A film society will be celebrating its 35th year as it begins another season of cinema.

Lyme Regis Film Society will be in a celebratory mood as it welcomes back members on 10 September with the Bill Nighy drama Living.

This will be the Society’s 35th season and it has already shown over 400 films from around the world.

It was poet and writer Selima Hill’s idea, in 1988, to set up a film society and it was she who became its first chairman.

The owner of Scott Cinemas, Peter Hoare, consented to the use of the town’s cinema fortnightly, on Sundays, between September and March.

The opening film, on October 2, 1988, was Good Morning Babylon, an Italian drama set in the pioneering days of early Hollywood.

However, it was the next show that was talked about for many years when local celebrity Nellie Templeman came out of retirement to accompany DW Griffith’s 1916 epic Intolerance on piano.

The Regent Cinema remained the Society’s home until it was destroyed by fire in March 2016; at its peak, membership exceeded the capacity of the cinema.

Since September 2016, it has shown films in the town’s Marine Theatre.

Current chairman David Johnson, who has served on the committee since 1988, said: “In one sense, we are coming full circle. Our special event on December 3 is a showing of the 1928 classic Beggars of Life accompanied by live music from Sonic Silents.

"What we do is very much a team effort and our success is all down to the hard work and dedication of my fellow committee members John Marriage, Margaret Rose, Alex Ruck, Gordon Melhuish, Maralyn Hinxman and Heather Britton."