CINEMA saviours Louis and Sophie Mundin are unearthing parts of the Rex cinema’s history as work begins on its restoration.

The landmark building in the centre of Wilmslow is to open once again as a cinema after a gap of 23 years, news which was greeted with jubilation by townspeople when it was announced on Thursday.

Louis and his wife Sophie are looking to reopen the cinema as soon as possible, and have been overwhelmed by the support from the town and the number of people who have taken out Rex memberships.

They visited the cinema on Saturday to see how work was progressing, but spent most of their time chatting to residents about the reopening and handing out hundreds of leaflets.

“Wow! What a weekend, thank you to everyone who stopped by for a chat, collected a leaflet, reminisced and wished us well,” said Louis.

“It’s great to know you are behind us and we have 1,000 people who have already signed up for memberships - truly amazing, we are humbled.”

As work begins on giving the Rex a new lease of life Louis has discovered the metal Rex sign which was used on the canopy at the front of the cinema, and has saved the row ends from the 13 rows of cinema seats.

There were two blocks of seats, from letters A to M, each consisting of 13 rows of 13 seats, giving a total of 338 seats.

Louis said: “The recovered row ends are going away to be refurbished and used again as part of the new seating, and we are definitely going to feature the canopy sign somewhere.”

For more details on the reopening and the Mundin family visit rexcinemawilmslow.com