The Pictures

I watched Goldfinger on the telly with my son the other week. It was his first Bond film and I was very happy that when it ended and the line “Bond will be back in Thunderball” appeared on screen he asked if we could watch that one too. More than happy actually, I came over quite sentimental because watching Bond films was always something I did with my dad — including those two which we saw on a double bill. The first one I actually saw at the pictures was OHMSS with my mum, but I saw them all from Diamonds Are Forever to The Spy Who Loved Me with my dad, mostly in Leicester Square the first week they were out.

My old man was a real movie nut and going to the pictures was always his default thing to do whenever he took me and my sister out for the day. There were occasional trips to places like Windsor Safari Park and Richmond Common but nine times out of ten we saw a movie (we never went to a museum for some reason) so a lot of my childhood memories of my dad are related to that.

Besides all the Bond and Disney films, I saw Jaws, Star Wars, Monty Python & The Holy Grail, Close Encounters, and, um, Digby, The Biggest Dog In The World with him — even Zulu, which he took us to twice when it was re-released (he loved that movie). I also watched a lot of old films on the telly with my mum and thanks to her was never one of those kids who didn’t like black and white films or musicals.

So I feel like I’m carrying on a tradition when my kids enjoy an old movie or, especially, when I take them to the pictures and they can experience the thrill of sitting in the dark watching something magical on a big screen — and it nearly always is magic when you’re a kid, way better than a movie at home. The first film my daughter saw at the cinema was How To Train Your Dragon, and her brother Big Hero 6. Those visits meant almost as much to me as their first words and first steps, on both occasions my heart swelled with nostalgia and thoughts of my Dad.

They saw Jaws for the first time last year and I’m not exaggerating much when I say that I had been looking forward to showing them that since the day they were born. My daughter was more upset by the dog being eaten than Alex Kitner, and my son declared that he never wanted to swim in the ocean ever again which I think means it was a success. I swear I got a bigger kick out of that than if he’d told me he loved All Mod Cons.

Download: He Took Her To A Movie – Ladytron (mp3)