WHENEVER Graham Burrett fancies a trip to the cinema, he just has to make the short walk to his shed.

That's because the 51-year-old film fan from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, has recreated the magic of the movies in his own back garden.

Complete with projector, big screen and even genuine tip-up cinema seats, the shed has been transformed into a mini-picture house.

Mr Burrett's fascination with films began when he was a child.

He said: "When I was a kid, my grandad bought me a toy projector.

"You had to literally go in the coal cupboard to watch it because it only had a little torch bulb.

"As I got older I went up to a proper sound projector, but when I got married and had kids I let it go because I couldn't afford it."

Mr Burrett rekindled his hobby about 20 years ago and when he moved to Newton Aycliffe he decided on a more ambitious project.

He said: "In different houses I lived in, I always had the projector indoors by knocking holes in walls for a porthole, but you could only watch films when nobody was watching the telly.

"I was restricted to when I could show my films, so when I got this house I thought, if I built a shed I could watch them when I like."

He set to work, building the shed out of old doors. He installed his projector, a Fumeo 900 with a xenon lamp which he bought via the Internet, and decorated the inside to look like a genuine theatre.

He added his own features, such as motorised curtains for the screen and film posters.

But the finishing touch came when he learned that a friend had salvaged some seats from the old Robins cinema in Durham, which were about to be replaced and thrown out.

Now he has his own fully-furnished and working cinema in which he often entertains friends.

Mr Burrett has about 30 feature films, ranging from Mr Ace, a 1940s movie with George Raft, up to the 1990s classic Silence of the Lambs.

Other titles include The Krays, Superman and Airplane and he also has a range of Laurel and Hardy shorts.

The movies themselves are the most expensive element of his hobby because the 16mm films are no longer readily available - he recently paid £300 for a copy of Pinocchio.

Mr Burrett shares his hobby with other enthusiasts - he knows of a man in Ferryhill with a home cinema in his loft - and sometimes attends conventions which are held around the country.

He said: "I've got DVDs and all that at home, but I watch films in my cinema that I would never dream of watching on telly. It just seems different in here.

"It's not only watching the films I like, it's the mechanics of the projector and everything. It's just a hobby, but I must admit it's an unusual one."