Film buffs can bare all at cinema

A cinema has seen its customer numbers increase since it started staging screenings for naturists.

More than 100 people strip off at the Grand Entertainment Venue in Ramsey, Cambridgeshire, each month to watch films in private and in the nude.

The cinema owners said business had risen by 35% since it was revealed they were staging the monthly event.

Peter Haddon, cinema co-owner, said: "It has brought a lot of business to the town and put Ramsey on the map."

The doors are shut to the public when the 400-seat cinema is hired by a local naturist group, who bring their own seat coverings, one Sunday afternoon a month.

It's definitely not used as a pick-up joint Peter Haddon, cinema co-owner

The shows have attracted people from as far away as Edinburgh while the publicity has attracted tourists to the town and its cinema.

Mr Haddon said: "In the summer the group is able to meet at swimming pools but they needed somewhere to meet in the winter.

"We had more than 100 people at the last screening and it seems to attract all ages.

"There was a managing director from a large company and a couple in their 90s.

"There are a few single people but it seems to be mainly husbands and wives."

'Immorality' claim

"It's definitely not used as a pick-up joint," he added.

However, not everyone in Ramsey was pleased by the attention the cinema has attracted.

Pastor R Jeremy Brooks, of the Salem Baptist Church, said: "There is no-one in my congregation who is at all happy about this development.

"The thought that our little town should become such a centre for this kind of immorality with people travelling from as far away as Ipswich, Norwich, Northampton and Nottingham is very distressing to many."

Mr Haddon said there was nothing offensive about its screenings.

Financial boost

"They watch current films and there is nothing erotic about it," he said.

"It's simply a social occasion where people come along and don't wear any clothes."

He said the screenings also helped to keep the cinema's finances ticking over.

"As an independent family-owned cinema we are having a terrible struggle to keep open, and private screenings, especially on Sunday, are one way of keeping going," he said.