Lockdown was hard for everyone in different ways, but for Beverley Dinerstein, a resident of Jericho, the lack of socialising was the most troublesome and challenging issue.

Once lockdown eased, Mrs. Dinerstein was ready to leave the house and interact with people. This prompted her to go on Nextdoor, an app for neighbours to connect and share information, and search for a film club in Jericho.

To her surprise, nothing of that sort existed and for a film fanatic like her, this meant taking matters into her own hands. She floated the idea of starting her own film club in Jericho on the app and received an overwhelmingly positive response from people, leading to the birth of Jericho Film Club.

Mrs. Dinerstein further added: “We already have 52 members, most of whom have signed up via the Nextdoor app. It has only been going for four weeks, and interest in joining the club is growing at an overwhelming rate.

“We meet once a week, usually on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening, preferably for the early evening show because that gives us time to chat about the film afterwards.

“Our meeting point is The Jericho Tavern, where we come together 30 minutes before the film and then again after the movie for further socialising.”

Membership to the club is free and open to everyone, irrespective of whether they are joining to socialise or for their love of films.

In fact, most people joining the club are middle-aged singles, who have found the film club a great way to meet like-minded people, according to Mrs. Dinerstein.

She said: “Most people that come along are singles. It's very middle aged. I would say the majority of people tend to be kind of 50 plus singles, there are a couple of people who come as couples, married couples, but the rest tend to be singles.

“Well, I mean, we did have one young lady, she was in her early 20s. So far, it's only been four weeks, as I said, each week, there's been around 11-12 people at the cinema and numbers will keep increasing once people are back from their holidays.”

One of the members of Jericho Film Club is award-winning author Adrian Mourby, who has written several books including Rooms of One’s Own, which was highly commended as Narrative Travel Book of the Year by the British Guild of Travel Writers in 2019.

Mr. Mourby and his wife Kate, who met through their shared their love for film, joined the club after finding out about it through Nextdoor and it has already become an integral part of their social life, according to him.

He said: “We used to go to Phoenix most weeks and missed our movie nights during all these lockdowns so this was just the perfect stimulus we absolutely needed to return.

“Kate and I have previously been part of three book groups since living here. But book groups require you to invest a huge amount of time reading a book you may not even like, only to find out that the person who chose it didn’t like it that much either!

“By contrast, we head to the Phoenix and emerge two hours later with so much to talk about.”

The success of Jericho Film Club in such a short span of time has not gone unnoticed by the Phoenix Cinema management, the preferred venue for the club’s film viewings.

Mrs. Dinerstein says that management is looking at providing some incentive and support to club members. She said: “I spoke to the assistant manager there to look into incentives they can provide us like maybe a free drink or something.

“She said she’s already in contact with the manager to see what they can do for us, so they're well aware of the club.

“She did offer to open up the bar for us. But at the moment, because of Covid, we're all meeting in the Jericho garden so that we don’t have to socialise indoors.”

However, until the cinema management come up with something, Mrs. Dinerstein recommends club members to sign up to the cinema’s membership in order to make long term savings.

By signing up to the cinema’s membership, one receives four free tickets to the cinema, following which they continue to receive 20 per cent discount on all purchases. ‘It is basically paying for itself’ claimed Mrs. Dinerstein.

Members of the club are added to a WhatsApp group where they can discuss their thoughts and ideas on films they’ve recently seen, in order to keep conversations going throughout the week and maintain that social atmosphere.

Communication for all weekly gatherings are posted on Nextdoor and for those looking to get involved with the film club, email jerichofilmclub@gmail.com for more information.