I scaled up my garage home cinema to a 470-seat movie theatre

For as long as Tristan Campbell can remember, he has loved the movies.

He has a home cinema in his garage in Elgin but, over the past few years, he has embarked on a project which will see him "scale it up a bit".

In the very near future, he hopes to reopen the 470-seater former Odeon in Dumfries, a venue that closed its doors in 2018, leaving the town without a large-scale cinema.

As side hustles go, they do not come much more ambitious than this.

He is not alone, of course, in his love of film theatres of a certain vintage.

In Prestwick, the community has taken over the Broadway Cinema and is working to bringing it back to its former use.

At a much earlier stage is The Vogue in Glasgow's Possilpark, which was recently saved from demolition but faces an uncertain future.

Stepping back inside the Dumfries venue, it is easy to understand people's fascination with "the pictures".

The main auditorium is so well preserved you would not be surprised to see a choc ice seller tempting you into buying some treats.

Work has been going on for months - much longer than Tristan expected - to bring the facility back into use.

However, the signs went up on the building front this week and he is now hopeful the grand opening is not too far away.

Tristan fell in love with the well-preserved Dumfries site straight away but, instead of the matter of weeks he hoped for, it has taken two years to reach a point where reopening is "not far away".

It's a real passion project for a man who grew up in Northern Ireland and now works as a whisky distiller in Speyside.

"It started, I suppose, when I was a kid and going to my local cinema which I enjoyed," he explained.

"It was the Palladium Cinema in Coleraine and then the local multiplex opened up and the cinema that I enjoyed going to went over to bingo, as many of them do.

"The multiplex just wasn't the same for me - there wasn't the same sense of occasion."

So he set out to find a place that could take you back to that era - having already dipped his toes in the water at home.

"I converted my garage into a cinema - I suppose it was like the trial run," he said.

"So if my wife and I fancy watching a film, the neighbours must wonder - what are they up to?

"They'll see us taking a tray each with our dinner out to the garage and closing the door."

Despite the time it has taken, he has enjoyed support from the local community.

"To be honest, that's what's kept me going. It's been two very, very long and very difficult years," he admitted.

"There's been so many hurdles put in our way and so many delays to work getting done for various reasons.

"So it's that goodwill of the people in Dumfries that's kept me going, that's made me think let's persevere with this, it's worthwhile doing."

The staff have been in place for some time and are also ready to go - among their number is the Regal's general manager, Kelly Pritchard from Dumfries.

"I have so many memories of just growing up and being brought to the cinema," she said.

"My mum brought me to come see The Fellowship of the Ring and The Philosopher's Stone right here. I would have been five or six years old and just a massive screen in front of you - it blows your mind when you're that age."

She, too, has a lifelong love of cinema and is excited at the prospect of seeing the place reopen.

"I cannot wait to welcome people through the doors - like I said, it has been a long wait," she said.

Tristan said there had been lots of milestones along the way but the most significant was yet to come.

"The big one, I think, will definitely be opening night when there's bums on seats, there's a film on the screen, and I'll probably just collapse in a heap in the corner," he said.

And why does he think he can succeed where a big operator failed?

"It was actually working for Odeon, it just wasn't part of their core cinema estate," he said.

He said Dumfries "just didn't tick the boxes" for the way the company wanted to go.

"We hope to make it work even better by keeping that community feel about it and getting a real buzz about the place again," he said.

He pointed to Merlin Cinema's takeover of another former Odeon in Ayr as an example of what could be achieved.

"It absolutely can be done - it just needs the focus and the energy behind it," he said.

"It's an experience that you share with other people and you can't beat it."