Twenty years after The Constant Gardener, East Meon's village cinema marks its anniversary on Saturday 26 September, with a programme now twice the size.
A village hall cinema four and a half miles west of Petersfield is twenty years old this month, and it now puts on more than twice as many nights as it used to.
East Meon Cinema opened in September 2006 with The Constant Gardener, starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz, in the village hall on Workhouse Lane. It has run there ever since, entirely on volunteers.
The village’s own site says the 20th anniversary “will be celebrated with a special event in September, with further details to follow soon”. The only September date in the cinema’s listing is Saturday 26 September, when it is showing Peter Bogdanovich’s 1972 screwball comedy What’s Up Doc?. That is a Saturday, where the rest of the season runs on Thursdays.
Where it came from
The cinema was Michael Blakstad’s idea. Before retiring to East Meon he created the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World. In retirement he heard about Moviola, which takes cinema screenings round rural villages, and gathered a group of film enthusiasts at The Tudor House, where he lived with his wife Tricia.
The point was twofold from the start: get the village in one room, and raise money for the village hall.
When Blakstad’s health failed, Lucy Hollis took over as chair and has run it for more than a decade.
What has changed in the last year
East Meon is still part of the Moviola network. What is new is that the committee has signed agreements to screen National Theatre Live and Royal Opera House productions as well as films.
That took months of negotiation by committee member Chris Beard, or “dogged determination” as Hollis puts it on the village site. Large distributors are used to dealing with cinema chains, not volunteer-run village halls.
The effect on the programme is the concrete bit. It used to be around eight screenings between September and April. It is now at least sixteen events a year.
People are travelling for it. The village site says visitors have come from Alresford, Guildford and beyond for recent screenings, and that some said they preferred the village hall to the bigger cinemas they could have chosen. The alternative for a National Theatre Live broadcast would be a drive to Portsmouth or Winchester.
The hall has kept up. It bought a new sound system and an upgraded projector last year, along with comfortable seating. Before that, the cinema’s audio-visual volunteer Matt Millward regularly turned up with a car full of his own kit.
Not every night has gone smoothly. The village site recalls the evening the projection screen would not open. Rather than cancel, the team improvised one out of bedsheets. “There was a lot of gaffer tape and safety pins,” Hollis says.
Twenty years in, the committee’s own answer on what has sold best is The King’s Speech, with The Sting close behind.
The autumn season
Six more dates are booked after Saturday. Standard films have gone up to £7, the first rise in five years. Theatre, ballet and opera stay at £15.
| Date | What is on | Certificate | Running time | Ticket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 October | National Theatre Live: The Misanthrope, with Sandra Oh | PG | 120 mins | £15 |
| 29 October | Royal Ballet and Opera: Manon | TBC | 190 mins | £15 |
| 12 November | My Mother's Wedding, Kristin Scott Thomas's directorial debut | 15 | about 96 mins | £7 |
| 26 November | Royal Ballet and Opera: Carmen | 12 | 215 mins | £15 |
| 3 December | The Christophers, with Ian McKellen | 15 | 100 mins | £7 |
| 17 December | Royal Ballet and Opera: The Nutcracker | TBC | 140 mins | £15 |
Four of the six are live theatre, ballet or opera. That is the shift in one table: a village film club that now books more stage nights than film nights.
What it means for you
- Saturday 26 September, East Meon Village Hall, Workhouse Lane, GU32. What’s Up Doc?, certificate 12a, 94 minutes.
- No start time is published. Moviola’s listing for East Meon says “contact venue for times” and gives Lucy Hollis on 01730 823897. The village site had not posted the anniversary details when we checked on 23 September.
- East Meon is about four and a half miles west of Petersfield, so it is a short drive from the town, not a walk.
- The committee says it wants film suggestions from residents, particularly anything that would bring in a younger audience.
If you are heading that way, the A272 at Langrish closes for the day on 24 September, which is on the western route out of Petersfield, so check before you travel. More village and town events are on our things to do in Petersfield page.
Sources
- East Meon Cinema, on the village’s own site at Meon Matters, read on 23 September 2026, for the 20th anniversary, the September 2006 opening with The Constant Gardener, Michael Blakstad and the founding of the cinema, Lucy Hollis taking over as chair, the National Theatre Live and Royal Opera House agreements and Chris Beard’s part in them, the growth from about eight screenings to at least sixteen events a year, the visitors from Alresford and Guildford, the new sound system, projector and seating, Matt Millward, the bedsheet screen and the quoted remarks, The King’s Speech and The Sting, the autumn 2026 season with its certificates, running times and prices, and the rise in the standard ticket to £7.
- Moviola: East Meon venue listing and its page for What’s Up Doc?, read on 23 September 2026, for the 26 September screening, the certificate and running time, the venue address and the contact details, and for the further listings on 12 November and 3 December.
- East Meon, Hampshire for the distance from Petersfield, given there as 4.4 miles.
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