Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Working in Southsea

Southsea is one of the many places where I have worked for a short time.

During the 1980s, while I was managing the Empire Cinema at Havant, one of the big promotions involving cinema nationally was British Film Year in 1985. The cinemas in the Portsmouth area, of which mine was one, were very proactive in arranging links to this.

The Southsea Show, which used to take place over a three day period on the enormous Southsea Common by the sea, had a marquee devoted to British Film Year, and I spent the three days helping to run it.

This involved chatting to the general public, being interviewed for radio and introducing such people as Jean Marsh (at the time starring in "Return to Oz") and Melvyn Hayes.

A few years later, I spent the three days in a larger marquee as an auctioneer, raising thousands of pounds for a local charity.