Horrid Henry film premiere – a review

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to attend the Horrid Henry film premiere at BFI Southbank.

There are many perks to keeping a blog, being offered freebies in the hope that you will write nice things about them being one of them… but I’m way too far down the blogging food chain to benefit from these sort of perks, so had to secure my ticket the good old-fashioned way – nepotism.

My incredibly talented sister, Angie, was the Make-up Designer on this film so her place on the red carpet was well sealed (actually, the ‘place’ being about 2-feet away from the red carpet through a side entrance reserved for non-celebs) and as her sister (and only other person available to go, it later transpired) she invited me to be her plus one!

This is not the first premiere we have attended together.  While we were living in Sydney in 2000, the temp agency we were registered with offered us two last-minute tickets to a film showing that night.  We literally walked over to the cinema complex straight from work, picked up some popcorn dinner, strolled over to the movie theatre, flashed our tickets to someone official looking and were then ushered onto a red carpet, which we had to walk down in our WORK clothes, carrying a bucket of popcorn, in front of photographers AND some of the cast all dressed up in their fancy clothes and drinking champagne while we slurped on our super-sized diet cokes!  Oh, the shame.

Anyway, back to Horrid Henry.

You may already be familiar with the character, Horrid Henry, from the books by Francesca Simon and the TV show on CITV.  The film boasts an impressive cast, including Theo Stevenson as Horrid Henry, Richard E. Grant, Anjelica Houston, Parminder Nagra, Mathew Horne, Jo Brand, Kimberley Walsh (Girls Aloud WOOP WOOP),  Rebecca Front, Prunella Scales and Noel Fielding!  They weren’t all there at the prem though, obvs.

The kids worked the red carpet beautifully.

Working it

They stopped to sign autographs.

Still working it

Such pros.

I did not behave with the same gravitas, much to my sister’s embarrassment.

‘Oooooh, let me take a photo of you by the film poster’ I said out loud.

She threw me a look which translated to ‘That’ll be a no’

She did reluctantly agree to take one of me by a poster in a dark corner, over the other side of the room.

Come and put your head through the hole, Ange!

I begged suggested we stand by the window to watch the cast arrive and hurriedly passed her my camera again.

Loving it

You can tell from my face in this picture that I know I am being a bit naughty asking her to snap me but I found myself it absolutely hilarious.  I’m such a meanie.

The film itself was great fun!  Shot in 3D, we had to wear those funny little glasses that make everything jump out.

Lots of pranks and gunging, much as you would expect from a kids film that also features Dick & Dom.  Horrid Henry is a very mischievous little boy indeed, but he’s not always to blame for the trouble he attracts, it really does just seem to follow him around wherever he goes!  And, Henry does come good eventually when, with help from Moody Margaret, the infuriating girl next door and Perfect Peter, his irritating little brother, he tries to save his school from corrupt School Inspectors and an evil Headmaster!

There is one scene guaranteed to make you laugh out loud and it’s with Perfect Peter in the school hall when he performs Frère Jacques.  Absolutely brilliant!  What a kid that little actor is.  Such a cool dude in real life too.

We waited for the credits to roll, I gave a big WOOP as Angie’s name came up and then we disappeared off to find the nearest loo before heading out for lunch.

Now, you may be wondering why I have decided to include the seemingly trivial information about finding the nearest loo and that perhaps I am over sharing.  Well, as it turned out, this part of the day was quite arguably, the most exciting part of all!

Because, as we opened the door to the ladies toilets, we found ourselves in a queue behind Kimberley, Sarah and Nicola from Girls Aloud!

No, I did not get my camera out! *looks outraged at the very thought*

I do not mind making a fool of myself for the sake of the blog in the foyer of the BFI when there is no one around but my sister to see or care, but I was certainly not prepared to make a show of myself in front of GIRLS ALOUD!  Also, I feared my sister would never invite me to go anywhere with her again, and she has just finished shooting with Brad…

In the flesh, they are gorgeous.  And, tiny!  I was also really impressed that they used the communal loo with the rest of us!

It is more difficult to pee than you might think, when you have 3/5 of Girls Aloud standing outside the door, so by the time I had finished they had already left and were no doubt being whisked off to some fabulous after-party!

Here is a pic taken from one of the official photographers on the red carpet, which I lifted from google, but I thought you might like to see what they were wearing.

Angie and I stopped by the post-premiere drinks for a quick glass of rosé before heading off and it was only then, fuelled by the pink stuff, that I managed to persuade her to pose in front of the Horrid Henry backdrop.

We held our own little private after party at a riverside restaurant and enjoyed a lovely lunch in the sun, shared a bottle of wine and toasted Angie’s first proper premiere.   It was a gorgeous end to a gorgeous day and I made my way back home feeling very proud, quite giddy and a little bit squiffy.

Angie nose-dived into a glass of wine after noticing a continuity error with Perfect Peter's hair

I raise a glass (or three)

Horrid Henry: The Movie is released on 29^th July in the UK.

I definitely recommend you go and see it.  A fun film for all the family… and the make-up is really quite excellent!

Were you a Horrid Henry, Perfect Peter or a Moody Margaret growing up?