ANCHORMAN star Will Ferrell is back as Ron Burgundy and he is as inappropriate and cringe-inducing as ever.

The 46-year-old made a name for himself playing the misguided and moustachioed news anchor in 2004 in the first Anchorman film - The Legend Of Ron Burgundy.

The idea came about after the actor saw a state news anchor paired with a woman for the first time and he teamed up with his Saturday Night Live colleague Adam McKay to put it together.

“I said, ‘What about basing a story in the Seventies news world, about the first time a woman comes into that world and how these men are just petulant, and she’s smarter and more capable?’,” he said.

The men agreed it had potential and roped in producer Judd Apatow, with McKay becoming director, creating one of the most successful creative partnerships in Hollywood.

“It’s kind of grown into cult status,” Ferrell added.

The trio teamed up again for comedy hits Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers while Anchorman continued to quietly grow into a phenomenon.

And by 2010 Ferrell and McKay began considering a follow-up.

The pair found themselves talking about the introduction of cable television and the media explosion that began to happen in 1980..

Rolling 24-hour news also made its appearance, as well as the first ‘trash’ news stories, prompting a moral conundrum - chase ratings or cover ‘real’ news?

“We kept talking about it and realised that’s what Ron should deal with,” Ferrell said.

“There’s a lot of conflict with the 24-hour news cycle.

“It’s hard to fill that time, so the goal was to make a movie that made you laugh really hard - but also stop you in your tracks and make you think, which is something you don’t find in a lot of studio comedies.”

The California-born, married father of three is famous for playing a grown man who thinks he’s one of Santa’s little helpers in Elf, and one of two aimless middle-aged blokes forced to become room-mates when their parents marry in Step Brothers.

And this sequel gives Ferrell the chance to get up to more antics with Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and David Koechner.

“We’re all very creative in how we do stupid,” Ferrell said.

“When we’re all four in the same scene, everyone’s excited to hear what the other guy’s gonna say and then you’re trying to think of a joke that’ll top it.

“But at the same time, we all support the act of listening, which a lot of people in comedy don’t.”

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is released on Wednesday, December 18