WORCESTERSHIRE-born funnyman Alistair McGowan made a really big impression when he helped the town’s Regal cinema celebrate its 80th birthday.

The actor, comedian and impressionist, originally from Evesham, had audiences in fits of laughter at two sell-out performances.

The Regal’s manager Laurence Wiper introduced the evenings by telling audiences of the venue’s success since it reopened earlier this year.

He talked about the cinema’s most popular film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which has so far attracted about 10,000 visitors, representing nearly two per cent of the film’s total national audience.

Such success had meant the Regal had been able to secure such Hollywood blockbusters as Skyfall, the new James Bond movie, in its second week of release.

Mr Wiper then introduced two short films charting the Regal’s transformation over the past few years, the second of which related to its shortlisting by English Heritage as the best rescue of a heritage site.

Alistair McGowan, a former Evesham High School pupil, then took to the stage and entertained the audience for nearly two hours with his repertoire of impersonations in a show he wrote specially for the event.

The Regal originally opened on October 10, 1932, but was recently closed for a number of years before being re-opened by the Wiper family at the beginning of the year.