Before the First World War, Mr Holden's father worked at the city's first cinema there, a fine building as it then was, with a roller-skating rink next door.


But sadly, Mr Holden's father, Charles John Holden, died just a few years later – a death which remained mysteriously unmentionable within the family, perhaps his mother's way of coping, perhaps a protection for young Leslie.


"I was five when he died," recalls Mr Holden, who celebrates his 94th birthday this June. "He died after the First World War in which he served. He was discharged by reason of rheumatism. He suffered with that.


"He had been educated at Chichester Grammar School, which was in North Street, and married my mother in 1911. I am told that he always did his best to support the family. He was brought up to a very decent life.
"He was very artistic. That's one certainty. I assume that's where I have got it from him. He was very much into the arts, and I assume that when the cinema was opened (in 1910), the job of stage manager was advertised. "

For full feature see West Sussex Gazette March 18