Alex B Cann column - Lights, camera, chewing 07/04/26

The Reel cinema chain has put a cat among the pigeons by opting to ban all food and drink brought into its screens that’s been bought elsewhere. If you’re a regular cinemagoer like me, you’ll be aware that the price of a bag of Revels or a large salted popcorn is on the eye-watering side, even with a loyalty discount via the likes of Cineworld Unlimited.

 Whilst I understand the chains’ need to make a bit of profit on these items, it does border on excessive at times, so I can understand why some families opt to bring their own snacks. For their part, Reel say the new policy is designed to “help maintain the cleanliness and condition of our screens and to provide a consistent experience for all customers”.

It’s led me to wonder if there should be food-free screenings, along the lines of the quiet coach on trains (although sadly a lot who book seats on the quiet coach don’t seem to understand the meaning of the word). Whilst I luckily don’t suffer from misophonia caused by loud eating, the pungent smell of a cinema hot dog or nachos slathered in fluorescent yellow cheese and salsa certainly doesn’t add to my cinema experience. Some chains even deliver pizzas and burgers to your sofa.

Is there a case for arguing that those who want to eat should just go for a meal? Are we so wedded to our appetites that we can’t go a couple of hours without stuffing our faces? Perhaps I’m being overly draconian, but I think there is a definite case for food-free screenings, for those who would like the option of being fully immersed in the movie and not someone slathering their way through a bag of Wine Gums within earshot.

Elsewhere this week, a new survey by HelloFresh and Scrub Daddy has found that a startling 20 per cent of us admit to serving food that’s fallen on the floor, in a new list of bad habits in the kitchen. I can possibly overlook eating ingredients while they cook (32%), as this is the chef’s privilege, but licking the spoon and continuing to use it when cooking for others (21%) is a definite cardinal culinary sin. Other confessions on the list include reusing dirty dishes to eat from for another meal (one in five actually do this!), and using clothes to dry dishes when there is no tea towel (15%). I’d say the latter is only acceptable when at a radio station, as most have particularly grim-looking tea towels (I would sadly include Tameside Radio in this hall of shame).

And in other important food news, most of us have a favourite flavour of ice cream, but chocolate remains the winner in every region of the UK, according to research by a Scottish ice cream parlour. They looked at 50 individual regions of the UK to see which flavours were most regularly searched, and chocolate tops caramel and vanilla to take the number one spot. My personal favourite, mint choc chip, finishes a lowly tenth. In my book, it’s definitely the most underrated.

Back to where we started: what is the worst food you could bring to the cinema? A Pot Noodle advert which runs relentlessly at Cineworld suggests it’s one of their snacks, and I do have awful memories of Chow Mein Pot Noodle smells wafting around our shared student house in Liverpool. Grim doesn’t begin to cover it. Lewis Connell, our intrepid sports journalist at this newspaper, once microwaved salmon in the Tameside Radio kitchen, and I’ve never let him forget it. I’d probably say any kind of seafood is off limits at the cinema, much as I’m a fan. If I ever became Prime Minister, I’d probably also introduce food-free carriages on trains, and fine anyone who puts their feet on the seats £100, rising incrementally for repeat offences.

Debrett’s, a leading UK authority on etiquette, have listed polite behaviours for the cinema. They include turning off your phone, eating considerately, minimising talking, and taking your rubbish out with you after the screening. If everyone followed these rules, it would be a much nicer experience. But with cinema audiences still down about 20% on pre-Covid levels, is this all a pipe dream? Are we collectively incapable of watching a film without going on our phones, given we all dual-screen at home? Is this stuff worth getting cross about, given all the other problems in the world? Answers on a postcard.