A very fortunate 160 people were the first in the country to see the exclusive advanced screening of ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry’ directed by Hettie Macdonald and starring Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton when it was shown at the Merlin Cinema in Kingsbridge on Wednesday April 26.

The audience was a mixture of invited guests and other local people.

There was no red carpet, that was reserved for the premiere the following evening in London.

This was a thank you to local people for providing one of the main locations and although the cast weren’t there. There were a couple of non-executive producers and distributers who were invited.

Head of Operations Alex Jones said: “It’s not the first exclusive showing in recent times.

Last year the Netflix production of Matilda the Musical was upscaled for the big screen and one of the producers lived in Salcombe.

Up until that point they had only seen it on laptops but not on the big screen so a very select 20 people came to watch it here.

‘‘They were able to make the necessary adjustments before the film was released to the public.

‘’The new Harold Fry film is in much better quality as it was shot on CinemaScope Panavision.

It was shown under strictly controlled conditions with an electronic ‘key’ restricting the showing to the specific screen and projector.

Everything is done digitally these days which means the film companies can control every aspect of where and when their material is shown.

After the special showing the key expired meaning it couldn’t be repeated.

The film went on general release on Friday April 28.

It is based on the six-million copy worldwide best-selling novel by Rachel Joyce.

It started off as a radio play and was expanded into the 2012 Booker-listed work.

The plot is that a seemingly unremarkable man in his 60s named Harold one day learns his old friend Queenie is dying.

He sets off to post her a letter but then realises it is not enough.

He embarks on a walk from Kingsbridge, only to keep going for 500 miles just wearing boat shoes until he reaches Queenie’s hospice at Berwick-upon-Tweed, much to the despair of his wife.

Queenie makes a brief appearance played by Linda Bassett.

It is the story of the human desire to help one other.

The postbox used was next to the Fika Coffee House.

Alex said: ‘’Harold was a bit like a male version of Shirley Valentine without the romance. It was an epiphany and he and his wife Maureen were quite like Victor and Margaret Meldrew. Harold got rid of his bank cards, washed himselves in streams and slept on bales of hay.

During the course of his journey he started getting famous and people were following him.

It was a bittersweet story with flashbacks involving the couple’s son David played by Earl Cave falling into drug addiction.

Jim Broadbent has appeared in many films over the years including Harry Potter, The Iron Lady, Moulin Rouge and Gangs of New York.

Penelope Wilton starred opposite Richard Briers in the BBC’s Ever Decreasing Circles, other work included playing Isobel Crawley in Downton Abbey and Homily in The Borrowers.

Although Kingsbridge is the main local location, Loddiswell and South Brent are also included as well as Higher Dean.

General Manager of the cinema Jacob Stone said: “We expect this to be the biggest film of the year at our Kingsbridge Cinema even though we’re expecting stiff competition.”

The Kings Cinema is in what used to be the Town Hall on Fore Street.

The building was designed in a neoclassical style and completed in 1850.

It was arcaded on the ground floor so that butter and poultry could be sold.

The cinema was taken over by Merlin Cinemas in 2014 and doubled the number of admissions in a year from 25,000 to 50,000. The company owns 17 cinemas and all of them are in coastal or country locations.