20. The Wind in the Willows (1996)
Steve Coogan entered the unofficial British comedy hall of fame at the tender age of 30, when he joined four of the Pythons and the likes of Stephen Fry and Victoria Wood in this largely forgotten version of the classic children’s tale. Bedecked in a long scarf and wearing rimless specs, he puts in a respectably twitchy turn as Mole alongside Eric Idle’s Rat and Terry Jones’s Toad.
19. Night at the Museum films (2006-2014)
In the comedy franchise about museum exhibits coming to life at night, Coogan plays Octavius, a miniature Roman general. Although it is, quite literally, a small part, Coogan makes the most of sharing the screen with Robin Williams, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson – “We may be small, but our hearts are large … metaphorically speaking!” he bellows at Stiller’s security guard.
18. Hamlet 2 (2008)
Sold for $10m at Sundance, this quirky high-school comedy in the tradition of Rushmore and Election was tipped to be the vehicle that would crack America for Coogan. Instead, it flopped badly and went straight to DVD in the UK. It’s not hard to see why: it’s a bizarre, misfiring story of a drama teacher with daddy issues who stages an ill-advised sequel to Hamlet. Coogan throws everything at it and squeezes out some laughs – the highlight being the Rock Me, Sexy Jesus song in which he prances about in a vest – but he just can’t make it all come together.
17. Tropic Thunder (2008)
Released in the same month as Hamlet 2, Ben Stiller’s ambitious but exhausting satire put Coogan alongside some bona fide Hollywood heavyweights: Stiller himself, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black and even Tom Cruise. As Damien Cockburn, the floundering British director of an over-budget Vietnam war movie, Coogan seems out of place in this bombastic, largely unfunny film, with his character making an explosive early exit.
16. The Penguin Lessons (2024)
Based on the memoir by Tom Michell (who last week denied historic sexual abuse allegations), this eccentric drama sees Coogan embracing late middle age as a depressed school teacher who rescues a penguin during the dark days of Argentina’s military dictatorship. His sombre, dignified performance saves this jarringly sentimental film, scripted by regular collaborator Jeff Pope, from cloying too badly.
15. The Parole Officer (2001)
Coogan once said in an interview with the Guardian that just thinking about this ludicrous Ealing-style caper makes him “squirm”. It certainly wasn’t a worthy vehicle for a TV comedian at the height of his powers, but it’s still quite a fun way to spend 90 minutes. Coogan’s poorly conceived character is a big part of the problem: he’s a mild-mannered, liberal probation officer who somehow organises a bank heist to expose a bent copper.
14. Marie Antoinette (2006)
Securing the prestigious “and” billing in the credits, Coogan plays the Austrian ambassador to the French court in Sofia Coppola’s divisive period drama. He doesn’t have much to do but advise the young queen (Kirsten Dunst) to hurry up and get pregnant, but he shows he can handle a fully straight role – his first on film – without ironising the dialogue or indulging in Partridgean mannerisms.
13. Mindhorn (2016)
In a sparkling cameo, Coogan dons tinted glasses and an ear stud as Pete Easterman, an arrogant TV actor who has had spin-off success as The Windjammer, while the career of one-time star Richard Thorncroft (Julian Barratt) has hit the skids. Receiving Thorncroft at his Isle of Man country club, Easterman spurns his proposal for a DVD release, reminding him, “You called me a stinking ham on Wogan, with the emotional range of a chair leg.”
12. Northern Soul (2014)
Alongside fellow northern luminaries Ricky Tomlinson, Lisa Stansfield and his old comedy partner John Thomson, Coogan lends his star power to this splendidly realised evocation of the Northern Soul dance movement in 1970s Lancashire. He plays the kind of teacher happy to write off his students as “mallet heads” and humiliate a boy by reading out the lyrics he has jotted down in a notebook (“Bloody hell, it’s a poem … that’s bobbins, that is”).
11. Ruby Sparks (2012)
Kicking off a superb run of films in 2012 and 2013, Coogan has a minor part in this clever fantasy about a writer (Paul Dano) who somehow brings a young woman (Zoe Kazan) into existence through his typewriter. Coogan joins an alpha supporting cast featuring Elliott Gould, Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas and impresses with his devilish turn as the sleazy, cynical author Langdon Tharp.
10. Greed (2019)
Coogan plays the vulgar, bullying retail mogul Sir Richard McCreadie – all perma-tan and distractingly expensive teeth – in this heavy-handed but often hilarious satire. If only director Michael Winterbottom had stretched Coogan more and delved deeper into McCreadie’s curious relationships with his mother (Shirley Henderson) and ex-wife (Isla Fisher) rather than making predictable points about the iniquities of capitalism and the plight of garment workers and refugees.
9. In the Loop (2009)
In Armando Iannucci’s political satire, Coogan plays an irate constituent complaining to hapless minister Simon Foster (Tom Hollander) about a collapsing wall. The whiff of danger is essential to the character – at one point he roars, “I’m not going to let a bomb off, I work for the National Trust!”– but takes on a disturbing complexion today after the murders of MPs Jo Cox and David Amess.
8. The Look of Love (2013)
Coogan gives a nuanced, if oddly downbeat portrayal of Paul Raymond, the Soho strip club and porn tycoon who was once Britain’s richest man, in this entertaining but shallow film from Winterbottom that doesn’t quite make sense of Raymond’s multifaceted character: a highly driven, unconventional businessman, with a voracious appetite for sex, drink and drugs, who doted on his daughter (Imogen Poots) and was devastated by her death.
7. Stan & Ollie (2018)
Coogan pays tribute to another comic son of the north-west, Stan Laurel, in this gentle portrait of Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the twilight of their careers. Coogan and co-star John C Reilly look the part and handle the physical comedy in various theatrical routines with a deft grace, but the film’s attempt to derive pathos from their fading legends falls a little flat.
6. Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)
In Jim Jarmusch’s anthology of vignettes, Coogan plays himself on screen for the first time and clearly relishes toying with assumptions about his personality and his ambitions to make it in Hollywood. Over the course of a deliciously poised 17-minute scene, he’s not afraid to come across as a libidinous, status-obsessed slimeball as he tries to brush off Alfred Molina’s screenplay proposal – and then comes to regret it.
5. What Maisie Knew (2012)
Coogan shines opposite Julianne Moore in this keenly observed modern-day adaptation of a Henry James novel about self-absorbed parents battling over their six-year-old daughter as their relationship falls apart. Deploying just the right kind of transatlantic accent, he plays oleaginous art dealer Beale, a man who whisks his daughter out of school early while on a work call and suggests going for “a double espresso”.
4. A Cock and Bull Story (2005)
In Michael Winterbottom’s suitably meta take on Laurence Sterne’s proto-postmodern work Tristram Shandy, Coogan plays himself working on a film of the novel, in which he is playing Shandy and the character’s father, Walter. We see him negotiating his way through an extramarital entanglement, dealing with an obnoxious tabloid reporter and sparring with co-star Rob Brydon. Their testy banter on this very funny film paved the way for their brilliant self-imitation games on four series of The Trip (also directed by Winterbottom and edited for the US into feature-length film versions).
3. Philomena (2013)
With an Oscar-nominated screenplay by Coogan and Jeff Pope, this powerful drama was a landmark in Coogan’s acting career. In the script and his performance as journalist Martin Sixsmith, he is at pains to restrain his natural instinct for comedy, allowing Judi Dench to get all the best lines as an Irish woman searching for the child she was forced to give up for adoption. The odd-couple dynamic between Coogan and Dench generates thoughtful reflections on morality and culpability, as Sixsmith’s indignation at the Catholic church is outflanked by Philomena’s pragmatic faith.
2. Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013)
Can I just shock you? I like Alpha Papa. The only feature film in the sprawling Alanverse, it isn’t universally loved by fans and there is something a little odd about seeing Coogan’s most enduring creation given the big screen treatment, with a hostage taking plot contrived to provide the necessary 90-minute story arc. But if it’s judged harshly by some, it can only be because it doesn’t hit the matchless heights of Knowing Me Knowing You and I’m Alan Partridge. There is so much comedy gold and “radio gravy” here, from Alan singing along to Roachford’s Cuddly Toy over the opening credits to the standoff on Cromer pier at the end.
1. 24 Hour Party People (2002)
After the fumble of The Parole Officer, Coogan got things back on track in Winterbottom’s free-wheeling, fourth-wall-busting love letter to Manchester and its music scene, brilliantly scripted by Frank Cottrell-Boyce. Coogan was perfectly cast as Mancunian Renaissance man Tony Wilson – Granada presenter, Factory Records boss, Haçienda owner and Madchester ringmaster – and brings just the right kind of maverick intellectual energy to the part. His scintillating performance at the head of a supremely talented cast holds the film together and injects a romantic nobility into this scabrous tale.
