It is perhaps understandable that there are concerns about the fact that the National Media Museum in Bradford is in talks to bring in commercial cinema operators to run the museum’s cinema screens.

But we must remember that it was only this summer that the Media Museum was at risk of closure by its parent group the Science Museum Group, which was under pressure to cut costs ahead of a cut in Government funding scheduled for 2015.

The museum has three cinemas, which often form the focus for the various festivals held at the venue, and they have a reputation for showing movies the big multiplexes often shy away from – the arthouse or low-distribution films which are critically valued yet not always commercially successful.

So concerns from film fans in Bradford can be understood on this basis. But the staff at the Media Museum are film lovers themselves, and it is to be hoped that any deals struck with outside firms will not diminish the Media Museum’s unique position in this regard.

While there might be fears that a multiplex operator might want to shift the focus to more profitable blockbuster movies, Bradford is already well served in this respect and it would seem nonsensical to try to compete with custom-built facilities that have other entertainment such as restaurants on site.

Bradford is, after all, the City of Film and every effort must be made to ensure that the three cinemas – Pictureville, the Cubby Broccoli and, of course, the huge IMAX screen – continue to provide the individual and particular services for which they have become famous.