This photo - of a brief moment on New Year's Eve in Manchester, in which police grapple with a drunk man - went viral on Twitter in the last few days after BBC producer Roland Hughes tweeted it from a wonderful photo gallery by the Manchester Evening News:
A scruffy man lies in the street, reaching for a beer as if he was on the beach. A woman in a red skirt, dressed to the nines, implores the police, who are restraining a man on the ground. A Greek chorus of unconcerned witnesses line up for taxis. The backdrop: Greggs, of course.
The picture's wonderful composition, crisp colours, and range of characters appear to contain several different human dramas at once. Some people have likened it to a classical painting. The MEN dubbed it "The Creation of Manchester."
But what the heck was going on? Now we have the explanation.
First, check out the picture. It's worth clicking through to see it enlarged:
So much going on this pic of New Year in Manchester by the Evening News. Like a beautiful painting. pic.twitter.com/szKKRM4U4i
- Roland Hughes (@hughesroland) January 1, 2016The woman in the red dress is Hannah Kirby, who gave a brief explanation to the MEN of how everything went sideways that night.
The two men on the ground are her friends, it turns out.
The man on the left who appears to be lying casually in the road, drinking a beer, had been knocked to the ground seconds before but as he fell managed to rescue his bottle of Desperados - a tequila flavoured beer - as he tumbled. "He wasn't casually chilling and reaching for his beer!" Kirby told the MEN. "There was a bit of commotion went on and he was knocked over but managed to save his bottle of beer."
If you click through the MEN gallery you can see a photo which appears to capture the seconds before the Creation. In this image, the man in the green sweater is being tackled by the police in the middle of the street. Continue clicking and you can see him being led away, covered in his own blood. "He didn't get arrested, he was fine in the end," Kirby said.