THE magic of Tinseltown is coming to Machen as the village renowned for the completeness of its historical archive prepares to star in its own film.

Machen's story will be screened free in the village hall on October 22 with the entire village welcome to attend.

In the past, Machen has won praise for having the most historically complete record of its history but with long, lingering shots of the local post office and moody evocations of the one surviving gas lamp the filmed story of the village is poised to take local history into a new dimension.

"There have been two books, Machen Remembered and Machen

Revisited, together with a massive sound archive and a collection of almost 3,000 photographs and slides, said local historian Mrs Delphine Coleman.

"This year we are going for something completely different.

"The film has been produced under the aegis of Machen Remembered, which is our very active local history group.

"In the past we have put on two slide shows a year but we took the decision to come into the 21st century and shoot a film using the latest techniques.

"The story line is that a car drives through the village stopping at places of historical interest at which point an old slide from our archive is introduced.

"We have some intriguing little features included, such as the old gas lamp under the railway bridge and the village's old stone bridge.

"Machen had coal mining as early as 1307 and an iron forge by 1569 which later turned into the tinplating works in the 1820s which is in the can.

"In more recent years we were well known for the railway engine repair shop."

Retired businessman Dennis Spargo, who directed the film, said the film was an hour and 20 minutes long and had been put together using the latest gizmos.

"I'm an ideas man. I've had a strong interest in technical things ever since I was in the Royal Army Service Corps in the war," he said.

When the credits roll, the name of Bernard Smith will be prominent among them.

At almost 91 years of age Mr Smith, of The Crescent, Machen, could be the oldest stills man in the business.

"In fact I remember some of the earliest scenes in the film," he joked.

"I love films by Spielberg and all the rest which take you out of day-to-day reality.

"The film was a marvellous idea and shows that Machen is still with it."