SUPPORTERS of Bournemouth's world-renowned ape expert Jane Goodall have been lobbying without success to get the town's IMAX cinema to show a film about her work.

They fear the scientist and peace campaigner - who is a celebrity across the US and was made a dame earlier this year - is being ignored in her home town.

The giant-screen film Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees has been acclaimed around the world but campaigners have been frustrated in their efforts to get it taken up in the UK.

In its newsletter, the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) in the UK urged supporters to write in support of its efforts to get the film shown.

The Glasgow Science Centre has since decided to show the film and Bristol's IMAX will screen it in October as part of a festival.

Mary Lewis, vice president of outreach at the Jane Goodall Institute, said: "We're talking about an award-wining film from somebody who's spent her entire life here, who is the world's leading authority on primates and it simply doesn't make sense.

"Why doesn't Bournemouth honour Jane for her DBE? Could it not be linked to a showing of this film?"

The JGI's newsletter says IMAX cinemas in the UK have said they would not book the film because they did not think it would make a profit.

Claire Quarrendon of JGI-UK said: "We're waiting for some figures from Glasgow Science Centre so hopefully we can persuade people."

Dr Goodall, 70, is the world's leading expert on chimpanzees and was appointed a United Nations Messenger for Peace by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. When in Britain, she lives in a house on Bournemouth's West Cliff that belonged to her parents.

Her research into chimpanzees at Gombe in Tanzania is still running after 45 years - making it the longest on-going field study in the world. Her discoveries included the observation that chimpanzees fashioned tools and engaged in "warfare".

Nobody from the Sheridan IMAX at Bournemouth was available for comment.

First published: August 19