It’s a sweltering Saturday afternoon, and a steady stream of people is starting to trickle into the cinema: families, young couples, guests stocking up on popcorn. Prosecco is bought, and there is a sense of tentative excitement in the air. As people queue up for tickets, conversations spring up between those in line: who is your favourite Doctor? What do you think of the season so far? It’s cinema, but not as you know it.
The Castle Cinema in Hackney, east London, is the latest venue to add live TV episodes to its scheduling, starting with last Saturday’s Doctor Who finale, “The Reality War”. Teacher Blair, 44, is attending with his partner Kheya and son Brodie; like everyone I speak to, it’s their first time seeing a live TV episode in the cinema. “We watch Doctor Who as a family every single week,” he says. “I don’t know if I would come and see it [here] on a weekly basis, but as a finale concept, I think that’s really cool.” Kheya adds: “We wanted to see it on the big screen. We really like the soundtrack – we went to see the music performed at the Royal Albert Hall last year.” (Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor is “amazing”, they agree, and while they like Varada Sethu as companion Belinda, “the dynamic between the Doctor and the companion in general feels a bit dated”.)
Steven, 57, is here with his children, Godwin, 21 (whose favourite doctors are Christopher Eccleston and Gatwa), and Prudence, 16 (whose top three are Matt Smith, David Tennant and Peter Capaldi). “Prudence is a Doctor Who fan,” says Steven, “and we thought it seemed more of an event than just watching it at home on TV. The Castle is a local business, so we try to support it as much as we can.” Prudence’s favourite thing about the show is “the plots”, but she explains that you “need to watch the old ones to know the new ones, and figure out more of it”.
The Castle, originally opened in 1913 and restored in 2016, has a strong sense of history. With its intricate plasterwork and curved ceiling, the venue feels welcoming and grounded in tradition (you may recognise it as the cinema in which Rose Matafeo’s character in Starstruck works; it is also Charli XCX’s local). But, like many venues, it is having to find new ways to attract people through its doors. It is no secret that cinemas in the UK and around the world are struggling to return to pre-pandemic attendance levels. Both independent and chain cinemas are facing closure: nearly a third of independent cinemas could close in the next three to five years without investment, while in 2023, Empire Cinemas and Cineworld both went into administration. According to the UK Cinema Association, the number of cinemas in the UK has fallen from 879 in 2020 to 825 last year.
The reasons behind this are manifold. The cost of living crisis has meant a rise in rent, energy and supply expenditures, as well as audiences with less disposable income to spend on cinema tickets, prices of which have been steadily increasing. Because of the writers’ and actors’ strikes in 2023, many Hollywood productions ground to a halt, with projects cancelled or delayed, which has resulted in fewer new releases in the calendar. Audience habits have also undergone a significant shift over the past five years: with the window from screen to video-on-demand shortening (and many films bypassing cinemas altogether), viewers are more likely to wait for releases to become available on streaming.
As a result, cinemas have had to get creative. The Castle already offers non-film events: the National Theatre Live screenings make theatre accessible to a wider audience – one-woman shows like Fleabag and Prima Facie were especially popular – while the Pitchblack Playback series plays classic albums to blindfolded guests. In recent years, there has been a growing demand for communal experiences of TV events, with the finales of The Traitors and RuPaul’s Drag Race screened in bars and pubs. So TV felt like the next logical step, says The Castle’s executive director, Holly Hayman, especially “shows with cinematic production values and strong fan communities such as The White Lotus or The Last of Us”.
Doctor Who fan and Central Saint Martins student Richard, 28, says that while streaming is cheaper, he can see himself coming back to the cinema to see TV screenings: “It’s a nice treat to see it on a big screen. Even though it is a bit more expensive, it’s good to support local cinema. If they were to release a whole season at once, like Netflix do, and screen it throughout the whole day, I would do that.” Arkadiy, 22, who is attending with his girlfriend, agrees: “It’s much more immersive: better sound, the whole room is dark. It’s a better experience in the cinema.”
One of the after-effects of the “golden age of television” – roughly from 1999 to 2023 – is that the boundary between film and TV has become more porous. “Televisual” no longer means what it used to: it’s not uncommon to see A-list movie stars in TV shows, and vice versa – actors who start out on TV can easily make the jump to the big screen (such as, for example, Gatwa’s Sex Education co-star Emma Mackey). In 2017, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return was named the year’s second-best film by Sight and Sound magazine, leading to discussions about where the distinction between the two art forms lies (all three seasons of the show are, incidentally, coming to the Prince Charles Cinema this summer).
“That line has definitely blurred,” says Hayman. “With streaming and prestige TV, the storytelling ambition of television has exploded. A lot of TV is now shot with the same care and scale as film – and I think people want to celebrate that communally.”
Back at The Castle, the mood inside the auditorium is festive: as soon as the Doctor Who theme tune doo-wee-ooos onto the screen, people dance along in their seats with abandon. After a more muted screening of part one of the finale, which was broadcast a week earlier on BBC One and which most audience members seem to have already seen, the 68-minute part two is introduced with a special message from Sethu. It’s a dramatic, visually striking episode, with giant skeleton dinosaurs, dystopian world-building and (obviously) time travel. There is laughter at the in-jokes, gasp-inducing danger, tender moments when old characters reappear. As the episode draws to a close, there is palpable tension: will the Doctor regenerate? Who will it be?
After the screening, Richard is mulling over the surprise ending. “It was quite a strong finale. I didn’t want Ncuti Gatwa to go – I’ve never had that with a Doctor. It was on the cards, because he’s been doing a lot of stage stuff. But the final reveal was beautiful.” He is intrigued by returning cast member Billie Piper being the next Doctor. “Part of me thinks it could be interesting to have her, because she’s played a lot of different roles since Rose Tyler.”
“There were lots of twists and turns I did not expect,” says broadcast engineer Steven, 40. “It kept feeling like it was drawing to a close and then giving another twist. I thoroughly enjoyed it.” He is keen to return to the cinema for more big TV events in the future. “That was a brilliant way to watch it: it’s good to know you’re in an audience of fellow fans. Going to the cinema always focuses your attention in a way that watching TV at home doesn’t these days. It elevated the experience.”
Ernestine, 26, is glad she came to the cinema for such an eventful episode: “It was great seeing it like that. I missed all the spoilers, so it was a full-on surprise. It was so exciting. It’s nice seeing a finale with an audience, because you all have those reactions together.” It wasn’t, she points out, a sold-out screening, but perhaps in time the phenomenon will draw more people to the cinema. A regular visitor to The Castle, she hopes that venues diversifying their output will help safeguard their future in uncertain times. “The more things you can get to drive people into the cinema, especially independent cinemas, the better. I do think there’s an audience for it. I see enough films. I’d like to see everything on the big screen, if I could.”
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