Mobile cinema built in the 1960s sells on eBay for £120,000

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-32792689

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A mobile cinema, the "sole survivor" of seven commissioned by the government in the 1960s, has been sold for nearly 100 times the price its owners paid.

The rusty Bedford was discovered in a field in Essex and bought for just £1,200 in 2005 by Emma Giffard and Ollie Hall, from Wookey, Somerset.

The couple spent five years and £35,000 painstakingly restoring it before taking the 22-seat cinema on tour.

Posted on eBay a month ago, the bus has now been sold for "close to £120,000".

It was one of a fleet of custom-built cinemas commissioned by the Ministry of Technology for £1m.

They toured the country's factories, showing promotional films about modernisation.

In 1974, the government sold them off and by 1990 the last bus - with just 11,000 miles on the clock - was left in a field with a seized engine and no gearbox before it was bought by the couple.

"It was hopeless optimism," said Mr Hall.

"I didn't have a clue how to repair it and by the time I'd spent £15,000 on it, it didn't look any different."

By 2010, however, it was back on the road with a new projector housed in its plastic dome.

"It's reasonably easy to drive, although the mileage is still under 18,000," said Mr Hall.

Featured on BBC2's The Reel History of Britain with Melvyn Bragg and on George Clarke's Amazing Spaces, the "one-off vehicle" was sold with the original "unrestored" trailer it was built to tow.

"I was tempted to rebuild the trailer but when the day came, I didn't have it in me - it was too big a job," he said.

"But the new owner is going to convert it into a cocktail bar and continue to use the cinema, so it's in safe hands."