Jurassic Park revisited: How Steven Spielberg helped save Carmarthenshire cinema from closure
It’s 30 years since Hollywood director Steven Spielberg helped save a “diamond in the desert” cinema from closure.
Jurassic Park had its UK premier on 16 July 1993, a joint premier with screenings in London and at a small cinema in Carmarthenshire, West Wales.
Elizabeth Evans, the leader of a youth theatre in Carmarthen, had launched a campaign to save the Lyric cinema from closure and had secured a screening of the film.
The distribution company later reportedly went back on their word so the the mayor of Carmarthen at the time, Richard Goodridge, stepped in to help with a fax to the film’s director, Steven Spielberg.
Elizabeth Evans and Richard Goodridge pictured in a newspaper article about the Lyric cinema screening of Jurassic Park
“I happened to be in the right place at the right time and I contacted Steven Spielberg through my office in the town and asked if something could be done and as the news will tell you, it was a success that, through his office or through his secretary, they allowed a copy of the film to be shown,” Mr Goodridge told Sky News.
“And I suspect because of the adverse publicity that was going to be given to the distribution company that they probably thought it would be best to allow them to show it on the opening night, the same time as it was in Leicester Square.”
Mr Goodridge was played by Harry Potter star Tom Felton in the 2022 Sky Cinema film, Save The Cinema, which was loosely based on events.
It was only recently Mr Goodridge found out that the Lyric had in fact been the first cinema in the UK to screen the film after Ms Evans put the clocks forward by around 10 minutes.
Mr Goodridge said the Lyric – now a theatre – had become a facility for “so many youngsters, under-privileged youngsters, that were looking for an outlet for their talents”.
“It’s been a huge success for thousands of youngsters that have come through that theatre for the last 30 years and they’ve gone on to great things,” he said.
“Some have become very well-known actors and actresses and that type of thing, and without Steven Spielberg’s contribution none of that would have happened.”
A letter to Steven Spielberg from Richard Goodridge dated 30 June, 1993
According to Mr Goodridge, credit must go to Ms Evans and her husband David who spent many years working hard to secure the future of the Lyric.
“Although it was a brief spell for me of 12 months in that role and I was able to contribute to the saving of the building, credit must be given to both Liz and Dave who spent a lifetime, not just a year as I did,” he said.
Spielberg at the premier of Jurassic Park in 1993
“So a great many people owe their careers and their fortunes to Liz and Dave, and I’d like to think that as time goes on, while I had a contribution, it is to their memory that the success of this event should be drawn to.”
Read more from Sky News:
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To celebrate the anniversary, a special screening of Jurassic Park will take place at the Lyric on Sunday afternoon, followed by three screenings of Save The Cinema over three consecutive nights.
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Joy star James Norton on the ‘postcode lottery’ of IVF – and playing the scientist who was part of creating the first ‘test-tube baby’
Actor James Norton, who stars in a new film telling the story of the world’s first “test-tube baby”, has criticised how “prohibitively expensive” IVF can be in the UK.
In Joy, the star portrays the real-life scientist Bob Edwards, who – along with obstetrician Patrick Steptoe and embryologist Jean Purdy – spent a decade tirelessly working on medical ways to help infertility.
The film charts the 10 years leading up to the birth of Louise Joy Brown, who was dubbed the world’s first test-tube baby, in 1978.
In the UK, statistics show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade
Norton, who is best known for playing Tommy Lee Royce in the BAFTA-winning series Happy Valley, told Sky News he has friends who were IVF babies and other friends who have had their own children thanks to the fertility treatment.
“But I didn’t know about these three scientists and their sacrifice, tenacity and skill,” he said. The star hopes the film will be “a catalyst for conversation” about the treatment and its availability.
“We know for a fact that Jean, Bob and Patrick would not have liked the fact that IVF is now so means based,” he said. “It’s prohibitively expensive for some… and there is a postcode lottery which means that some people are precluded from that opportunity.”
Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton star in Joy. All pics: Netflix/ Kerry Brown
Now, IVF is considered a wonder of modern medicine. More than 12 million people owe their existence today to the treatment Edwards, Steptoe and Purdy worked so hard to devise.
But Joy shows how public backlash in the years leading up to Louise’s birth saw the team vilified – accused of playing God and creating “Frankenstein babies”.
Bill Nighy and Thomasin McKenzie star alongside Norton, with the script written by acclaimed screenwriter Jack Thorne and his wife Rachel Mason.
The couple went through seven rounds of IVF themselves to conceive their son.
Norton portrays scientist Bob Edwards, while McKenzie plays embryologist Jean Purdy
While the film is set in the 1970s, the reality is that societal pressures haven’t changed all that much for many going through IVF today – with the costs now both emotional and financial.
“IVF is still seen as a luxury product, as something that some people get access to and others don’t,” said Thorne, speaking about their experiences in the UK.
“Louise was a working-class girl with working-class parents. Working class IVF babies are very, very rare now.”
In the run-up to the US election, Donald Trump saw IVF as a campaigning point – promising his government, or insurance companies, would pay for the treatment for all women should he be elected. He called himself the “father of IVF” at a campaign event – a remark described as “quite bizarre” by Kamala Harris.
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Bill Nighy ‘proud’ of new film on IVF breakthrough
“I don’t think Trump is a blueprint for this,” Norton said. “I don’t know how that fits alongside his questions around pro-choice.”
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In the UK, statistics from fertility regulator HEFA show the proportion of IVF cycles paid for by the NHS has dropped from 40% to 27% in the last decade.
“It’s so expensive,” Norton said. “Those who want a child should have that choice… and some people’s lack of access to this incredibly important science actually means that people don’t have the choice.”
Joy is in UK cinemas from 15 November, and on Netflix from 22 November
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