The right call!
BT won’t hang up on movie’s famous red phone box
IT became an unlikely tourist attraction after featuring in the hit movie Local Hero.
But the iconic red phone box in Pennan, Aberdeenshire, had been under threat of disconnection due to a dwindling number of calls.
Now, however, a global campaign and petition has managed to save the famous kiosk.
The village featured in the 1983 movie directed by Bill Forsyth and starring Burt Lancaster. In the film, representatives of a US petrochemical giant aiming to buy up property rights and build a refinery are won over by the locals.
The phone box is used by one of the characters to update his bosses in America – leading to it becoming a shrine for movie lovers.
BT proposed disconnecting the phone following a ‘huge drop’ in calls, but more than 200 film fans and residents signed a petition pressing for it to be saved. Some called BT’s idea ‘cultural vandalism’.
Monika Focht, who runs the Pennan Inn, which also features in the film, said: ‘Some of our guests come especially to see the phone box because they love the movie.
‘One guy from Poland came all the way on his motorbike and started crying when he saw it.
‘People like to actually make calls from it all over the world, just like the movie. It’s really Pennan connecting the whole world.’
She added: ‘It’s very important, though. There are a lot of holiday homes in Pennan that don’t have landlines and the mobile phone signal is not very good.’
BT launched a consultation earlier this year about the Pennan payphone, as well as the ones in nearby Crovie and Portsoy.
The consultation ends on November 24 but local councillor Mark Findlater has now reported that BT has changed its mind about the closures.
He said: ‘It has plainly been down to the efforts of local people. These unassuming red boxes have a practical function in coastal communities, for example 999 calls because the mobile signal is so patchy.
‘Tourists also love them as much as the residents.’
BT said: ‘If the council says there is still a need for a payphone service... it will stay. We always abide by the decision that a local authority makes.’
The red kiosk is not actually the one that featured in the movie – a replica was made for filming purposes. But despite the discrepancy, movie fans travel to Pennan in order to use the real phone box to recreate scenes from the celebrated film.