“Great place for Billericay to have”

“Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon”

“Great film and atmosphere. Will recommend to friends”

What an afternoon! We had some music, it was almost standing room only, we had quite a few first time visitors, two new Volunteers as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme – and we had what turned out to be a cracker of a film.

For those of you who arrived a little early we had entertainment from the Champagne Flutes, a flute orchestra who practice in the Chantry Centre on a Sunday. Due to a slight error in communication (probably my fault !) they left a little early, however, they will be back for our Christmas Sunday Matinee with some festive tunes and will be playing between 2:30pm and 3pm. On the plus side I’ve learnt something I didn’t know before: there is such a thing as a bass flute (they’re about twice as long as a standard flute and an octave lower).

We had a packed house watching “Fried Green Tomatoes”.  Of the 61 tickets sold we had 56 guests in the audience; a 92% attendance is definitely on the high side.

“Surprisingly good movie. Choccie cake excellent as usual”

“Very enjoyable film and cake”

“Very enjoyable. Excellent coffee and cake – wonderful service”

“Great film and a wonderful carrot cake”

“Lovely afternoon out – cake fantastic”

It was very busy for our Volunteers with guests consuming 47 slices of cake washed down with 69 teas, coffees and hot chocolates which is a record. At this point I have to say a massive thanks to Jo, Jenny and Anne who had baked such glorious cake – we were truly spoilt for choice with carrot, chocolate, Victoria sponge, and lemon drizzle.

“Thank you all for a nice afternoon”

“Always very professionally run”

“Staff exceptionally helpful and friendly volunteers. Loved my visit”

“Please thank all the volunteers”

A big welcome to two new faces in our Volunteer team – Jamie and Will have started 3 months with us as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award. They quickly got into the swing of things with Jamie helping out on the Welcome Desk and Will on our cash tills as well as setting up tables and chairs and tidying away at the end. It made for a bumper crop of Volunteers – so thank you to Will, Jamie, Maureen, Sarah, Nick, Jackie, David, Ken, Chris, Paul, Paula, Iris, Martin, Little Mark, Big Mark, Jo and Adam. Phew!

Sound is always an interesting issue and although not very often we do sometimes get comments. We did have three this time: “Sound was poor because you couldn’t hear what they were saying” and “Sound a little poor at times” – but then we also had “Very good sound and picture quality”. I suspect (but don’t know) that some of the issues might have been due to the setting of the film in Birmingham in the southern American state of Alabama. Accents from the Deep South can be more challenging, particularly over the loudspeakers. Can I ask if you have an issue with the sound quality, please let us know roughly where you were sitting and whether it was a general issue or whether it was only at certain times the sound was problematic?

“Loved this film – will have to read the book”

“Now I shall go and read the book”

“Never seen this film before but I really enjoyed it – different than expected”

“Really enjoyed the film”

“Really good film and looked after very well”

 “Great film, of its time”

I’d previously read the book but hadn’t seen the film. It’s always pot-luck with films of books as to whether it’s best to read the book first then see the film or vice-versa. For me it handled the book quite well. As with all book to film transitions inevitably some characters or sub-plots have to be omitted but the core of the book was carried through to the film and nothing too important was lost – although the relationship between Idgie and Ruth was rather more ambiguous in the film. Judging by the feedback comments it has certainly inspired a few of you to get hold of the book.

Overall you scored the film an average of 9.7 – which is the highest in just over a year (October ’23’s Brief Encounter also scored an average 9.7) with the afternoon overall averaging 9.8

“Congratulations on the Star Wars/BCC credits – wonderful”

Thank you 🙂 We had fun putting that together.

50/50 ’23 Profit Split

Based on the audience voting once we’ve tallied everything up the money will be split 42% to HumanKind, 20% to the Friends of Lake Meadows and 38% to the Billericay Foodbank.. There’ll be an update in January of the final totals to each group

“Fantastic value!”