Britons return to silver screen

More people are going to the movies in Britain than for any time in the past quarter of a century, according to figures just released.

The Cinema Advertising Association, which monitors ticket sales throughout Britain, told The Guardian newspaper that more than a hundred and forty million people went to the pictures last year.

The last time such a high figure was reached was in 1974.

In the subsequent ten years the popularity of television and the onset of video saw cinema admissions sink rapidly to a low of fifty-four million. But observers say that in recent years the cinema has won back people in their thirties -- once regarded as a lost audience. Big audiences during the past year have gone to see movies like Toy Story Two, Gladiator and Chicken Run.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service