Great Expectations to be screened at St Albans Cathedral

ST ALBANS Cathedral will be given a Dickensian makeover this month with the recent adaptation of the author’s classic Great Expectations the first feature film to be shown in the nave.

BAFTA-award winning director of the film and St Albans native, Mike Newell, will give an introductory talk at the unique event on Thursday, February 28, a week before the city’s first film festival.

Filmgoers can expect to encounter iconic characters from the much-adapted novel throughout the evening, including the ill-fated Miss Havisham, and organisers promise the setting will lend the movie an “atmospheric edge”.

Newell was born and brought up in St Albans and went on to famously direct Four Weddings and a Funeral and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Canon Kevin Walton said: “Mike Newell has long connections with St Albans Cathedral and is a keen supporter through the Education Trust.

“We are really pleased to have a screening of Great Expectations in this very ancient and atmospheric place.”

Leoni Kibbey, director of the upcoming film festival, said: “The screening of Great Expectations at St Albans Cathedral with director Mike Newell, demonstrates the strong links this City has to the filmmaking industry and to great filmmakers.”

Tickets for the screening cost £12 and are available from the Cathedral bookshop or by phoning 01727 890217.

For more information visit www.stalbanscathedral.org/news/events