X-rated!
2:57pm Friday 6th October 2006 in News By Charley Morgan
PRANKSTERS are giving a Chippenham cinema an X-rated reputation by rearranging letters on its advertising hoarding to spell out vulgar phrases.
Filmgoers wanting to catch the latest releases at The Astoria cinema in Marshfield Road, Chippenham, at the weekend had a nasty shock when they arrived to buy their tickets. Instead of the film they wanted to watch being advertised, pranksters had rearranged the letters on the board to spell out an offensive swear word instead.
It is the second time they have struck in the space of a month, but a few years ago it was a common problem happening almost every weekend.
Projectionist Jeremy Hancock, said: "It's a problem if you've got quite a few films on because there's lots of letters for them to play with.
"Maybe we should just show ET and 10 - but that wouldn't be good for business.
"They haven't broken any of the letters - the ones they don't use they just lay on the floor."
The 200-seat two-screen cinema is a popular choice for families who do not want to drive all the way to the nearest multiplex.
There are also a lot of passers-by who see the cinema's sign, which is right above the doorway to the 1939 building.
Mr Hancock said: "We've tried everything to stop them. We thought they were using wheelie bins to jump up onto the ledge and rearrange the letters, so I chained the bins up - but they still got up there. It used to happen when the schools and universities were on holiday but now it's happening during term time too.
"The problem is, if they get up there on Saturday night, we won't see it until Sunday afternoon when we come back in to work.
"We are not ignoring it but we are having a hell of a problem trying to deal with it."
Mr Hancock believes the cinema owners Reel Cinemas will have to look into getting CCTV to discourage the pranksters.
In the meantime they will be leaving the lights on in the hope that it will scare off whoever is making the alterations.
Cllr Ross Henning, of Chippenham Town Council, said: "It is irresponsible and quite dangerous - but I don't quite know what they can do to stop it. Maybe they should invest in a small CCTV camera to cover the area or stop people getting up there in the first place - but that would probably be expensive.
"Let's just hope they have a lot of short-named films coming up."
