Alan Partridge sends email to his BBC 'colleagues'

BBC staff have received an email from their "colleague" Alan Partridge on his return to the broadcaster.

The email, crafted completely in character, urges the thousands of BBC staff who received it to tune into This Time With Alan Partridge.

It takes a swipe at old enemies within the broadcaster, which sacked him for an on-air misdemeanour involving a turkey.

Partridge is returning to the BBC after 24 years, and the in-character email implores his colleagues to support his new, fictional, magazine show, This Time.

The message also mocks the BBC over its "know-nothing" staff, and support for elements of the British establishment.

It reads: "Back I am, as evidenced by this, my own official BBC email address.

"And with it I reach out to you my colleagues – not to gloat, or settle old scores, or say 'Hey Karen/Kate/Kath, why don't you kiss my arse' – but to be the bigger man and clear the air of any residual stench."

The email, titled Clearing The Air, also criticises the BBC through the pen of Steve Coogan's comic creation.

It states: "I love the BBC and I always have. While others might say it's a smug anachronism full of braying, know-nothing chancers doling out fat commissions to their braying, know-nothing Oxbridge mates, I don't.

"I think the BBC is great, and watch the programmes avidly, regardless of their quality."

The email asks a favour of the vast number of BBC staff, begging them to tune into This Time for the purpose of giving the show's ratings "the upward trajectory management is bound to want a piece of".

One BBC Wales journalist, Benjamin Wright, who dared to reply revealed he got an equally terse out-of-office email back.

It said: "I'm not in the office so both cannot and will not respond to your email. If your email is urgent, perhaps you should have tried calling instead.

"The very fact you were content to type out your query long hand and settle back to wait for a reply suggests it can wait, even if you've put a red exclamation next to your email to make it stand out in my inbox. Won't wash with me, that."

Coogan stars as Partridge in the new series tonight at 9.30pm on BBC One.