This has been resolved with a bit of redrafting of the query. See here:
$meta_query = array(
'posts_per_page' => -1,
'post_type' => 'events',
'orderby' => 'meta_value',
'order' => 'ASC',
'meta_query' => array(
'relation' => 'AND',
array(
'key' => 'showings_%_show_when',
'value' => array( $startd, $endd ),
'type' => 'NUMERICAL',
'compare' => 'BETWEEN'
)
)
);