The  iconic film, Zulu – that has done so much to market the battlefields of our area to the world – marked its 50th anniversary yesterday with a  premiere of the new digitally re-mastered version in Lond.

Author and regular visitor to Dundee, Ian Knight, was there to share his thoughts on the big event:

So. Highlights of the evening?

Well, it was the first time I had seen ‘Zulu’ on a big screen since 1972, and it looked just glorious, beautifully restored in crisp and sumptuous colour. Mark Kermode gave a good presentation. Good to meet Lady Baker again, and to have an unexpected chance to chat to Dickie Owen (who played Schiess). Nice to see Sheldon Hall,Henry Coleman and the Die-Hards doing their stuff.

Celebs in the audience included Lionel Blair, Ian Hislop, Charlie Borman and Nick Knowles. Disappointments? Not being able to get close to Buthelezi, the rather unpleasant ‘them and us’ segregation of the toffs from the rest of us (some irony there when Michael Caine’s video contribution talked about how the film had given him the chance to break through the class barrier), and having to listen to Dan Snow making a bit of a hash of the history – I mean, c’mon, people, Dan Snow?

If we had to have a TV presenter rather than a historian (by which, of course, I mean me), couldn’t we at least have had Neil Oliver, who knows something about the subject? But, at the end of the day, the best bit? I managed to catch the last train home by the skin of my teeth …