A PANTOMIME has been held to raise funds for a campaign to bring a former North-East cinema back to life.

For the second year running, the performers of the Talegate Theatre Company entertained hundreds of people at a pantomime in aid of the Empire Electric Palace Theatre charity.

The charity is aiming to re-open the Empire Electric Palace, in Crook, which is the oldest surviving purpose-built cinema in the North-East – with its remains practically untouched since it its closure in the late 1960s.

An evening performance of Dick Whittington at Crook, and a matinee at Wolsingham, were both almost sold out.

Cllr Anne Reed said: “The kids enjoyed it and I did too. I sang, I hissed and I booed, and I laughed till my sides ached.”

This year performances were subsidised by the Co-op’s local Community Fund, where one per cent of every member’s spend on own brand goods from freezers and flour, to funerals is donated to one of three local charities that you can select from online.

For more information about the charity’s campaign to restore the cinema, visit facebook.com/EmpireCrook or email info@eep-crook.org, or visit their website at eep-crook.org