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North-east phone box made famous by Local Hero saved by movie fans and locals

Pennan and the Pennan telephone box are pictured.
Pictures by JASON HEDGES
Pennan and the Pennan telephone box are pictured. Pictures by JASON HEDGES

Campaigners in Aberdeenshire are celebrating after fighting to save a phone box made famous in the film Local Hero.

BT had proposed to disconnect the kiosk in Pennan from its network as calls from facilities across the north-east dwindled.

However, the move provoked outrage from film lovers eager to retain the red phone box known across the world from Local Hero.

A petition urging it to be saved was backed by hundreds from across the world.

Tears from Local Hero fans at phone box

Travelling to the red phone box to make calls from it is popular with visitors from across the globe.

However, locals have also raised the issue of poor mobile signal from the picturesque village.

More than 200 movie fans and residents came together to sign a petition pressing for it to be saved with some describing the proposals as “cultural vandalism”.

Monika Focht, who runs the Pennan Inn, which also features in the film, said: “Some of our guests come especially to see the phone box because they love the movie.

“For example, one guy from Poland came all the way on his motorbike and started crying when he saw it.

“People like to actually make calls from it all over the world, just like the movie. It’s really Pennan connecting the whole world.

“It’s very important though. There are a lot of holiday homes in Pennan that don’t have landlines and the mobile phone signal is not very good.”

Why was the phone box under threat?

BT launched a consultation earlier this year about the Pennan payphone, as well as the ones in nearby Crovie and in Portsoy.

The telecoms giant said there had been a “huge” drop in the number of calls from them.

However, if Aberdeenshire Council decided there was still a need for a payphone then they would remain.

Troup councillor Mark Findlater has now reported the firm has changed its mind about the closures.

Pennan and the Pennan telephone box are pictured.<br />Pictures by JASON HEDGES

He said: “It has plainly been down to the efforts of local people.

“These unassuming red boxes have a practical function in coastal communities, for example 999 calls because the mobile signal is so patchy.

“Tourists also love them as much as the residents.”

Aberdeenshire Council’s Banff and Buchan area manager, Angela Keith, said: “We know some members of the community will be very pleased with BT’s decision, having listened to their views, that the phone boxes should continue to operate.”

A BT spokesman said: “We know the Pennan payphone is an iconic and well-known phone box.

“If the council says there is still a need for a payphone service, or wants to adopt the box, it will stay.”

Why is the Local Hero phone box famous?

The Pennan phone box was made famous in the celebrated 1983 movie Local Hero.

It tells the story of a Texas-based businessman sent to the Highlands to secure land for a refinery.

Sequences of him calling his bosses from a phone box to report on his progress were filmed in Pennan.

However, the kiosk there today was not actually the one that featured in the movie with crews manufacturing a replica to have a nicer background for the scenes.

Despite the discrepancy, movie fans from across the world travel to Pennan to use the real phone box to recreate scenes from the celebrated film.

More memories of Local Hero under threat

‘It was like stepping into a movie’: Mark Kermode on why Banff’s Local Hero pub should be saved