When did Alan Partridge first appear on television?
Slightly offtopic but anyone with a dark sense of humour would do well to check out Chris Morris's stuff - I get a feeling most younger Brits haven't heard of it.  Day Today and Brass Eye, both still funny, are wonderful time capsules satirising Britain as it was thirty years ago.<p>But IMO his finest work was Blue Jam - the radio comedy not the TV incarnation, hour-long episodes of low-key music and surreal sketches.  Absolutely brilliant even today.  Archive.org has a copy at <a href="https://archive.org/details/chrismorris_bluejam" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://archive.org/details/chrismorris_bluejam</a>.  Best enjoyed late at night.<p>Trigger warning: basically everything.  The BBC would never get away with broadcasting it now.