Planet Of The Videotapes...

Lockdown boom in nostalgia gives Britain’s last video rental shop a boost

- Amanda Killelea

It was as an eight-year-old watching Ghostbusters that Andy Johnson became hooked.

The highlight of his week was soon a trip to the local video shop with his dad to get his hands on the week’s latest film release and the obligatory bag of popcorn.

Since then the film buff has amassed a collection of more than 10,000 VHS tapes, some of which are so rare they are worth £500 each.

But with the advent of DVDs, then satellite TV and movies on-demand, Andy’s mates thought he was mad when two years ago he decided to turn his hobby into his dream job as he set up Britain’s last video shop.

Now it seems that dad-of-three Andy, 40, has had the last laugh, with nostalgic film fans travelling from across the globe to browse the racks of tapes in his Liverpool shop.

“I remember my dad bringing a copy of Ghostbusters home from the video shop and I watched it over and over again,” he says.

“My first job was in a video shop, and it has always been the favourite job I’d ever had. So two years ago when my wife wanted me to get rid of all my tapes to make more room for the kids, it gave me the push I needed to set up my shop.

“My friends and family were saying this won’t work, people don’t want videos any more. It was basically a need to preserve my collection outside of the marital home.