The cinema had not sold many tickets, which I didn't find particularly surprising: it was a Wednesday night, plus the cinema has only fairly recently started to do the live theatre screenings or other 'art' events (unlike the two other cinemas the district showing the live broadcasts, both of which have been showing 'art house' , rare and foreign language films for decades, and have therefore, naturally, built up a loyal audience for such films.
Which is relevant, as when we arrived (and it turned out that the start time had been changed by the broadcaster, so we had a wait) the cinema owner (Retired -I think his daughter(s) now run it) came into the auditorium, and having started well by welcoming us and explaining the reason for the delay, he then unfortunately decided to give us all a scolding about how if not enough people come to the live screenings then they won't be able to continue, and it involves a lot of work,and how more people ought to come.
It went on for about 10 minutes, and really soured the evening. I can understand that he might be frustrated at the low turn out, but seemed to have missed the point that those of us sitting there, having bought tickets, are not the ones who need convincing. And I doubt anyone would show up in response to a scolding.
Fortunately the evening improved once the broadcast began and Mr Fry came on screen.
He was (as anticipated) highly entertaining, in particular talking about his encounters with Prince Charles, (with passing reference to the perils of being friendly with impressionists, if you get unexpected personal phone calls from the heir to the throne..), who came to tea one Christmas. (Cue Rowan Atkinson frantically vacuuming, and discussions as to whether serving Battenburg cake would be considered a commentary on the Prince's ancestry, and what to serve to the bodyguards..
He also spoke about his current love of technology, and his love of reading and how important books and the mobile library were to him when he was growing up, and a little about his past use of cocaine, which is of course what made all the headlines the following morning.
An entertaining evening, apart from the poor start.And the cats? They have had their second set of jabs, so they will be allowed to go outside very soon. I did take them each out briefly on a lead at the weekend, just in the back garden,which they both seemed to enjoy.
I've had a new cat flap put in, but until they are a bit bigger, and have had their ops, won't be letting them out unsupervised (They will be getting their microchips while they are sedated for neutering, so they are not chipped yet)
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