The Regal Cinema in Melton Mowbray is an elegant building with a proud history as one of England's foremost independent cinemas. It ran for many years under the devoted care of local businessman John Merryweather but following his death in April its future has been in doubt. Now a group of local campaigners have come together to try and save it - even if they have to run it themselves.
"It's a lovely 1920s Art Deco building, recently refurbished and really nice," local resident Sue Bailey told Eye For Film. "I wrote a letter to the local paper saying it was such a shame it had to close and I said, how about we come together and try to run it as a community enterprise - we, the people of Melton Mowbray? To my surprise the paper printed my full letter and over the next week there was a huge response from the public. We were flooded with emails offering support. So I set up a Facebook group and it got 225 members in just one week. It's wonderful - it shows people really want it."
All this sounds a bit overwhelming, but fortunately Sue, who is a nurse, had prior experience of organising projects and dealing with news stories from her work in the NHS. She says she's making all this effort because she loves the Regal and has enjoyed watching films there for many years. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel enjoyed packed screenings there just before it closed. Sue says she's particularly fond of romantic comedies but that the cinema had something for everyone and particularly appealed to families, for whom it would be impractical to travel 12 miles to the next nearest cinema in Leicester.
The plan now is to have a meeting on Thursday at which the project will be formalised. "Then people will have proper roles. We'll need a finance bod and an admin bod and somebody to do marketing. We'll work on drawing up a business plan to see if it can really be done," Sue explains. "I think people feel really strongly about film because they enjoy it so much. Multiplexes have their place but especially for small towns like this it's a dreadful shame that so many small cinemas have closed."
If you'd like to get involved, you can find out more about the project on its Facebook page, Save Regal Melton.
