Screen Machine

The Screen Machine is a mobile cinema which travels from village to village all around the Highlands and Islands, showing the latest films. I have fancied giving it a try ever since I heard of it when we first got the cottage, but the stars have never aligned so that we are in Ullapool and available at the time of its visits. When I read in the Ullapool News that it would be visiting this past weekend I was very excited and booked tickets to see Kenneth Branagh’s Death on the Nile for yesterday at 5.30 p.m. 

We duly turned up at the leisure centre car park to see the bright blue Screen Machine lorry parked in the car park, with a short set of metal steps leading up into the interior. And what a revelation when we went inside! It’s like Dr Who’s Tardis in there, seemingly much bigger on the inside than on the outside! The lorry must be designed to expand along its length once it is parked, to become an eighty seat cinema with ten rows of eight seats, with two aisles down each side making it a two-four-two configuration - nice and spacious. The seats are red and comfortable, and the screen is a good size; it really is a proper cinema. 

The film was lovely, and crammed with well-known actors including Ken himself as Hercule Poirot. The plot was a typical Agatha Christie, but what made it extra good was the stunning scenery of Egypt and the Nile. This was not even spoiled for me by finding out that filming was all done in England with much CGI! Great fun.