Bohemian Rhapsody offers epic night at Loxwood Drive-In Movies

On a weekend when the coronavirus situation was suddenly seeming so much worse again, Loxwood Drive-In Movies offered a precious few hours of blissful, safe and socially-distanced escape.

The Saturday and Sunday screening was The Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, a celebration of remarkable music and the even more remarkable story behind it all.

Adding to the fun was the fact that first we had half an hour with Tim Staffell, a man happy to describe himself “the bloke who left before they became famous.”

Tim was the frontman of the band Smile which went on to become Queen, except of course Tim had left by then, a story which is told at the start of the film – and a story which Tim was there to tell us in person in a great session projected onto the big screen.

Tim also delivered a selection of songs including Doin' Alright – a song which minutes later was featured in the film.

Chatting easily and answering texted-in audience questions, Tim offered the perfect appetiser for all that was to come – a film which demands a special setting in which to see it and a film which certainly got exactly that tonight.

Bohemian Rhapsody is gripping stuff on an epic scale – and Loxwood meadow on a beautiful summer’s evening, with all the novelty that drive-in movies still represent, was the perfect place to be.

The film is built around a remarkable performance from Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, a man who sensed himself destined for stardom and who delivered more than anyone could ever have imagined – but all at a cost, as the film shows.

In reinventing himself from the shy student he once was, Mercury inevitably lost himself for a while, becoming easy prey for the “fruit flies”, as he called, them, which soon surrounded him. The film celebrates his return, with Live Aid bringing him back into the band with the shadow of death hanging over him.

Of course, the film makes light of actual dates and timings to deliver us what it believes is a better story; and there’s something a bit irritating when you feel obliged to point out to your daughter in the car on the way home what the actual chronology of it all really was.

But maybe that’s missing the point: we can forgive the way the film plays fast and loose with fact; what it gives is a sense of just who Freddie Mercury was – and it does so brilliantly.

This was a hugely enjoyable evening – and so much of the credit must go to the Loxwood Drive-In Movies team. Yes, they have chosen some excellent films, but they would have meant nothing if the organisation had been chaotic.

It was anything but. Everything was slickly efficient, but just as importantly it was also incredibly friendly and welcoming. It was generously staffed by people who knew exactly what they were doing. The way we were shepherded off the site at the end, with absolutely minimal delay, was terrific.

In pictures

Loxwood Drive-In Movies have been the perfect response to the crisis, a new way to have fun safely in deeply troubling times – a great way to adapt.

Throughout the crisis, it has been fascinating to ponder which new things will remain should any kind of normality ever return; let’s hope that this new venture in Loxwood will return and return again. It has been perfect for these extraordinary times; how lovely it would be to experience it again in happier times in some distant future…

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