ALAN PARTRIDGE COMES TO NORWICH | ALPHA PAPA WORLD PREMIERE

Norwich Photographer

And so it came to pass! On 24th July 2013, the blood, sweat and tears paid off (ok…so the blood and tears may have been an exaggeration but we had a heatwave that week!). Steve Coogan, in character as Alan Partridge, made his way by helicopter to Norwich and on by calvacade to Anglia Square and to the premiere of Alan's first film, Alpha Papa. The campaign to have the premiere in Norwich had triumphed. It was a gloriously sunny day and the fans came out in force. The atmosphere was fantastic and as might have been expected, the PA system practically had the ABBA back catalogue on loop! Some people had travelled from around the world to be at the premiere and were rewarded with autographs and a chance to chat with the man himself.  For my part, I got my souvenir press pass and got in prime position to photograph Alan and his guests arriving on the red carpet!The campaign, at the end, felt as if it had flown by in the blink of an eye by but during the events of the past few weeks there had been some amazing effort put in by people to get the focus of attention on Norwich and  to let Alan's people know we meant business. Special mentions should go to Rob Wilkes and Rafiq Turnbull, the two guys that came up with and spearheaded  the Alpha Papa campaign; the Graffiti artists at the Yard and of course singer, songwriter, Laura Morrell, the genius behind Partridge State of Mind! All the money that was raised from merchandise as part of the campaign went to a local owl sanctuary, just as I'm sure Alan would have wanted. It's been a whirlwind few weeks and I'm glad to have played my part as official campaign photographer. Here, for your viewing pleasure, are a few images from the day…look carefully and you might even find yours truly make an appearance on the red carpet - Aha!