Ali and Frazier. Prost and Senna. Coe and Ovett. Partridge and Edmonds.
There are certain rivalries that transcend the boundaries of time. They are legendary in their intensity and evenly matched competition – and just as infamous for their open hostility and sense of danger.
Such mutually gifted gladiatorial foes have no option but to clash like rutting stags in a quest for ultimate dominance. They become symbiotic, as whole chapters in the annals of time are devoted to their twin fortunes.
Anyone who lived through the eighties and nineties (as well as a healthy portion of the noughties) will be fully aware of the fierce rivalry, nay enmity, between Alan Gordon Partridge and Noel Ernest Edmonds.
Back in their joint heyday, Alan and Noel were giants of the light entertainment industry, and yet famously they openly detested each other. And this wasn’t mere media-fuelled hype to help audience numbers – it was pure hate.
The two broadcasting behemoths had their own tribes of loyal fans who would regularly meet in disused factories and hangars to fight it out in violent mass brawls to honour their heroes and bring shame upon the other side.
Now in his new book Nomad, Partridge finally opens up about the feud with Edmonds that threatened to tear the show business world asunder. In an extract in the Guardian, he recalls the genesis of the antagonism and why it has endured.
Listen to a short taste of the audiobook version below, as Alan explains how a seemingly harmless carol-based pun changed the landscape of radio and television forever.
Alan Partridge: Nomad, by Alan Partridge with Steve Coogan, Rob Gibbons and Neil Gibbons, is out on October 20.
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