Graham Carter - the voice of age and experience

I’M not saying I should go to the cinema more often, but the last film I went to see had Charlie Chaplin in it.

It was called The Circus and was shown at the Palladium in Rodbourne, which you might think is difficult, considering that cinema closed before I was even born.

Let me explain. The Palladium, which was in Jennings Street, did, indeed, close as a cinema in 1958, and for many years it has been a printworks. Earlier this year, however, part of the building was transformed into an arts space called The Bohemian Balcony.

It’s the brainchild of a man called Dan Rivers, whom it was my pleasure to meet because he has a passion for all kinds of arty things and a real sense of history, partly because his grandfather used to play the piano at the Palladium in the silent film days.

Dan came up with the brilliant idea of putting on a silent Charlie Chaplin film (with recorded music) at his new arts centre, which is believed to be the first screening of a movie in the building for 59 years.

Actually, ‘screening’ is not quite accurate, because there is no screen. Not yet, anyway. The film was projected on to the wall where the screen used to be, all those years ago.

Few things give me more pleasure than being at a place or a point in time when history is being made or when lost threads come back together, so we rushed back from a trip to Newbury to be there.

Actually, we had been to a matinee performance of Romeo And Juliet, and it is asking a lot to switch your mind from Shakespeare to slapstick.

But the reincarnation of a seemingly lost cinema is something worth witnessing, and - just to put the icing on the cake - the film they were showing was made in 1928, the same year the Palladium opened.

I have another reason to be interested in the Palladium because my grandfather lived directly opposite its front doors, and I can still remember looking at the building through my five-year-old eyes and wondering what it was.

Even though it is nearly 90 years old, The Circus was great entertainment.

I think more people are coming to appreciate the old silent films for the immaculate timing of the actors, Chaplin being one of its masters.

It’s a far cry from some of the comedy we have become accustomed to, but comedy is timeless, which is more than can be said for the plot.

The villain of the story was a greedy circus owner who not only treated all the performers badly, but even beat and mentally abused his daughter.

Only Charlie showed any annoyance of something that we now consider totally outrageous.

I am glad to say the show was well supported, because it once again proved wrong all the armchair moaners who say there is no culture in Swindon.

Dan said he is encouraged to put on more old films, and liked my suggestion of Laurel and Hardy, next time.

Stan and Ollie are the kings of early cinema, and two of my favourite stars of all time, especially as there is a Swindon connection.

They actually performed, live, at the old Empire Theatre, in 1947, and if I had a time machine, that would be one of my first stops.

I have always been fascinated to discover they were spotted walking down Regent Street, between shows.

Imagine strolling through the town centre and seeing Laurel and Hardy coming the other way.

It all goes to show that, in Swindon, anything can happen. And sometimes does.