Causing minor road closures

Alan Partridge is to film a massive car-chase scene through the mean streets of... Sheringham.

Announcing the news that key scenes in Steve Coogan’s movie will be shot in the Norfolk coastal town, mayor Doug Smith said: ‘It means Station Approach, Station Road and Church Street will be closed to traffic between 12 and 5pm.’

Work has just begun on the long-awaited movie outing for Partridge, and the chase scenes will be filmed on February 27.

Smith told to the Norwich Evening News that it will be Keystone Cops-style chase, with the hapless radio presenter pursued by a flotilla of police cars and ambulances.

A small army of locals have been recruited as extras – ‘who will earn good money,’ Smith said. ‘They’re all elderly men and women from Sheringham.’

The town – population 7,143 – is known for its lifeboats and the Sheringham Shoal Offshore Wind Farm visitor centre.

Producer Kevin Loader said the chase would be ‘an intricate sequence’ and added: ‘When we were discussing the film a couple of years ago, people said surely you will send Alan to Nashville or Dubai, but it was Steve Coogan’s very strong intention that the movie was shot in Norfolk and Norwich.’

Further scenes from the £4.5million film – provisionally titled Alan Partridge: The Movie – will be shot on Cromer Pier, at the next town along the coast.

More casting has also been announced for the movie today, including Sean Pertwee and Dustin Demri-Burns, one half of the Cardinal Burns sketch duo.

Star Trek actor Colm Meaney, Bleak House’s Anna Maxwell Martin and Monica Dolan – who played Rose West in the ITV drama Appropriate Adult – have also been named.

It had previously been announced that Felicity Montagu would be reprising her role as Partridge’s put-upon PA Lynn, Simon Greenall would return as Michael and Tim Key as Partridge’s Mid Morning Matters sidekick. Phil Cornwell, Nigel Lindsay and Darren Boyd also appear in the film, produced by Baby Cow for BBC Films, BFI Film Fund and Studiocanal.

In June last year, writer-director Armando Iannucci said the film plot would involve Partridge doing battle with a media giant after his North Norfolk Digital radio station was taken over by a global conglomerate, and rebranded Shape.

No release date yet has yet been set, but it is expected to be out in the summer.

Published: 7 Feb 2013