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film · Wednesday 19 August 2026 · TBD 
Colin Bateman Season: Driven
At The Court House · Bangor, Co. Down
At The Court House · Bangor, Co. Down
If you have ever wondered how John DeLorean’s doomed car company ended in a California drug sting, this is the evening that explains it properly - and from someone who actually wrote the screenplay. Colin Bateman, one of Northern Ireland’s best-known comic novelists and screenwriters, introduces a screening of his film Driven at The Court House in Bangor, then takes questions from the audience afterwards. It is part of a dedicated Colin Bateman Season at the annual Open House Festival, and it suits anyone who enjoys film with proper context behind it: the kind of evening where you leave knowing far more than you arrived with.
Driven is a true-story comedy set in the early 1980s, following the unlikely friendship between automotive entrepreneur John DeLorean and Jim Hoffman, a charming ex-con who was working as an FBI informant. The film runs 1 hour 48 minutes and covers the opulent rise and spectacular collapse of the DeLorean Motor Company - drugs, diesel, and one of the strangest corporate scandals of the decade.
What lifts this above a standard cinema night is Bateman himself. He introduces the film before it starts, giving context to the adaptation and his approach to the material - a wickedly comic take on a story that is almost too strange to be true. The post-film Q&A is where it gets interesting: audience questions, a writer who is relaxed and funny in conversation, and the chance to find out how a Belfast novelist ended up translating that particular chapter of American history to screen.
The screening takes place in the Court Room at The Court House - theatre-style seating, so a proper sit-down experience rather than a multiplex setup. The venue is an independent, non-profit arts space on Bangor seafront, restored with Heritage Lottery Fund support and now the closest thing the town has to a cultural centre.
Tickets are £8 including booking fees. The event is strictly 18+.
Bangor is about 16 miles east of Belfast on the southern shore of Belfast Lough, well connected by public transport. Trains run frequently from Belfast Great Victoria Street and Belfast Lanyon Place - the journey takes roughly 30 minutes and deposits you close to the town centre. Ulsterbus services also connect Bangor with surrounding towns across Co. Down.
The Court House is at 16 Quay Street, right on Bangor seafront - a short walk from the train station. If you are driving, there is pay-and-display parking along the seafront and in town centre car parks nearby.
The town’s seafront makes an easy before-or-after stop - the marina, the castle grounds, and a string of independent cafes are all within a short walk of the venue. The Open House Festival runs across the whole of August, so there is likely other programming worth combining with this night out. There is more to see in Bangor and across Co. Down.
Heading to The Court House in Bangor? Down has plenty more to see. Read the Bangor area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.