The reel deal

SWINDON’S first multiplex is celebrating a quarter century of screen dreams.

It is 25 years since what was then the MGM Cinema in Shaw Ridge opened its doors for the first time.

Since then it has weathered changes in the film industry, public taste and technology.

It has also seen changes of ownership and name, first with Virgin and then UGC, before becoming Cineworld Cinemas Shaw Ridge about nine years ago. According to general manager John Scott, 39, there’s every reason to expect the cinema to see its 50th anniversary and beyond.

“It’s an experience you can’t get from sitting on your sofa in your living room,” he said.

“Even the biggest home screens or the best speakers you can get still don’t beat the cinema. The popcorn is part of the experience, the Coke and ice cream are part of the experience.

“It’s a bit of an escape, really.”

If John sounds like a committed cinephile, that’s because he is. He cherishes memories of childhood cinema visits, and when in 2002 he was offered the chance to switch from a career in retail management to one in films he jumped at it.

He’s been in charge at Shaw Ridge for two years.

“I’ve seen hundreds of films since joining the cinema industry and I still get the same buzz every time as a customer. That feeling doesn’t go away no matter how many times you come to the cinema.”

It’s impossible to calculate how many films have been shown since opening day – there have been too many one-off screenings and other special events over the years.

The seven screens have just under 1,400 seats between them. The total number of visits is difficult to tally exactly but runs to well over 10 million. As early as 1993 Jurassic Park alone was seen by more than 100,000 people at Shaw Ridge.

l In February of 1991, as the seven-screen cinema neared completion, the Swindon Advertiser ran a feature headed: “Roll up for your pick of the movies.”

General manager John Keil surveyed the structure and said: “I’m like a kid with a new toy. It’s amazing. It’s bigger and better than I anticipated.

“Swindon is a growing town and there is tremendous potential here. The cinema is something Swindon people can be proud of. It’s an entertainment complex that will have something for everybody.”

In June of that year producer David Puttnam, driving force behind films including Chariots of Fire, Local Hero and Midnight Express, visited to unveil a statue of Diana Dors outside.

The statue is now one of the town’s most familiar landmarks, as well as being fictionalised in novelist Jasper Fforde’s alternative Swindon as The Statue of Vavoom. The cinema keeps a photograph of the statue, signed by Puttnam and other notables including Diana’s son, Jason Lake, and 1950s star pianist Jess Conrad.

John Keil remained in charge at Shaw Ridge until his retirement in 2014 at the age of 63, by which time he had logged 45 years in the industry. In an interview marking his departure, he told us: “When you think of what a cinema is, we are just illusionists.

“What do we do? We sell an experience. We take money from people who sit in a darkened room, in front of a white screen, to watch pictures that do not move – we just show still pictures, but we show them very quickly.

“And we play with your emotions – we make you laugh, we make you cry, we make you angry. And it’s all an illusion.”

l When the Shaw Ridge multiplex opened, each of the screens was served by a machine most people would recognise as a projector, and films were on large rolls. In 2012 that changed with the introduction of digital technology.

The long hall housing the projectors is now far less crowded. Films arrive on hard drives and are uploaded along with adverts and trailers. The latter are sent by secure satellite link.

There are about 35 cinema staff, and projection is one of the domains overseen by operations manager Robert Curtis, 47, who has been at Shaw Ridge since the beginning. He started his cinema career at the old ABC in Regent Street in August of 1986.

The ABC was Swindon’s last surviving traditional cinema when the multiplex opened, and had proved difficult and expensive to maintain and refurbish. It closed not long after Shaw Ridge opened, and later became the Savoy pub.

Robert Curtis, like general manager John Scott, has been a cinephile for as long as he can remember. He once faked a dental appointment – with his parents’ permission – to skip school and attend a screening of Gone with the Wind.

Having seen the old style as well as the new in Swindon, he said: “The biggest change is queueing – you don’t have queuing now.

“If you told people they would have to queue outside now, they wouldn’t have it. At the old ABC people would queue for hours and hours and hours – and if they couldn’t get into the screening they were queuing for they’d go to the next one.

“They’d queue all the way to the Town Hall in one direction and all the way to Woolworths in the other.”

One thing that hasn’t changed as far as both Robert and John are concerned is the love people still have for the seeing films as they were originally meant to be seen. John said: “We have customers here who are part of our ‘unlimited’ scheme. They come here four or five times a week or more and they get the same feeling every time they step through the doors.

“It’s also a social thing. A lot of people use it as a reason to meet up with friends and family. We’ve always been very family-oriented.

“I like to think that a lot of people who are young adults here grew up coming to the cinema throughout the years.

“I think we’re a very big part of the community and a big part of Swindon for the last 25 years.”

Watching with eyes wide shut

AS the Advertiser’s film writer, I was at the new multiplex on the day it opened - and my abiding memory is of sitting in Screen 1, with my eyes closed and my fingers in my ears.
The reason for this strange behaviour was a small group of, ahem, VIPs - including me - were given a tour of the complex before it opened to the public. “We want to show off our state-of-the-art sound system,” said then manager John Keil. “So at the end of the tour we will show you the final 15 minutes of Dances With Wolves.”
What!?
Of the seven movies opening the cinema, the big draw was that Oscar-winning epic directed by and starring Kevin Costner. I was very much looking forward to seeing it as soon as the opening formalities were over - and didn’t want to know what took place in the last quarter of an hour, sensational sound system or not.
So, conscious as I was of the strange looks I was doubtless getting from the mayor, other journos and assorted dignitaries, I did my best to shut down my senses and avoid spoilers.
Other than that, my experience that day was thrilling. Almost as soon as Dances With Wolves finished, I dashed to another screen to see medical drama Awakenings, with Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. Then it was the awful John Goodman comedy King Ralph. And at some point I drove home to pick up my three-year-old daughter to take her to see the Disney cartoon Duck Tales.
It was quite a day - I was like a kid let loose in a sweet shop, and going to the movies would never be quite the same again.
                                             - STEPHEN WEBB