Crowds flock to see The Artist in Telford

They said it was too highbrow for Telford, but 300 film fans proved them wrong when they turned out for two special screenings of Oscar-winning film The Artist.

Oakengates Theatre @ The Place was transformed into a cinema for the day on Saturday – and it proved such a success that theatre bosses are now hoping to bring even more films to the venue.

The showings were arranged by the Shropshire Star with Telford & Wrekin Council, which owns the theatre, and mobile cinema company Reels on Wheels, based in Staffordshire.

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It came after The Odeon cinema said it wasn't able to show the film due to its 'limited distribution' sparking fury from Telford film fans who wanted to see the silent film starring Jean Dujardin.

Shropshire Star film critic Carl Jones opened the first showing by welcoming the audience to the theatre and thanking them for coming.

"When The Artist was named best picture at the Oscars, Telford audiences were waiting for it to be screened in the town and it became quite obvious that people were getting quite disgruntled that it wasn't coming," he said.

"We thought 'well why can't we bring it to the town?' and so that's what we did.

"This is the best film I've seen all year, and hopefully it will have started a new era of films at The Place."

Becky Howarth, 13, and mother Cath, from Telford, said they thoroughly enjoyed the film.

"I thought it was really good. You had to make your own words to it because it was silent," Becky said. "We're glad it came to Telford. It would be good if we could show more films here."

• We bring The Artist to Telford

The Bowdler family from Leegomery said they hoped the theatre would show more films in the future, especially Hollywood classis like Casablanca.

Amanda Robertson, from Trench, Telford, bought her mum Carol, from St Georges, to see the film as a belated Mother's Day present.

She said: "Because it hadn't been on in Telford I hadn't had the opportunity to travel to Shrewsbury to see it. When this showing appeared we said 'why not? We really enjoyed it."

Lana Spice, from Woodside, said she had really enjoyed the film and felt like she 'wanted to clap at the end'.

"I really wanted to see it and so when it was not on at the cinema I was quite excited when I saw this showing on the front of the paper."

Retired Oakengates Theatre technician, Brian Eades, remembers when Oakengates Theatre screened films 20 years ago and decided to go along to watch The Artist.

Philippa Smith, from Priorslee, said the controversy surrounding the screening of the film in Telford made her want to see it, adding that she was glad she did.

"I thought it was really good and the sound was very good, especially for a silent film! It was a good atmosphere."

Rachel Titchener travelled all the way from Stoke-on-Trent to see film when she heard of the Telford screening.

"I was really interested in coming to see the film."

Kate Iles, from Wellington, decided to go along because it was only 10 minutes from where she lived.

"It is good to have something that is not 'blockbustery' and nice not to have raucous teenagers throwing popcorn around. I was happy to see a film like this coming to this neck of the woods and hope we got more unusual stuff coming here," she said.

Alison Leigh, from Priorslee, said they had heard about the screening on the Shropshire Star's Facebook page. Her husband Philip Leigh, said: "We had heard about the film, and it won a lot of Oscars, when we heard it was coming here we came along because it is really local for us."

Roger Heart, from Priorslee, said: "We could not believe that the film was not going to be shown in Telford and when we saw it in the Shropshire Star last week we decided to come down."

Councillor Kuldip Sahota, leader of Telford & Wrekin Council and self-confessed film fanatic, was one of the first people to book his ticket for the screenings.

"I'd been looking forward to this film for months. It really made me cross when it won the Oscar but there was no sign of it coming to Telford and the Odeon decided not to show the film."

In total 263 people went to see The Artist – 122 at the matinee showing and 141 in the evening. Staffordshire Reels on Wheels set up a £100,000 digital film projector in the theatre to show the film.