Cinema warns elderly customers over 'juvenile' behaviour

A cinema which screens classic films for pensioners has warned their elderly customers about their "unacceptable and juvenile" behaviour. Pensioners at the Odeon, in Leicester, have been reprimanded for threatening, pushing, poking, bullying, harassing and intimidating staff, saving seats for friends and queue jumping.

Concerns were also raised about customers abusing the complimentary tea and biscuits arrangement. Letters handed to film-goers said "guests have been known to line multiple pockets of clothing and Tupperware boxes with biscuits on the basis they are free. This embarrasses staff and is not fair on those guests who are left with nothing."

The three-page, unsigned, letter was handed to customers at one of the Wednesday morning weekly showings at the cinema. It said the behaviour was having a "negative, Draconian impact on what was once a happy occasion".



It urged customers "not to save spaces in the queue for acquaintances who have not yet arrived or who are sat in their car." The letter added that if the behaviour did not stop, cinema management would look to take action, from "refusing to serve certain guests up to stopping Senior Screen altogether".

John Gough, 74, who regularly attends with his wife Shirley, 73, said he thought the warning was unnecessary. "We are not naughty school children and we object to a three-page, A4 letter being handed out. The manager could have come in before one of the screenings and had a quiet word with us."

However, Christine Hewkin, 69, said: "This type of behaviour has been going on for a long time and it will continue to go on if the cinema does not make a stand. It is annoying when you have queued and waited to find all the good seats have been saved for people who have not even arrived yet."