By Marianne Gray
Everybody Loves an Event
They are innovative, exciting, creative and each new one
naturally has to outshine the last.
Recently, in the same week, we
had an event with a director
and a creator of the film’s
subject with us for a Q&A. It
was packed to the rafters and
went on for much longer than
planned. Two days later we had
another event, for just as
entertaining a film, where we
had the leading actor to
present the show beforehand
and do a Q&A afterwards, and
only 14 people turned up. They
loved it but that’s not quite
what we’d planned.
Ken Loach.
E
vents at Peckhamplex
have always been my
secret pleasure. I nearly
have a nervous breakdown
anticipating them: Will
anybody buy tickets? Will
the celebs get there in time?
Will it be glamorous? Will
the audience be a Radio
Silence one or will they ask
impossible questions backto-back.
We quite often get major stars
to come and talk about their
film to our audiences. One
memorable night the author of
the best-selling Biafran War
book Half A Yellow Sun, the
elegant Chimamanda Adiche
Ngozi, came with the film’s
‘Half Of A Yellow Sun’:
director Biyi Bandele with
best-selling author
Chimamanda Adiche Ngozi.
Hackney’s Finest: actor Arin
Alldridge, moderator Nosa
Igbinedion, director Chris
Bouchard.
‘SuperBob’s’ director Jon
Drever, actress Catherine Tate,
comedienne Katherine Ryan
and actor Brett Goldstein.
Peckhamplex exterior.
director, Biyi Bandele, to do a
Q&A. Word got out that she
often came straight from
Heathrow airport to Peckham to
have her hair braided. The
cinema was chock-a-block and
the questions and vibes were
wonderful, especially about
hair-styling. She said it was her
best gig yet …. so much
more fun than the same she’d
done in Hampstead.
It’s the nature of the beast!
At The Plex we have had some
fabulous events which have
challenged the West End for
pizzazz and vitality. And once,
nothing to do with anything,
we’ve had to drag people off
the streets.
For ‘London Road’, Director
Rufus Norris, actress Olivia
Colman, actor Paul Thornley.
More recently we had a riotous
evening for the comedy
SuperBob when local filmmaker
Jon Drever, plus the stars of the
film Brett Goldstein and TV
superstar Catherine Tate,
arrived with the massively
popular comedienne and
presenter Katherine Ryan who
said she’d moderate the event
for us. Bliss!
We had another sell-out event
for London Road, the film
about the prostitutes murdered
in Ipswich in 2006. The director
Rufus Norris, who is also the
director of the National
Theatre, plus the two leads, our
local superstar Olivia Colman
and Paul Thornley, came. As we
filed out of the auditorium,
there was a mob of eager
people lining up to see films
like Jurassic World and Mad
Max, but all waiting to get a
selfie with Olivia.
On another occasion we had a
special appearance from Danny
Dyer to present his film
Assassin, the night a BIG action
film also opened. A group of
female fans arrived but they
were too young to see his film,
which had a 15 certification, so
we had to do the Q&A BEFORE
the film!
You just never can tell. Full
house or echoing walls? Events
are a world unto themselves
however much you promote
them and I love organising
them with the team at Pecky.
We love film and we love
bringing new, exciting
experiences to our diverse and
growing audiences. All the rest
of you have to do is to attend!
www.peckhamplex.london
Peckhamplex foyer.
Dannie Dyer for ‘Assassin’.
Visit The London & UK DatebooK on www.thedatebook.co.uk
Marianne Gray is a director at Peckhamplex who organises
the events and writes the weekly Newsletter.
THE LONDON & UK DATEBOOK
29