What did I do on Saturday night? I went to the pictures and heard some absolutely fabulous music.

It wasn't the cinema I visited. This happened at the Dome Concert Hall where The Sussex Symphony Orchestra was performing music from the movies at its annual charity bash.

It was something of a star-studded affair, with Sally Taylor, presenter of BBC South, and Christopher Timothy, former TV vet James Herriot, presently starring in daytime soap Doctors, as narrators.

Blonde soprano Joanna Appleby and tenor Andrew Rees were singing, helped along by young performers from the Sussex-based Shine Theatre Group.

As the music flowed stills from the films were shown on a big screen above the stage.

In a seamless display of exuberant and enthusiastic playing, the orchestra, under its conductor Mark Andrew James, showed just why some of the best music of the 20th and 21st Centuries has gone into film scores.

From The Keystone Kops of 1912 to the Lord Of The Rings in 2001, the orchestra gave us some of the most memorable movie music ever written and demonstrated how music can go a long way to making a film successful.

Among the highlights were Shine's Milly Upton singing Somewhere Over The Rainbow from The Wizard Of Oz; Andrew Rees and Joanna Appleby singing the theme song from Titanic; and Shine Theatre Group singing Do-Re-Mi from The Sound Of Music.

We were also treated to the tremendous music written by John Barry for the James Bond films, Bernard Herrman for Alfred Hitchcock's films and John Williams' rousing score from Star Wars.

And orchestra leader Brian Wright raised the hairs on the back of my neck with a haunting reading of the theme tune to Schindler's List.

Money was being raised for the Rockinghorse Appeal for The Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children in Brighton and for Macmillan Cancer Relief.