Rupert Allason Socks

On 29 December 1992, the original BBC Radio 4 version of Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge broadcasts its fifth episode, in which Alan interviews actor Conrad Knight and his wife Sally:

ALAN: There was a particularly bad one in Spy Magazine, which simply changed one of the words of the title in your book, they changed the first two letters of the word 'gent' and left the last two... So it was something in L.A.

KNIGHT: And I immediately sued Spy Magazine.

SALLY: Sadly, he lost the case.

ALAN: In fact, you set a legal precedent, because you're one of the few people who can now be referred to in print as that thing, without fear of litigation.

KNIGHT: That's absolutely right, Alan. But no other medium, just print.

ALAN: Right. So I couldn't call you that...

KNIGHT: No. But you could fax me it.

ALAN: Or, indeed, scribble it down on a piece of paper and hold it up to your face.

KNIGHT: That would be perfectly legal, yes. And people do do that.

In an initially seemingly unrelated matter, in late 1996 the Have I Got News for You yearbook Have I Got 1997 for You is published, and includes the following reference to the soon-to-be-ex-Tory-MP Rupert Allason:

Allason does indeed take legal action against the book's writers, and on 21 January 1998 he loses. When the show returns for its fifteenth series on 17 April 1998, Allason just happens to be one of the choices in one of the Odd One Out rounds:

PAUL MERTON: Rupert Allason, didn't he sue this programme, and lost?

ANGUS DEAYTON: That's true.

PAUL: Has that got anything to do with it?

ANGUS: Er... none whatsoever.

IAN HISLOP: It's quite amusing, though.

ANGUS: It is worth mentioning, yes. As often as possible.

PAUL: Why, why did he sue this programme? I can't remember.

ANGUS: Er, we suggested he could be referred to as a "conniving little shit".

[Hysterical audience laughter.]

PAUL: And he lost the case?

ANGUS: Fortunately, yes, otherwise we'd have to pay him all over again.

Some retellings of this story have it that the show expressly points out that Allason can be legally referred to as a "conniving little shit". Possibly they're even conflating it with the Partridge version of the joke. The parallel seems clear enough, though.