Hope and Glory

Saturday 26th March 2011

Made in Dagenham

Saturday 30th April 2011

The King's Speech

Friday 27th May 2011

Saturday 28th May 2011

Unstoppable

Saturday 25th June 2011

Our first film, shown on Saturday 26th March 2011, was Hope and Glory, directed by John Boorman in 1987, starring David Hayman, Sarah Miles and Ian Bannen, and featuring Sebastian Rice-Edwards. To launch Biggar Little Cinema, David Hayman made a personal appearance and introduced the film. A big thank you to everyone who made our first night such a resounding success. We were very pleased indeed that David Hayman was able to be there to introduce the film in which he starred.

David was delighted with the amount raised for his charity Spirit Aid. The collection on the evening raised £270, and thanks are due to all for being so generous. Together with a donation from the Rotary Club, almost £1,000 was raised in total

Our next film was Made in Dagenham, screened on Saturday 30th April. It starred Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson, Rosamund Pike, Jaime Winstone and Bob Hoskins, and was directed in 2010 by Nigel Cole, who also directed Calendar Girls in 2003. The film is a comedy drama based around the Ford sewing machinists' strike of 1968 that aimed for equal pay for women. Judging by the laughs from the audience, the film was a particularly good example of quintessentially British humour.

Winner of four Oscars, our third film, The King's Speech, stands to be the most successful British film of all time. It was directed in 2010 by Tom Hooper, who also directed The Damned United in 2009, together with a string of TV series, among them Elizabeth I, Prime Suspect, Love in a Cold Climate and Cold Feet. Colin Firth plays King George VI, who, to overcome his stammer, consults Lionel Logue, an unorthodox Australian speech therapist, played by Geoffrey Rush. The two men become friends as they work together.

We had such a strong response for tickets to The King's Speech, that we screened it on two evenings, Friday 27th May and Saturday 28th May. Members were asked to come to the Saturday evening performance, which enabled us to make the Friday evening a 'ticket only' showing, and allowed us to sell the greatest number of tickets to the general public, and hence raise the maximum amount for charity. Momentum Pictures, the producers of the film, very kindly agreed to waive their licence fee for the Friday evening, effectively adding £120 to the amount raised.

We were delighted with the support on both evenings. We had a full house for both performances, and thanks to the support of members and non-members alike, we were able to make a donation of £1,000 to assist Biggar Museum Trust in its purchase of the site on the High Street.

Our final film, on Saturday 25th June, was Unstoppable, a real action movie based on the true story of the CSX 8888 Incident in 2001, where a train carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals ran through North-Western Ohio with nobody at the controls. The film stars Denzel Washington and Chris Pine as railroad employees who attempt to stop the runaway train, and was directed in 2010 by Tony Scott, who also Directed Man on Fire in 2004 and The Taking of Pelham 123 in 2009.

None of the above would have been possible without the support and encouragement of a number of people, from those who gave up their time as committee members to set the whole thing up, to members of Rotary and others who helped on the evenings, to Brydens who sold tickets - and, of course, to all those local residents, and some from farther afield, who became members, bought tickets and without whom Biggar Little Cinema would not have got off the ground in the first place.

Thanks to you all! We look forward to seeing you for our future seasons!

Actor David Hayman at the Corn Exchange on 26th March

Presenting the cheque for £1,000 to Biggar Museum Trust on 1st July

l to r: Bill Gourlay, James Dawnay, Tom Matthews, Stewart Houston

Click on the picture for two larger images