But this week, in a UK first, the first ever trials presided over by a jury in a completely separate building will begin in Scotland, when they follow proceedings from an Odeon theatre.

An Edinburgh cinema has been converted into a remote jury centre, and the jurors will appear in courtrooms on a video wall.

Five screens at the Odeon at Fort Kinnaird will be able to accommodate 15 physically-distanced jurors, who will be able to watch proceedings at High Court cases sitting in Edinburgh and Livingston.

The solution has been put forward as a “bold and imaginative” way to deal with a mounting backlog of cases caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

In Scotland, jury trials were suspended in March, and court officials and politicians have struggled to come up with a solution that would allow them to resume while maintaining physical distancing in often cramped courtrooms.

While some trials have taken place with juries watching proceedings remotely from other courtrooms, it is the first time juries have watched cases from a completely different setting.

Humza Yousaf, the Scottish justice secretary, said: “I’m very pleased to see the excellent progress that has been made on this ground-breaking solution, allowing more jury trials to get underway in the current very difficult circumstances.”

The remote jury centres will initially be in place for six months-with £5.5 million of funding from the Scottish Government-but there is an option to extend them for a longer period.

The courts will have exclusive access to the jury centre from 8am on Mondays to 6pm on Fridays.

Equipment will be packed away for the Odeon to return as a functioning cinema every weekend.

More trials are scheduled for the week of October 12 at another jury centre for the High Court in Glasgow, using 11 screens at the Odeon complex in the Braehead shopping centre, Renfrewshire.

However, Holyrood’s justice committee warned that the cinemas would not be a “silver bullet” for addressing the backlog of cases.

Before the pandemic there were around 390 High Court trials waiting to be heard-but this nearly doubled to 750 by the end of August. MSPs heard evidence that if nothing is done to increase or speed up court business, it would take up to a decade to get the backlog to pre-Covid levels.

Adam Tomkins, the Tory MSP and committee convenor, said: “The scale of the challenge faced by our courts is not to be underestimated. Current delays are not acceptable for the victims, witnesses or the accused of crimes.”