Paul Welsh

Welcome again to my long suffering readers but take comfort as this is the last but one of my articles for this year and this decade. I will either be sun drenched on a Pacific island courtesy of Simon Cowell or at home. The invite has yet to arrive but I blame the post if it has gone astray. OK, the sight of me wearing a knotted hankie on my head with rolled up trousers sitting in a deck chair might put Simon off but that is his loss.

Can you believe this year has almost gone? And how did that happen? I have been retired for 10 years and do very little nowadays so I had assumed the pace of time would slow down but whadda mistakea to maka, as the Italian officer in Allo! Allo! used to say.

Welcome everyone and thank you for joining me once again. I have been writing this column every week since 1977, although only in more recent times has it appeared in several papers. My original remit was to talk about what was or had been filmed in the several studios based in Borehamwood and the stars who appeared in those movies or television shows. That remains the same, which is why I don't cover other studios or pass comment on films shot elsewhere. Thankfully Borehamwood has a film-making

Well, we have clung onto the wreckage for another week so congratulations everyone. Last weekend I had the pleasure to be a guest at a special event organised at Elstree Studios by an old pal Rich Davy. It was on the same day that Strictly Come Dancing was going out live but luckily I was not mistaken for one of the professional dancers so was directed to the correct building.

This week I move away from sound stages to recall some of the exterior sets built on the backlots of the studios situated in Borehamwood. They have been constructed since the earliest days of movie production in the town. The reason was it was easier for a film unit to shoot inside the grounds of a studio than travel to a location, with all the hassle that could involve.

This week I am going to tell you how I got into this game of writing weekly columns for several newspapers. I started writing in the early 1970s with several magazine articles and at one time was the Editor of the RNLI staff magazine, which we called Self Writer.

I must admit enjoying the raft of television documentaries about the moon landing anniversary, but cannot believe it was really 50 years ago. I remember staying up all night watching it but I am even more amazed that they achieved it with so little technology compared with today. I know there are doubters who say it was all faked. I can dispel one urban myth that NASA employed Stanley Kubrick to film the fake at MGM in Borehamwood due to his success with 2001. On the other hand it could have bee

Older readers will recall the days when at the cinema you saw not only the main feature but also got to see the supporting feature or B-movie. Even older readers will recall when you also got a cartoon and a Pathe newsreel. However, let us not go that far back on this walk down Memory Lane.

I am sometimes asked why Elstree and Borehamwood can boast to have once been the Hollywood of England if not Europe. The answer is that other than Los Angeles, which includes Hollywood, nowhere else has been the base for so many studios within a couple of miles of each other and produced literally thousands of movies and television programmes.

I used to attend memorial services for stars I had known or had admired on the screen over the years. The last occasion was a couple of years ago for Philip Madoc, who enjoyed a long career and was always willing to turn up for my events. Although he often played villains he was a fun person and a pleasure to meet.