Sacha Baron Cohen ‘planning to revive Ali G’ to mark 25th anniversary

Sacha Baron Cohen is reportedly set to revive his iconic character Ali G 25 years after he first debuted on Channel 4.

According to Variety, the English comedian is believed to be working on a tour incorporating the Staines-based rapper, who first appeared in 1998 and made him a household name.

Ali G landed his own film in 2002, but there are currently no plans to see him back on the big screen due to ongoing writer and actor strikes in the US which has seen Hollywood brought to its knees over the last couple of months.

A source told Variety: “As a SAG and WGA member he is supporting the ongoing strike alongside his fellow writers and actors”.

Baron Cohen, who is married to actress Isla Fisher, is yet to announce how he will incorporate Ali G, with no tour dates revealed either.

Ali G made his on-screen debut in 1998 on Channel 4’s The 11 O’Clock Show, when he would interview prominent public figures in the UK.

The novel interactions made the character a household name, before heading Da Ali G Show from 2000 with a full-length film titled Ali G Indahouse following in 2002.

The Cambridge-educated star decided to retire the character in 2007 as he became more recognisable, restricting the effectiveness of his antics.

Baron Cohen last donned Ali G’s infamous yellow tracksuit in 2021 for a surprise gig in Sydney, Australia.

Speaking to British GQ at the time, he said: “I just wanted to get on stage and muck around and see what Ali G would be like with a crowd. It was really good fun. The reason I became a comedian was that I loved people laughing at my jokes.

“To actually hear laughter is a rare thing for me. When I do the movies, I have to wait three months to hear an audience laugh.”

Last month, Alf Lawrie, the head of factual entertainment at Channel 4, said a show like Ali G or Baron Cohen’s other creation Borat, would never have been made today.

He said: “You can’t make Ali G, Borat or Brass Eye now because the rules have changed. You can’t hoodwink people on the same grand scale. TV has become a slightly more regulated environment than it was 20 years ago.

“When you were making Borat 20 years ago, you could pretend quite seriously that he was from Kazakhstan and until it aired people had no idea otherwise. These days you can’t mislead in the same way...

“We’re far more respectful of our contributors now than we used to be. But it means the nature of some satire has changed.”

The Standard has contacted a representative for Sacha Baron Cohen for comment.