Oh yes. This was what cinema was all about for my generation. A snack-pack on arrival, a pre-film entertainer (balloon animals were my thing) and the latest Disney creation; who needed the summer holidays? Saturday morning was what it was all about and it came but once a week.

There’s no doubt about it; cinema ain’t what it used to be. What with new and improved seating, 3D films assaulting your retinas and more snacks then you can shake your expanding belly at, going to the flicks has become somewhat different to that of our forefathers. So who’s for an extra-crispy, oven-roasted, honey-glazed, menagerie of cinema with extra sprinkles, all topped with a quails egg?

Along with the rest of the country, we’ve been poleaxed by the news that [SPOILERS] Frances won last night’s Great British Bake Off final ahead of Ruby and Kimberley, both of whom have consistently baked her into a cocked hat for the last two months. If such a miscarriage of yeasty justice can be allowed to occur on the Beeb, then where does it end? Well, with this blog.

Where’s better to spend your hard earned English pounds to watch a film of an evening? A large commercial cinema with a gargantuan screen, copious amounts of food and customers who can’t put their phones away for a single second; or a smaller independent cinema that boasts a serious love for film and occasionally provides free tea because the heating’s knackered? This BFF writer leaps into a very important debate on the matter- WITH HERSELF.

Future Cinema, the geniuses behind Secret Cinema, present a night at Rick’s Café Américain in the vivid world of 1940s Casablanca. The night was a spectacular success, gloating a swingin’ band, glamorous singers and, of course, piano-playing Sam and chess-playing Rick. Future Cinema successfully managed to fuse cinema and theatre in one astounding re-enactment of the one of the greatest films of all time. Gentlemen, pop your collars. Ladies, fans at the ready, as Rick welcomes you into the most famous and exclusive nightclub in all of Casablanca.

In a bid to jump on the festive bandwagon, outré film fans Hot Tub Cinema have begun a week of extra-special Christmas movies in their ultra-luxurious settings. We sent along seasoned BFFer and bubble fan Kayleigh to see if the place really lived up to the hype. Would she find herself immersed in a relaxing pool, amidst refined company and carefully sipping from a flute of champagne as a movie merrily played out on the screen before her? Or was this going to be more no no no than ho ho ho…?

Kicking off their winter season this week, Hot Tub Cinema is back with a vengeance. Keeping Londoners warm and wet whilst screening classics old and new for our fleshy pleasure, Hot Tub Cinema stands alongside old favourites like Nomad and Secret Cinema as one of the capital’s foremost innovations of unusual nights at the pictures. What could be more enjoyable than spending the evening with your bits submerged in the close proximity of strangers? NOTHING. But is the idea simply too good to be true?

You want to try this Secret Cinema thing, don’t you? You quite fancy it? Think it might be a bit of a lark? Thirty quid’s a lot of money though, isn’t it? And you’re terrible with strangers, and with surprises and with paying thirty quid for something. Maybe you should just sit at home with your socks on, watching Peter Andre: My Life. NO. You’re doing this, dammit, and we’re going to show you how. Introducing our guide to joining the ranks of the ever-wonderful Secret Cinema – it’s OK, we’re here now.

After a distressingly long absence from our – well, not our screens exactly, but our derelict warehouses – Secret Cinema is back with its biggest every event, running for a full month here in London. And it starts this week. Thank God it’s Monday!

WE HEART YOU SECRET CINEMA EVEN IF YOU DO COST ALL THE MONEY