Moviewatch [17/01/93]

1993-01-17
25m

A film show for the multiplex era, Moviewatch brought together reviews, interviews and celebrity gossip with a regional flavour.

When the programme started in 1993, each episode of Moviewatch was filmed at a different UK multiplex cinema, with hosts Johnny Vaughan, Tania Guha and Philip (father of Daisy) Edgar-Jones presenting the programme among popcorn concession stands and box office queues.

Far from the luxurious picture palaces or grotty fleapits of the past, Moviewatch projects a distinctly Americanised form of suburban moviegoing, complete with sticky floors and sickly-sweet cinema snacks.

For this edition, the first of the series, the team visits the 12-screen Warner Bros. cinema in Bury, Greater Manchester, and brings together a panel of Mancunian cinemagoers to review the week's new releases, including Singles, Man Trouble, Midnight Sting and Deep Cover.

Handing over the critical reins to members of the public may have seemed like a neat gimmick in 1993, but in retrospect it points the way to today's 'democratised' era of social media cinephiles sharing their views on Letterboxd and TikTok.

With its playful attitude and contributors in their late teens and early twenties, Moviewatch attempted to court the youth culture movements of the moment. Change was in the air, and this generational shift was also played out on screen in films such as Cameron Crowe's grunge-romcom Singles and Quentin Tarantino's stylish deconstruction of the heist flick, Reservoir Dogs - which appears in this episode as a preview, featuring interviews with actor Tim Roth and the young upstart director himself.

Elsewhere, the programme joins the dots between the young people watching the programme in the UK and their peers across the pond, interviewing some of the newest (and lowest-on-the-rung) employees at Hollywood agency WME. Some of them, including Gaby Morgerman, went on to become highly successful agents.

The nation-spanning gimmick was dropped in later episodes, but the regional reviewers remained through six series of the show, until it wrapped up in 1998.

Silver Screens: A Century of Cinemagoing

From the picture palaces of the past to modern multiplexes...

The cinema has always been so much more than just a place to watch films. At the heights of its powers, the silver screen stood for spectacle, sophistication, electricity and elegance as well as entertainment, and the very venues themselves were star attractions. These architectural marvels stood proud in cities and towns up and down the country, enthralling audiences in their thousands in the days when "going to the pictures" was a national pastime.

For over a century, cinema has endured, and cinemas have changed with the times. The rise of television, video and home cinemas may have splintered the cultural dominance of the movies while bringing films to smaller and more convenient screens, but the thrill of the communal experience remains - as do many of the monumental structures themselves, whether they have been converted into bingo halls, renovated into plush modern picture houses, or left to loom over the high street.

This collection celebrates the cinema as both a cultural icon and a haven for generations of starry-eyed dreamers, and documents the changing face of filmgoing from the bygone bioscopes and the lavish picture palaces of yesteryear to the sticky-floored multiplexes of today. So dim the lights, grab your popcorn, and lose yourself in the magic of the silver screen.