A promotional film by Turners Film Productions for the Rank Organisation's Top Rank bingo franchises. The film, briefly introduced by Barbara Windsor, discusses the financial and security issues involved in operating a bingo hall, as well as the social aspects enjoyed by many of its players in the North East - especially women.  The film also examines the variety of buildings used for modern bingo halls: converted cinemas, purpose built out of town centres. The film opens with the Rank...

A promotional film by Turners Film Productions for the Rank Organisation's Top Rank bingo franchises. The film, briefly introduced by Barbara Windsor, discusses the financial and security issues involved in operating a bingo hall, as well as the social aspects enjoyed by many of its players in the North East - especially women.  The film also examines the variety of buildings used for modern bingo halls: converted cinemas, purpose built out of town centres. The film opens with the Rank Organisation company logo trailer, the Gongman, and Top Rank Bingo logo.  The introduction features an exterior view of an art deco Odeon or Gaumont cinema with billboards advertising The Top Rank Club and “Play the national bingo.” This is followed by interior shots of bingo in progress with a bingo caller on the cinema stage with a computerised board and large audience in the auditorium. Close-up of the computerised board.  A presenter attempts to blow bagpipes with a Scottish group. View of an auditorium full of bingo players with a man playing an electric harmonium in the foreground. A man waves from a Top Rank promotional double decker bus. Still of a Top Rank Bingo promotional hot air balloon.  A man shows a couple a banner advertising big prize money for Top Rank Club bingo winners. Barbara Windsor throws bingo tickets and fake money in the air shouting “Bingo!” Title: Top Rank Bingo logo. British Bingo at its Best Sound bite interviews with bingo players. Various shots of bingo players, many of them women, but some couples. Views of bingo hall interiors, crowded with people.  Interiors feature formica tables and neon lights. A male bingo caller stands at a lurid bingo console. A bingo crowd sit in an upper cinema circle marking their cards. Exterior shot of a Plaza cinema, followed by a succession of different bingo hall interiors in converted cinemas, ex-retail premises or purpose designed buildings.  Exterior shots of a Top Rank Social Club Bingo hall in a small converted cinema on a city high street and various clubs in the suburbs. A female bingo caller calls out the numbers generated on a computer screen to different sizes of audiences, some in vast cinema spaces with thousands of players, all eyes down. Two women arrive at a cinema to play bingo, driven there by a husband.  The women feature throughout the promotional film. Shots of special buses hired to drive groups to bingo sessions.  The two women show their members cards at the reception.  Close-up of the automatic ticket system dispensing an entrance ticket.  The rules for playing bingo are displayed on a notice board at the venue.  Women buy their bingo books and the players are welcomed into the bingo hall main area by the manager in a white tuxedo and black bow tie.  Four women cluster around a table with banquette style seating and study racing form in a newspaper. Two women take their seats at a table, one with a pint of Guinness, which she sips from.  In the background, cinema swag curtains frame a neon sign that reads “Play Bingo”. The session begins and the caller introduces the session from a console on stage. General interior view of the converted cinema space.  The caller reads the numbers from an electronic numbers board driven by a random numbers generator. Close up of the monitor, keyboard.  Shots of the old style multicolored ping pong ball blower system are contrasted with the new random number computer generated display board.  Numbers called appear on TV monitors around the bingo hall.  Various players ring numbers on their bingo cards.  A woman happily shouts out “House” waving to staff.  The winning claim is checked at the player’s table using a radio microphone.  Various shots of the computer screens and display board running through checks of numbers. Extract from a Top Rank Bingo dramatized training film, "Trust and Temptation", where an employee expresses remorse for his dishonest behaviour. Staff train on the bingo hall computer system. During an interval bingo club members buy food at the cafeteria and alcoholic drinks at the club bar.  Shot of a woman sipping from a plastic cup and a close-up of a plate of scampi and chips with a Bloody Mary. A male bingo caller in a red bow tie calls out numbers in the national game held in the evening. Shots of the computerised link are intercut with shots of both women and men playing bingo. A woman calls out full house and her numbers are checked. Portrait shots of female caller and of the electronic harmonium musician.  A troop of Scottish bagpipe players enter a bingo hall to liven up the evening. Callers and players settle down for the second session, and winners have their numbers security checked.  Winners collect their prize money in a separate room. At the end of the bingo session, some players stay on and play the mechanized version of bingo or the fruit machines. Bingo club members leave the club, the majority women.  One woman is walked to a taxi, the commentary stating that winners are encouraged by managers to do so. High angle shot of the converted cinema bingo hall auditorium.  Close-up of a neon Bingo sign and a scrolling electronic ticker reading out: “Innocent, harmless amusement.” Shot of the rules displayed on the notice board.  Close-up of a survey by Leeds University titled “Women, Leisure and Bingo.” Interview sound bites with women players and a couple who praise bingo as a social event, (the same interviewees seen at the beginning of the film). Credit: Produced for Top Rank Limited, London, England [over exterior of Plaza cinema bingo hall.] Credit: By Turners Film & Video Productions, Newcastle upon Tyne, England Credit: Top Rank Bingo logo