Twenty-seven is my lucky number. I guess because I was born in 1927, along with talking pictures, or could it be because there used to be 27 cinemas in my birthplace, Southampton? Anyway, now there are just two major multiplexes and an art house. Gone are the Gaiety, the Atherley, the Rialto, the Palladium, the Broadway, the Empire, the Picture House and the 20 others, most of which existed up to the time of the Second World War, when they started gradually to disappear one by one.
In my youth, cinema-going was a different experience from today. In those days you could rely on a pleasant uniformed usherette to guide you to your seat with a torch and offer you a tray of light refreshments