showbiz and other media at the show’s launch, she said: "I did study quite a lot of Susanna Reid’s straight face indignations.
"And for the audition I did quite a lot of research and there are a lot of women who are desperately trying to not let on how disappointed they are with their on-screen partner. That was quite helpful."
The star also admitted she didn’t bother to learn the script for filming because there was so much improvisation between writing the scenes and finally shooting them.
She added: "It’s completely different to anything I’ve ever done before. It’s always great when you’re auditioning for something when you can see there is a very clear style and you can watch it, and obviously I’ve loved watching ‘Alan Partridge’ over the years.
"Shooting it was unlike anything. I didn’t have to learn my lines because I knew they’d change about 15 times before we actually shot it."
While Susannah turned to ‘Good Morning Britain’ for inspiration, writer Neil Gibbons suggested there has been a changed in how such shows are presented which they had to ignore to stay true to the character of Alan.
He explained: "Presenters can say what they want these days. In the early days of Alan there was a sort of tightrope he was walking because there was an expectation, if someone fluffed a line or got someone’s name wrong, or said something stupid it was mortifying.
"But nowadays those are the sorts of people who are given jobs on TV. The producer of ‘Good Morning Britain’, they’re not tearing their hair out every morning saying, ‘Oh I wish he’d stop saying something offensive.’ That’s why he’s on the show.
"We had to sort of ignore that, because if you put Alan in a world where this crass buffoonery is part of the selling point of the show then there is nowhere for him to fall."