Steve Coogan avoids driving ban after plea to save new TV show The Trip with Rob Brydon

Steve Coogan has avoided a driving ban after pleading with the judge that it would impact his upcoming TV show.

The Alan Partridge actor, 59, was caught doing 97mph on the M6 near Telford on 29 July last year.

Coogan already had six points on his licence – so a further six would have seen him disqualified.

But in a letter to Birmingham Magistrates Court, he stressed that a ban would result in the next series of his sitcom The Trip being “severely impacted”, according to the Evening Standard.

“I am due to appear in a well-established TV series called The Trip (with Rob Brydon) which as the title suggests requires me to drive,” his letter read.

He added that other “important film commitments” this year also require him to drive.

“These projects would be severely impacted, not only affecting my own livelihood but also the many individuals dependent on these productions for work,” he wrote.

“These include camera, sound, and lighting technicians, riggers, and others on modest wages who would face cancellations and financial hardship, as rescheduling such projects is often highly complicated.”

Coogan implored the judge to impose five points instead of six – which after he pleaded guilty – was eventually agreed upon on 30 January.

He was also fined £2,500, given a £1,000 surcharge, and forced to pay £90 in costs.

The Trip’s director Michael Winterbottom has previously said there would not be a fifth series – but Coogan’s court correspondence suggests otherwise.

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The series sees Coogan and Brydon playing caricatures of themselves – travelling around the likes of Italy, Spain and the UK.

He wrote a similar letter in 2019 after he was caught speeding, telling the judge the new series of Alan Partridge would be disrupted if he was disqualified.

Ultimately he was banned – but for only two months instead of the usual six – meaning the show could go ahead.

He was previously banned for 28 days in 2016 for driving almost twice the 30mph speed limit in Brighton.