KEIGHLEY’S Picture House – closed for seven months due to the coronavirus pandemic – is reopening next week.

The cinema, in North Street, will open its doors next Friday – October 30 – with a screening of the 1970s classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, at 7.45pm.

'Sister' cinema, Skipton’s Plaza, is also reopening that night. It is showing the 1961 classic, Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

For the first couple of weeks the cinemas will have daily screenings of recent and older classics, then newer films.

Charles Morris, owner of the cinemas, said: "I’m sure people will be aware that a lot of new films, like the James Bond movie No Time To Die, have been delayed and delayed – but enough is enough and we are going to open again!

“We have an attractive line-up of recent and not-so-recent classics to begin with, then we will be introducing some of the new films which have been released in the last few months.

"There have in fact been quite a few new films which I am sure people will enjoy – it’s just that they are from the smaller distributors who cannot afford the publicity budgets of the big boys, so folk won’t be aware of them to the same extent.”

Both cinemas have undergone the necessary preparations to comply with Covid guidelines.

“We have spacious auditoriums with over 300 seats so it is perfectly possible to maintain social distancing and still have a decent attendance," said Mr Morris.

"We will be keeping people apart by showing which seats are available and which are not. We are taking all the precautions we can to prevent the spread of the disease."

Mr Morris, who is also opening cinemas he owns in Elland and Leeds on the same date, is optimistic about the future.

But he warns that public support is needed for the cinemas to survive.

He said: "My four Yorkshire cinemas have all been here for over a hundred years; they’ve survived two world wars, at least two other pandemics, they’ve seen the art deco movie palaces of the 1930s come and go and they look like outlasting the multiplex cinemas.

"However, we’ve had seven months with no income and we need people through the doors – and we need them now.

"It’s no good waiting for six months until you think it’s safer and there’s a film which takes your fancy.”

Films are listed on the cinemas’ website, at nm-cinemas.co.uk.

Pre-booking is advised.