The Wonder Cinema
Take a trip from The Wizard of Oz to Reservoir Dogs in the Wonder Cinema of Ireland, the Ritz, Belfast. Join hosts, filmmaker Brian Henry Martin and cinema historian Dr. Sam Manning in a new six-part series exploring the remarkable story of a long lost super cinema.
Episodes
10 episodes
Ep 8: The Ritz, Belfast - LIVE with 88th birthday cake at the Belfast Film Festival
In this special episode of The Wonder Cinema Podcast, recorded live from the Black Box at the 2024 Belfast Film Festival, hosts Brian Henry Martin and Dr Sam Manning celebrate the 88th birthday of the Ritz, which first opened its doors...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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59:20
Bonus Episode: Mark Kermode shares his favourite cinemas in London, Cornwall and Belfast
In this bonus edition of the podcast, Brian chats with old friend and the UK's No 1 film critic Mark Kermode at the Cinemagic Festival in Belfast. Mark shares his love for the Phoenix Cinema in London, the Plaza Cinema in Truro and...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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19:14
Ritz Day LIVE EVENT at the Belfast Film Festival 2024
Join Brian Henry Martin and Dr. Sam Manning, hosts of The Wonder Cinema podcast, to celebrate the 88th anniversary of the Ritz, Belfast’s long-lost picture palace. If you have memories of the Ritz, come along and let us know. Enjoy a s...
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1:11
Ep 6: The Ritz, Belfast - 1990s End Game, The Vanishing and Spielberg's Fax
In the sixth episode of the Wonder Cinema podcast, we look at how the ABC reimagined and reinvented itself in the 1980s, before eventually shutting its doors for the final time in 1993.Following the 1977 firebomb, the ABC remained close...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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31:15
Ep 5: The Ritz, Belfast - Cinema in flames! Jaws, The Exorcist and the Troubles.
In the fifth episode of the Wonder Cinema podcast, we go back to the 1970s. This was a difficult decade for cinema exhibitors across Britain and Ireland, but especially so in Belfast, a city that also had to navigate the civil unrest of the Tro...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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30:34
Ep 4: The Ritz, Belfast - 1960s Pop Invasion, The Beatles and the Biblical Flood
In the fourth episode of the Wonder Cinema podcast, we look at how the Ritz responded to the explosion of youth culture in the 1960s and hosted some of the world's biggest musical acts.As audiences continued to fall in the 1960s, cinema...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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30:46
Ep 3: The Ritz, Belfast - 1950s Spectacle, Spectacles and Cary Grant's Shillelagh
In the third episode of the Wonder Cinema podcast, we look at how the Ritz coped with the challenges of the 1950s using spectacle, spectacles and even a Shillelagh.Cinema attendance peaked after the Second World War, but the 1950s brough...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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30:18
Ep 2: The Ritz, Belfast - It's Showtime Folks! Cinema Food, WW2 and the Mighty Organ
In the second episode of the Wonder Cinema podcast, we explore what it was like to go the Ritz during the height of cinema attendance in the 1930s and 1940s. How much did it cost and what awaited visitors when they moved from the pay boxes to t...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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31:55
Ep 1: The Ritz, Belfast - 1930s Cinema Boom, the Grand Opening and Gracie Fields
In the first episode of the Wonder Cinema podcast we go back to the 1930s to discuss the cinema boom and the grand opening of the Ritz, Belfast’s largest and most upmarket cinema.Cinema attendance grew rapidly in the 1930s and the Ritz, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 1
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30:57