Mock copies of the Hampstead & Highgate Express will appear in two new films, zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead and Lives in the Box, based on comedian Ronnie Barker’s character in Porridge.
Working Title, the company that made Bridget Jones’s Diary and Notting Hill, is producing the zombie drama. It will use the Broadway edition of the Archant weekly, covering Muswell Hill and Crouch End.
Writer and star of the film is Simon Pegg, who lives in Highgate and wanted his local paper to be the one to carry the story “Mutilated remains found in skip”. The paper has also loaned the film-makers Ham&High billboards and bills to put outside their fictional newsagents.
Last week’s real newspaper carried pictures of Pegg and a “zombie” crawling up Crouch Hill.
At the end of the week, Wall to Wall TV filmed Lives in a Box and again the Ham&High is featured – this time with the headline “Archway Lorry Smash”.
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