TRIP TO WOTTON OFFERED

MY wife and I recently visited The Regal in Tenbury. We wish we had not and probably some of the other ten audience members felt the same.

The Disney film Christmas Carol is appalling – totally unsuitable for children (and adults). Some of Charles Dickens’ original text survives but the story has been overlain with the very worst sort of violent graphics and explosive sound effects often found in the more mindless forms of computer games.

On exiting, we asked if the film had been previewed. “No, we have to rely on the distributors’ publicity,” the attendants told us.

Sorry, but that is not good enough. But then neither are other aspects of the Regal, including the poor quality sound system, good enough.

Last summer we visited Wotton-under- Edge. There we have longterm friends. They took us to their Electric Picture House. What a difference.

Their picture house is about the same size as the Regal, shows films six days a week, frequently has full houses, has managed to obtain a magnificent digital sound system, and operates as a volunteer-led community venture.

You can pre-book online or arrive in hope. On the night of our visit, there was also a short film of views of the Wotton area.

I was immensely impressed. The place is warm, welcoming and vibrant, and the large gang of volunteers friendly and helpful. Locals are rightly proud of “their cinema”.

I enquired about the operation and its structure and thought how appropriate a similar approach might be at Tenbury. The population of Wotton town itself is a little larger than Tenbury but the local catchment area here has more people than does Wotton area.

I obtained some of their publicity material (some of which is available online).

On my return home, I wrote to the organisers at Tenbury, sent them the literature, eulogised about the Wotton experience, and even offered to take them down to Wotton to meet the organising group down there.

My letter was briefly acknowledged but there has been no further follow up.

HUGH O’NEIL, Boraston, Tenbury Wells.

Kidderminster Shuttle Letters