18 February 2023 , 20:18
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Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall has not spoken to comic Steve Coogan for 20 years – after his former pal gave him an Almighty ribbing in a movie.
The pair fell out after Coogan took on the role of God in his 2002 comedy 24 Hour Party People.
Dressed in a white toga, with flowing white beard and hair, he is seen giving advice to Factory Records supremo Tony Wilson – also played by Coogan in the movie.
The comic’s God character tells Wilson: “It’s a pity you didn’t sign the Smiths.
“But you were right about Mick Hucknall, his music’s rubbish… and he’s a ginger.”
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Steve Coogan made a joke about Mick's musicCoogan, 57 – cloth-eared DJ Alan Partridge in TV’s Knowing Me, Knowing You – says the once close pair have not spoken since.
Coogan revealed in an interview: “Mick Hucknall stopped speaking to me after the joke about God calling his music rubbish.”
He also revealed that he took half an ecstasy tablet during filming.
He said: “I got my climactic speech out of the way with a clear head, then took half an E.
“It was, what’s the fashionable word… an immersive experience.” Before the fallout Hucknall, whose hits include If You Don’t Know Me By Now, had a cameo in Coogan comedy The Tony Ferrino Phenomenon.
In the 1997 show about a cheesy Portuguese crooner, the pals even sang a duet together of Tom Jones song Help Yourself.
But in the words of Partridge himself, Mick, 62, may have had the last laugh.
With album sales of more than 50 million, he is said to have a fortune more than twice Coogan’s reported £20million wealth.