Toast - Series 7: EasyCinema
episodePreviously titled “Toast - EasyCinema” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 27, 2026
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K-Ruoka verkkokauppa. Sitä saa enemmän kuin mitä tilaa. Hei, täällähän onkin vanhoja juomatuttuja. Morjens! Ei olla koskaan nähty. Eikö? No keitä te sitten ootte? Me ollaan uutuusjuomii. Jaha. No mistä te tuutte sitten? No S-Marketista tietysti. Elämä on ruokaa. S-Market.
Hello and welcome to Toast, the BBC Radio 4 series which celebrates amazing business ideas that promised a lot to customers yet somehow still ended up toast. I'm the BBC business journalist, Sean Farrington. With me is our resident entrepreneur, Sam White. Sam, as you well know, has no idea what's coming up. So her response and conclusions, they're off the cuff. They're authentic. She's hearing what you're hearing and coming to conclusions off the back of all that. This time... We're off to the movies, hearing how one of Britain's best-known businessmen tried to shake up the cinema industry. Sam, hello.
Hey, hey, how are you?
I'm well, thank you. Got a few questions for you. Do you like going to the cinema?
I do.
Good. Have you ever been to Milton Keynes?
I have been to Milton Keynes, although not to Milton Keynes Cinema.
Oh, well. What were you doing back in May 2003?
I was probably out drinking in Milton Keynes and not in the cinema.
Well, who knows? The stars may have aligned because back then there was a new type of cinema that opened in Milton Keynes. Relatively few staff, no popcorn sold, no snacks. It was painted bright orange. It was a new child in a growing family of brands that operated under one specific name that had been very successful in the airline industry.
Ooh. So is that Virgin?
What innovative cinema concept did Stelios Haji-Iannou introduce?
No, it's not. No, it's EasyJet. Yes.
No! So, yeah, this is the Easy Group, EasyJet. There were businesses galore over the years under that Easy name. The most famous parent, of course, being EasyJet. So this was called... EasyJet Cinema?
No!
OK.
You aren't getting in the marketing team. This was easy cinema. You were nearly there. Easy cinema. And so, Sam, this one, it was a bit of a flash in the pan. I'm guessing you haven't heard of this one.
I have not heard of this one. Were the seats too small?
Well, let us see exactly where the idea came from. I've been speaking to Stelios, the EasyJet and Easy Cinema, as it happens, founder. We're going to hear that interview in a bit. But first, let's bring in our other guests. Angela Chan is Professor of Creative Industries at Royal Holloway University of London. But back in 2003, she was a BBC producer and director who made a fly-on-the-wall TV documentary about the launch of Easy Cinema. Angela, hello. Welcome to Toast.
Hello, Sean. Hello, Sam. Hey.
And because we've got Angela on, we also had to get Stuart Niblock on. She was following Stuart around with a camera because he was then Easy Group's head of new projects, responsible for getting the cinema refurbished and open on time. Stuart, hello to you as well. Thank you for joining us on Toast.
Hello.
Angela, put this in a bit of context for us. Take us back to 2003. What the cinema industry was like back then.
Well, Sean, the cinema was still the place to go for the latest Hollywood blockbuster. But cinemas were starting to get pricey. We'd seen Cineworld arrive. They were supersizing your popcorn. And the home market was still DVDs or even video rental. Love Film was sending you DVDs in the post. Netflix had come on the scene. But they weren't streaming until four years after that. So, you know, this was a particular moment in time that it's hard for us to get in touch with. You know, we didn't have smartphones yet. And online purchasing wasn't normal. So what Stelios was doing was really quite radical.
What was it that made you think the launch of Easy Cinema might be good for a TV documentary?
We were making a series called Trouble at the Top. And of course, when you're making an observational documentary, you spend a lot of time following people around looking for trouble. But Stelios loved trouble. So, you know, it became a dance with him where he was trying to think up good stunts for us to film.
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