MORE than half of the 2,200 tickets for a series of anniversary cinema screenings have been snapped up - at just five pence each.

The bargain 5p tickets are for a series of showings at the Regal Theatre in Stowmarket, which is celebrating its 75th birthday this year.

The 5p price is a nod to the cost of a ticket when the Ipswich Street venue opened its doors back in 1936.

The theatre team, led by manager David Marsh, have arranged the screenings for July 1 to 7 and the films being shown are The King’s Speech, Unknown and A Turtle’s Tale.

In just four hours on Sunday more than half of the tickets were purchased by people prepared to queue for up to an hour.

Mr Marsh said there had been a bit of “Dunkirk spirit” amongst those waiting in the sunshine.

He said: “It’s exactly what we set out to do and it’s worked the way we wanted it to. There is a hard core of people who come a lot – some every week – and we wanted to say ‘thanks’ to them.

“It was a busy day at the box office as we also had our normal screenings going on as well. Some people did have to wait a while but everyone was so pleased about the offer.”

Mr Marsh said there were still tickets left for each of the screenings, but they were selling fast.

For more details, call the box office on 01449 612825.