Steve Coogan and Jonathan Pryce brought The Penguin Lessons, Peter Cattaneo’s film of Tom Michell’s memoir of 1970s Argentina, to its UK premiere in Mayfair.
Steve Coogan led the UK premiere of The Penguin Lessons, Peter Cattaneo’s film of Tom Michell’s memoir, at the Curzon Mayfair in Mayfair on Thursday 3 April 2025. Jonathan Pryce joined him on the carpet.
Coogan, who plays Michell, was born in Middleton, Lancashire, in 1965. He began as a comic and impressionist and a voice on Spitting Image, then created Alan Partridge on the radio satire On the Hour.
He co-wrote and produced Philomena, which brought him two Academy Award nominations. He played Stan Laurel in Stan & Ollie and made four series of The Trip with Rob Brydon.
Jeff Pope adapted Michell’s 2015 memoir. In 1976 Michell arrives to teach English at a boys’ school in Argentina as the military coup unfolds. On a trip to Uruguay he rescues a Magellanic penguin from an oil-slicked beach at Punta del Este, and the bird follows him back to the school.
Michell attended the premiere and spoke of how a penguin he picked up fifty years earlier had led to that evening. The film opened in British cinemas on 18 April.
Pryce, known lately for The Two Popes, plays the headmaster, Buckle.