YOUNGSTERS at a Worthing cinema were exposed to scenes of swearing and full-frontal nudity after a film mix-up.

Around 180 young cinema-goers and their parents, including three birthday parties, were expecting to see the Certificate PG film Rainbow. It is a children's feature starring Bob Hoskins, and was due to be screened at the Connaught Cinema on Saturday morning. But instead children as young as six sat horrified as The Rainbow, D.H. Lawrence's earthy story of female sexual awakening, was shown instead. The Certificate 15 film, starring Amanda Donohoe, Paul McGann and Glenda Jackson, shows women kissing, full-frontal female nudity and bad language all in the first 15 minutes. The curtain came down on the saucy celluloid romps when staff realised there had been a mistake. Michelle Provette had taken her son, Jamie, and nine of his friends for a party to celebrate his seventh birthday, which was yesterday. She had also paid for a party meal upstairs in the theatre bar for all the children afterwards. Miss Provette, 26, of Tarring, Worthing, said: "I thought the film was a bit strange when it started. "But I knew something was up when the characters started swearing and stripping off. "One man went to complain and when he came back these naked women were kissing on-screen. "He just clapped his hands and told his girls to get out - he was very angry. "The place was in uproar. Parents were walking out in disgust - it was just bedlam in there." David Smith, general manager at the Connaught Theatre, said that although the cinema had booked the correct film, the wrong one had been sent. Crucially, it had not been checked by cinema staff before screening. He said: "There was bad language and scenes wholly unsuitable for children, and we are acutely aware that this distressed a lot of them. "There was a chain of errors right from the wrong film being delivered, but we take full responsibility for what happened afterwards." He said a full apology and refund would be given to parents and they and their children would be given the chance to come back another time free of charge.