A film featuring celebrities and Bradfordians should be made to help save the National Media Museum, a packed public meeting was told last night.

The suggestion was one of many to come out of the gathering at Bradford’s City Hall, including a rallying cry to get more children involved in the campaign to save the iconic museum.

Another idea was to form a human chain around the media museum, echoing what was done outside the Museum of Liverpool – which is also under threat from Government cuts – at the end of last month.

Last night, about 150 people gathered in the council chamber to hear Bradford Council leader David Green tell them what the latest news from the campaign was, and also to bounce ideas off each other.

The most popular proved to be the suggestion of a film featuring people talking about what the media museum means to them and how important it is to Bradford.

The idea started with a woman suggesting a video be put on YouTube to send the campaign viral and ended with Coun Green recruiting five volunteers to try to put together a film as “a matter of urgency”.

One man expanded the woman’s initial suggestion, saying: “We need a quick, short and punchy film demonstrating the value of the museum, featuring a vox-pop of what people here and around the world think about the museum.”

He added: “It is cultural vandalism of the highest order to even consider closing it.”

The Telegraph & Argus yesterday told of Monty Python star Michael Palin’s dismay at the threatened closure of the museum.

One man said: “I think we should invite Michael Palin and other celebrities to join us in our fight.

“Get people like Michael Palin and other celebrities outside and inside of Bradford to be part of this film. Get local people and famous people to mingle as part of this film – it could be really good.”

Another man said: “The idea of celebrity involvement is a very good idea. We can draw comparisons with what Joanna Lumley did for the Gurkhas.”

The integration of children to the campaign was also central to people’s thinking, with emphasis on the educational value of the museum.

James Slater, 14, of Titus Salt School in Baildon, said fellow pupils had told him how vital they thought the museum was. He added: “Children do want to get involved. If anything was happening where they could actually get involved, they would want to help.

“I believe it would affect education for children in Bradford if it was to close.”

One woman said: “Children and young people have got to play a big part in it.”

Other people talked about the international stature of the museum, and the priceless nature of its contents.

Gideon Seymour, director of Bradford arts organisation Fabric, said: “The message we need to send out very clearly is if you take the media museum out of Bradford, you rip out our cultural heart.”

Coun Green, who will be out and about in the city over the next few days with a big 30th birthday card for the museum, closed the meeting by saying: “We really need, particularly the next two Saturdays, all hands to the pumps.

“We need bodies. One thing that scares politicians is voters. If the politicians see thousands of people on the streets supporting the museum, they will take notice.

“It is your hard work that has got us to this point – the thing is to not take the foot off the gas.”