Ah-Ha! Armando Iannucci, the successful writer of The Thick of It has confirmed that his other acclaimed sitcom The Alan Partridge Show is finally about to make the big screen with filming set to begin later this year.

Innaucci also confirmed that directing duties would be given to Father Ted’s Declan Lowney while admitting that the film had been taking a while to be made but that things were starting to pick up regarding the story and production.

“It’s just about all come together now, so that’ll be shot later in the year. At the moment it’s called The Alan Partridge Movie but that’s just a working title. The script is written but we’re always rewriting, rewriting and rewriting.”

Innaucci who will be involved as executive producer for the film revealed back in 2010 that it would still be set in Norwich, the setting for the sitcom, and that the iconic Partridge character (played by Steve Coogan) would be trying to put his hometown on the map.

In the meantime, fans of The Alan Partridge Show won’t have to wait long for the hapless TV personality to appear on the ‘small’ screen again with the second series of the spin-off Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge coming out later this year.

A lot of fans will say one thing after hearing this news….”Back of the net!”