Grammar · B2
Narrative tenses
A story runs on the past simple. The past continuous sets the scene that was already going on. The past perfect reaches back to something that had happened before that, and the past perfect continuous reaches back to something that had been going on for a while before it. Each tense answers a different question about when.
The past simple carries the events, in the order they happened. Everything else in a narrative exists to position something relative to those events.
The past continuous supplies the background that was already under way: I was walking down the stairs when the light went out. The longer action takes the continuous, the interrupting one takes the simple.
The past perfect steps back to something completed before the point you have reached: the room was empty, because everyone had gone home.
The past perfect continuous does the same for something that had been going on: it had been raining all night, and the road was under water. Use it when the duration is the point.
Now use it
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By the time we got to the cinema, the film .