Fiona Duff: Cinema glamour is picture perfect

Remember the days when getting a flight was fun and made you feel good? Nowadays, trundling through Edinburgh Airport one is treated like a cross between a criminal and a cow waiting at an abattoir.

Of course, it’s because of cheap flights and global terrorism – pack a shampoo bottle that is over 100ml and the security folk look at you as though they have discovered a bag of cocaine.

Then you stand in a queue in order to be herded on to a bus where there is the same personal space granted to a sardine in a can. Anyway, you can imagine my delight when a friend suggested a group of us went to see the film Hidden Figures earlier this week, pictured left.

“Come to the Dominion for 7pm”, she said – and then added: “We’re going First Class.”

Obviously I thought she might have lost her marbles, but duly turned up at the appointed hour.

Well, her marbles were well and truly where they should have been. We were ushered into the First Class cinema through swags of velvet curtain with fresh flowers at the entrance.

Inside there were rows of leather sofas, all of which reclined, as well as tables with Pringles and mini chocolates beside each one. Having parked my backside an usher appeared with a menu which offered food and myriad drinks, including three different types of gin. No wonder the auditorium was so full at least half an hour before the film actually started. It was a lot more comfortable than sitting around at home.

This, I imagine, must be one of the most luxurious cinematic experiences in the country – so much leg room and no numb bum in Morningside, let me tell you.

So the next time someone complains that life is dull and the world is homogenised, send them to the Dominion at Newbattle Terrace. The film is pretty good as well.