4×4S.ORGTHE REGISTRY NAMED MODEL · 1970s
NAMED MODELSpecial · CommercialSpecial · Utility & HeavyUnited Kingdom

Series III Mobile Cinema.

A Series III 109 station wagon travelling cinema: one of the long-wheelbase Land Rovers converted to carry projection equipment, loudspeakers and a large roof-mounted screen for educational film shows in African villages, run by colonial and development information services.

Sources & evidence
BASE VEHICLESeries III 109″BUILT BYLand Rover (Series III 109 station wagon); cinema equipment fit by an unrecorded converterIN SERVICE1970sOPERATED INUnited KingdomPRODUCTIONUnknownLAYOUT4 wheels · 109″

The record

From the 1950s the information services of Britain's colonies and, later, development agencies ran mobile cinemas to reach villages with no electricity, showing health, agriculture and news films from a vehicle that carried everything needed: a 16 mm projector, a generator, horn loudspeakers and a screen that erected on the roof. Long-wheelbase Land Rovers were the natural choice because they could reach the villages in the first place, and Rover's special projects file records the travelling cinema conversion among them. The archive photograph shows a Series III 109 station wagon with its screen raised on the roof rack, two horn speakers mounted either side and the projectionist beside the film cans, reels, projector and generator laid out on the ground. Numbers built and the exact operators are not stated in the source.

The registry's model carries the projection kit of its Series I Cintec Cineroma — roof rack, roof-mounted screen, twin horn loudspeakers, projector, film cans and generator — on a Series III 109 station wagon in stone, as the queue asks; the screen can be released as cargo.

Specification

MANUFACTURERLand Rover (Series III 109 station wagon); cinema equipment fit by an unrecorded converter
MODIFIER / COACHBUILDERUnrecorded (mobile cinema conversion)
MANUFACTUREDSeries III era, 1970s (dates not stated in the source)
ENGINERover 2.25 L four-cylinder petrol or diesel (Series III 109; not stated in the source)
PRODUCTION RUNUnknown — a small batch of long-wheelbase conversions
COUNTRY OF ORIGINUnited Kingdom
OPERATED INUnited Kingdom
STATUSunknown
EQUIPMENTRoof rack with erecting screen, twin horn loudspeakers, 16 mm projector, generator, film cans
ROLETravelling cinema for educational film shows in villages
RECORD KINDNamed model
MODEL LINESeries III
WHEELS4
NOMINAL WHEELBASE109″
CATEGORYSpecial · Commercial, Special · Utility & Heavy

Catalogue fields describe the vehicle's structure and body as this registry records it. They are not certified factory measurements, and no performance figures are published here.

AI rendering impression

An AI rendering impression starts from a 3D model of this vehicle, which an image model then paints into a scene. It is an artist's impression of the type, made to give a feel for the vehicle in its element — not a photograph, and not a record of any particular vehicle.

Proportions, fittings, markings, colours and the setting can all drift from the original in the process. For the vehicle's actual details, rely on the specification, the photographs and the cited sources on this page.

Where it was

GB United Kingdom1972–1985 · Converted in the UK for overseas information services
  1. BuiltLand Rover, Lode Lane, SolihullUnited Kingdom · 1972 →52.43, -1.78

Sources

  1. 1Land Rover special projects — travelling cinema (winwaed.com Land Rover history) ↗winwaed.com · accessed 2026-09-11SOURCE
  2. 2A Series III travelling cinema with its screen raised — the reference this model was built from; linked only. ↗winwaed.com Land Rover history (archive photograph)IMAGE
  3. 3https://www.winwaed.com/landy/history/special_projects.phphttps://www.winwaed.com/landy/history/special_projects.php ↗REFERENCE

Registry record updated 2026-09-16T05:55:32.029Z · status: researched