I discovered two weird things at my first trip to the cinema this year, to watch Dream Horse.
One, Malteasers taste infinitely better at the pictures.
And two, it's really odd to watch a big screen feature when the subjects of it are a few rows behind you.
Dream Horse stars Toni Collette and Owen Teale as Jan and Brian Vokes, the animal-loving Cefn Fforest couple who, with Howard Davies and a syndicate of locals, bred and owned Welsh Grand National winner, Dream Alliance, raised on an allotment in their home village.
Having known the Dream Alliance story and just this week travelled to a soggy Cefn Fforest to visit the Vokeses, I was prepared to watch a film that I knew how it would pan out.
I did, of course, know the ending, as will many who go and see it, but what I found was an uplifting saga of ordinary folk doing something out of the ordinary.
Without patronising the people involved, and I said this to the couple themselves, the story of how Dream Alliance came to be champion, via the ups and downs, is one that they, those involved with him and Wales, should be proud of.
It's a story that has Welsh dogged determination, passion and pride in buckets and something that's perfect for post-lockdown trip to the cinema. Heck, I knew what happened and I was tense in parts.
The weirdness of having Jan and Brian and Howard a few rows back was not a bad thing. The film featured raw ambition to do something with life, which Jan had already spoken to me about and features in her book, of the same name.
As with many TV shows and films things are added and done differently and said differently because, at the end of the day, it's a slice of entertainment. But the crux of it is, most of it really happened.
Collette and Teale came across marvelously as Jan and Brian, down to Brian's missing teeth, knocked out by accident by his daughter Sasha after one too many practical jokes at home.
I was in a unique position of having seen Brian and Jan with their horses, seen the adoration, and then saw the actors bring that out on screen without even meeting the Vokeses, that blew me away.
And yes, Collette does try and do a valleys accent, sometimes she gets it sometimes she misses the mark - but I think she's captured why Jan wanted that racehorse.
It's undoubtedly Welsh, not twee or 'ow butty, aren't we funny with our accents', and it showcases Welsh quirks and music, with the Furries, Manics, it even has Katherine Jenkins popping up to sing the national anthem.
This might sound terrible to some people, but I'm not being funny, if it shows that the Welsh valleys and people are more than How Green Was My Valley or Hugh Grant up the Garth, to a wider world audience, I'm fine with it.
So if for your first trip to the cinema you want to see an uplifting story, with a few laughs and a few tears, go and see Dream Horse.
If you don't like horse racing, well - I'll leave that decision up to you.
Dream Horse is released in UK cinemas on June 4.
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