A Cinema Near You

Simon Nye's quirky new sitcom for Radio 2, A Cinema Near You (Saturday), was instantly recognisable as being by the writer of How Do You Want Me? Alex (Mathew Horne) has left Islington after getting a job as manager of an independent cinema in a small town. "A great film can change your life!" he declares, on a mission to prove to the townfolk that there's more to cinema than blockbusters. He promises a refund to anyone who doesn't like his first screening, a Swedish arthouse number. Alex's job is not made any easier by the cinema's elderly owner, Mrs Duke (Caroline Quentin), who likes to reminisce about her youth as a Hollywood starlet ("As David Niven said to me . . . So we shot off down Sunset Boulevard and ran in to Dougie Fairbanks – riding a zebra!") Then there's histrionic Jane, from the cafe next door, insistent that he will be her new boyfriend, and Katie, his monotonous assistant, who has an unusually direct manner: "Is that why you like films so much, because you're rubbish at real human relationships?" Alex is finally arrested, having failed to issue the refunds: "If you didn't enjoy the film, you're stupid." The gruff police constable has no sympathy. "In a place like this you'd be better off starting with something more accessible, like a Richard Linklater piece or even a Soderbergh," he growls. This could develop into something rather fun.