Red Carpet and Premiere Chauffeur

Premieres in Leicester Square and awards evenings across London share the same structure. Guests are given an arrival window rather than a time, cars are held in a marshalled lane and released one at a time, and the twenty seconds between the door opening and the step are photographed from both sides. Once inside, the evening is long, and the departure is often slower and considerably less organised than the arrival.

The chauffeur's job here is precision. The car joins the lane at the right moment, stops exactly on the mark rather than a length short, and opens on the side the carpet is on, which sounds obvious until you have watched somebody step out into a hedge. Your driver takes instruction from the marshals without hesitating, clears the lane cleanly, and waits on a known street for the departure rather than circling.

A few things make the evening work. Arrival windows set by the production team are firm, so we plan a holding point nearby for the very common case of being early. If there is a plus-one arriving separately, or a team following, a second vehicle keeps everyone on the same timeline. Accreditation, passes and the running order come from the event; we are an independent chauffeur company with no involvement in who is on the list.

A Rolls-Royce Phantom is the car for presence, and the one photographers expect; a Ghost does the same job with more restraint. Where the point is arriving unnoticed, a dark Mercedes S-Class is far better, and we keep our vehicles unbranded for exactly that reason. A V-Class carries stylists, a change of shoes and everything else that should not be seen arriving.