Times are changing my dear readers and I understand the Elstree & Borehamwood Times will no longer be delivered as it moves away from the printed form into online. I understand some free copies may still be available from Tesco and Morrisons but I guess the easiest way is to sign up, for free, and get it sent to you online. I really do appreciate for some readers this will not be easy but alas the world of printed newspapers is changing everywhere.

However, I will continue on to name drop and drag you down Nostalgia Lane if it kills me as I want in nine years' time to celebrate 50 years of these articles.

I have recently been throwing out old files and came across a breakdown of the original Star Wars budget and its subsequent box office release results as of 1980. I am sure you all know this classic movie was released in 1977 and I still remember visiting the set at Elstree Studio in that hot summer of 1976, not unlike this year.

It is interesting to read that the original budget was pegged at $10 million but actually cost $11 million, although by todays costs these are peanut figures. 20th Century Fox had agreed to finance the film with a contribution from the young George Lucas. It was considered a risk at the time as science fiction movies had made little impact since Stanley Kubrick's 2001, shot at MGM in Borehamwood a decade earlier.

The budget for the cast and producers' fees was a modest $750,000 compared to the cost of the production crew at $2,100,000, but there is a story behind those figures. Some of those involved wisely had a percentage of the profits. As of 1980 that meant George Lucas, Gary Kurtz, etc as producers earned $59 million and Alec Guinness $3,318,870, which is more than he had earned from all his films before. Sadly Alec grew to dislike his association with Star Wars as it threatened to overshadow his marvellous career in film and television dating back to the 1940s. I guess today many film fans will remember him from Star Wars rather than the Ealing comedies, Bridge On The River Kwai and other classics but that is showbiz. I remember when I did a plaque unveiling at Elstree Studios for Christopher Lee he forbade me to mention Dracula or any Hammer horror on the wording of the plaque. Christopher felt they were just a small percentage of his overall screen appearances but personally I think he missed the point. As his long time co-star Peter Cushing once told me: "Be grateful for however the public remember you because it means you made your mark whilst many fine stars are forgotten.

By 1980 the worldwide box office receipts for Star Wars had reached an amazing $510,000,000! It was an amazing result for George Lucas. If you ever get sent or read this George, could you spare a few bob so we can build a film and television heritage centre in Borehamwood to celebrate our unique history (which includes you, old chap). That also applies to your old mate Stevie Spielberg. You can't take it with you and having met you both can we not make it happen and to hell with your accountants. Life is about going out on a limb and remember all the huge successes you had filming at Elstree Studios.

I cannot believe this year marks the 30th anniversary of the campaign launch to save Elstree Studios launched by the lovely Pat Carr, then production manager on Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, which was shooting at the studio. I was appointed chairman with no idea I would be fighting for eight years before final victory. Throwing out old files I came across much paperwork from those long ago days. I quote from a letter dated 1988 from the then managing director of Elstree Studios, who said "there is no doubt for the first time a campaign such as yours has had an effect. So far as I am concerned it has been a privilege to know you." He was referring to the studio being bought from Cannon by Brent Walker, but we went from out of the frying pan into the fire. However, that is a story for another time and I hope you can continue reading me in whatever form these times dictate.