As filming continues on the Alan Partridge movie in Norfolk, Steve Coogan’s alter ego has yet again been bringing the county’s foremost metropolitan areas to a standstill.


Yesterday, parts of Norwich were closed as a scene was filmed in which Partridge is involved in one of the slowest car chases in cinema history. The local broadcaster was seen inside a Radio Norwich bus, apparently being interviewed by a presenter rather than making a return to the station as host. The bus was travelling through central Norwich at approximately 5mph, pursued by a phalanx of police cars.

Co-star Simon Greenall, who plays Alan’s Geordie friend Michael, revealed to ITV News Anglia that he was at the wheel. “I was told to drive as slow as possible,” he said.

Appearing with Coogan and Greenall in the film are fellow Partridge regulars Felicity Montagu, Tim Key, Phil Cornwell and Nigel Lindsay, alongside Anna Maxwell Martin, Sean Pertwee (as an armed police officer), Dustin Demri-Burns, Darren Boyd, Monica Dolan and Colm Meaney.

Exact details of the plot, which centres around local station North Norfolk Digital being bought out by a faceless media company, are still under wraps, not least because the script is being refined on set. Greenall said: “A lot of it is improvised, a lot of it is on the hoof. The script is constantly changing.”

Co-writer Neil Gibbons told RadioTimes.com that the story “involves a corporate takeover plus running, shouting, heavy kissing and guns”.

The “guns” part of the story was confirmed on Monday when the final scenes were filmed: an armed stand-off on Cromer pier, in which Partridge totes a rifle and somebody ends up jumping into the sea.

In the middle of the week, shooting on another part of the police chase took place in Sheringham.


See ITV News Anglia’s video reports from Norwich, plus an interview with Simon Greenall, here.