The manager offers road movies and other classics at his driveway Picturedrome, but please stand for the Queen
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Your support makes all the difference.NORMAN Illingworth's cinema was once a drive-in, but when the screen was installed the car had to go. The Wootton Picturedrome used to be his garage (below), writes Will Bennett.
Mr Illingworth, a former sound engineer from Wootton, near Bedford, has always been a film buff and decided to set up his own cinema with all the traditional trimmings (left) which his larger rivals have abandoned.
As manager and projectionist he dresses formally in a dinner jacket,;his wife acts as the usher and brings round the ice-cream tray, and the national anthem is played at the end of every show.
This formality is for a maximum of 10 guests, which is all that can be fitted into the tiny building which once housed the family car. If demand exceeds seating, those unable to get in go into his house for drinks while the others watch the first showing.
However, this informal way of dealing with a cinema queue does not worry the customers. Most of them are family and friends.
Photographs: Edward Sykes
(Photograph omitted)
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