Gavin Green: drive-in movies in the UK?

Awonderful slice of American car culture is coming to the UK. The drive-in cinema, a staple of my childhood in Sydney, is heading to a stately home, sports ground or car park near you.

This sliver of Happy Days was hugely popular in the US and Australia in the post-war years, right up to the ’70s. You’d park your car facing the giant outdoor screen, the movie beamed across the clear night sky. You’d attach a speaker to the driver’s open window. Picture quality was fuzzy by today’s high-def standards and sound quality was feeble. But nobody seemed to mind. Rather, you’d enjoy your movie and burger and Coke. Some even had girls on rollerskates who’d deliver food and drink, right to your car.

Drive-ins never took off in the UK. I guess the weather was too rubbish – rain and outdoor movies don’t mix – and land too expensive. They died off in America and Australia, too. Colour television, video and the galloping price of land all contributed. But, as the coronavirus turns the world upside down, so they’re making a comeback. Or in the case of the UK, a very late entry. Cocooned in the social-distanced safety of your car, you can now watch the films that your local Odeon deems too risky.

Up to now, the only drive-in cinema I was aware of in the UK was in McLaren F1-designer Gordon Murray’s Americana-themed barn. So it wasn’t outdoors and it wasn’t open to the public. Yet sitting in Gordon’s Cadillac flat-top sedan watching the big high-def screen, 4500-watt seven-channel surround-sound pumping out the soundtrack and little LEDs sparking in the barn’s ceiling like a starry summer sky in LA, is about as close to Sunset Strip circa 1959 as is possible in southern England.

Now, this summer, drive-in movies are coming to Warwick Castle, Blenheim Palace and Knebworth House. Venues that usually earn good money from picnics and concerts hope drive-in cinemas can provide a profitable alternative. Up to 500 cars and two or three screenings a night are planned. The Allianz Park rugby ground in north London is also being used by Luna, outdoor cinema specialists now diversifying into drive-ins. Movies include Grease, La La Land and The Blues Brothers.

Meanwhile, pop-up drive-ins are appearing throughout the country until September. London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow are among 12 cities where you’ll be able to watch movies from the comfort and social-distancing safety of your own hatchback. Novel locations include Edinburgh Zoo, Brighton Marina, and Newcastle and Bristol airports, which all have no shortage of unused parking.

As a kid in Australia, drive-in movies combined what would become two of my keenest interests, films and cars. Sitting in my parents’ Ford Falcon watching The Dirty Dozen at the Skyline Drive-In French’s Forest was about as good as suburban Sydney got in the late ’60s.

Later, as a teenager, I’d go with mates. A favoured cost-cutting ruse was to drive up to the ticket kiosk with a friend in the front seat and two hidden in the boot. The ticket sellers were wise to this trick and would frequently check trunks. Old Holdens, Fords and Chryslers, nose up, rear bumper almost scraping the tarmac, were a clear giveaway.

Blenheim Palace and Warwick Castle organisers, take note.

The best drive-in-cinema vehicles were panel vans. Colourfully painted Holden or Ford vans, often with surfing murals on their flanks and burbling 5.0-litre V8s in their noses, would reverse into their drive-in parking slots. Movies were watched through the open tailgate. Typically, a double mattress would be fitted in the cargo area, and you’d eat your burger and drink your Coke lying with your arm around your girlfriend, and… Well, you can probably imagine the rest.

I’m sorry, dear reader, but watching a movie at Blenheim Palace or Edinburgh Zoo from the cargo area of your Citroën Berlingo or Volkswagen Caddy just won’t be the same.