was sold to the Eclectic Bar Group, headed by former PizzaExpress owner Luke Johnson, who renamed the pier back to Brighton Palace Pier in July. The Palace Pier remains a popular tourist attraction into the 21st century, particularly with day visitors to the city. In contrast to the redevelopment and liberal culture in Brighton generally, it has retained a traditional down-market "bucket and spade" seaside atmosphere. In 2016, the Brighton Fringe festival director Julian Caddy criticised the pier as "a massive public relations problem". Rides The pier includes several fairground rides, such as two roller coasters, a haunted house ride, a traditional carousel, a helter skelter and a cup-and-saucer ride. The Booster is a pendulum ride by Fabbri, which catapults people into the air, turning upside down in the process. For young children, Fantasia is a simple ride featuring Disney characters. Cultural references The pier has featured regularly in British popular culture. It is shown prominently in the 1971 film, Carry on at Your Convenience, and it is shown to represent Brighton in several film and television features, including MirrorMask, The Persuaders, the Doctor Who serial The Leisure Hive (1980), the 1986 film Mona Lisa, and the 2007 film, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The Graham Greene novel Brighton Rock featured the Palace Pier. John Boulting's 1947 film adaptation helped established "low life" subculture in Brighton, and the climax of the film is set on it, where gangleader Pinkie Brown (played by Richard Attenborough) falls to his death. The 1953 B movie Girl on a Pier is set around the Palace Pier and also features the clash between holidaymakers and gangsters in Brighton. The Who's 1973 concept album Quadrophenia was inspired in part by band leader Pete Townshend spending a night underneath the pier in March 1964. It is a pivotal part of the album's plot, and features in the 1979 film. Townshend later said that the rest of the band understood this element of the story, as it related to their mod roots. The 2014 novel The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell includes passages that take place on the pier. The 2015 British TV series, Cuffs, which takes place in Brighton features the pier, both in the opening theme as well as in parts of the story lines. Graham Swift's 2020 novel Here We Are, focuses on a trio of entertainers performing at the pier in