Cinema nostalgia

Long ago, my favourite cinema came up with a perfect way to spend a dreich Sunday afternoon in Edinburgh: the legendary Cameo Sunday double bill, curled up away from the weather in the cosy velveteen armchairs of Screen 1, with a coffee/cake/glass of wine as desired. I confess that the last few years I haven't frequented the place as much as I would have liked, but all that has changed as I've been renewing my Cameo love affair in the last few weeks.

This is the cinema I first went to 20 years ago, sneaking away from university lectures to take advantage of the 99p-in-the-afternoon student tickets; those were the days. This is the cinema my flatmates and I rolled up to after the pub for the now long-gone late-night double bills, although I never managed to stay awake for both films (thanks to those comfy Screen 1 armchairs, not just the beer). This is the cinema that used to have the worst ladies' toilets of any cinema in the country, but which were finally and impressively upgraded last year. This is the cinema that still must have one of the best membership schemes in the land, which I belatedly signed back up to today: £30 gets you 3 free tickets, money off every bought ticket and everything in the bar (which is already excellent value), AND free entry to every Sunday afternoon double bill. I celebrated with a couple of friends and a couple of hours of entirely appropriate film nostalgia heaven: Raiders of the Lost Arc, terrifyingly more than 30 years old, gloriously un-digitally remastered, and with the fabulously youthful Harrison Ford. Bliss.