Northern Soul film premiere

It's the movie that took ten years to make - but looks very much like it was worth the wait.

Northern Soul pays homage to the dance craze that dominated the 1960s and 70s and which was born right here in our region.

The film has a stellar cast, including Steve Coogan and Lisa Stansfield - and our entertainment correspondent Caroline Whitmore caught up with them on the red carpet at the premiere in London.

The stars were out last night for the premiere of a new film all about the Northern Soul movement in the 1960s and 70s.

It was filmed in and around Greater Manchester and boasts a cast of some of the biggest names in the region.

Actor Steve Coogan has said he is planning to "cryogenically preserve" his wildly successful Alan Partridge character "in a morgue" before maybe bringing him back to life at a later date.

Coogan, 48, was in Soho, central London, to attend the premiere of his latest film, Northern Soul, about the 1970s' dance craze based around venues such as the Wigan Casino.

He said his secondary school teacher character in the independent film was inspired by "about 20 sarcastic and cynical" teachers who taught him growing up in the North West.

Asked if he was thinking about another Partridge film in the wake of the box office success last year of the Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa movie, Coogan confirmed the North Norfolk Radio DJ is not done yet.

"We will do a few more shows for TV and then lay him to rest and get on with other things," he said.

"I'm not going to kill him off, we'll just cryogenically preserve him, put him on ice, put him in a morgue, chill him.

"Maybe we'll bring him back at a later date but I think you can slip into overkill sometimes with a character, best to leave the audience wanting more, you don't want to oversaturate people."

In Northern Soul the actor plays stern Mr Banks, whose two young pupils fall in love with the 1970s' dance scene.

Commenting on his character, Coogan said: "Northern Soul was a music that was an escape for many people from a dreary damp northern existence in the mid-1970s, which seemed to be danker and damper than it is now, before all the regeneration.

"One of the things they were escaping from were these rather depressing, sarcastic, cynical secondary school teachers.

"They weren't all like that at the time but there were a few of them and I play one of those, based on about 20 teachers that I had myself."

The director of new film Northern Soul which was shot in the region says it could take off once more.

Hundreds of youngsters from the North West were taught the moves last seen at venues like Wigan Casino for the new gritty movie.

Elaine Constantine told Granada they didn't want the music to stop.

A film about the Northern Soul movement which was shot in the region premieres tonight.

It stars Ricky Tomlinson, Steve Coogan and Lisa Stansfield.

Hundreds of dancers in the North West were needed to recreate those moves once seen at places like Wigan Casino and Blackpool Mecca.

See the trailer below: