May I start by wishing you all a belated Happy New Year. Well, ladies and gentlemen I have made it! This is now my 40th year of writing this weekly column and I am still here. That must be some sort of record in the annals of the local press.

I never imagined becoming a columnist but back in 1977 I was given a whole page in a rival newspaper and then the Borehamwood Times also asked me to write about film and television production in Borehamwood. In those days local newspapers were awash with adverts and needed editorial, so without any qualifications I ended up with my own column. Times have certainly changed and back then I was writing about visiting the set of a new film called Star Wars, or being invited to ATV across the road for the launch of The Muppet Show. Nowadays I could not get past security as closed sets have become the norm. Alas, productions now actually believe they are important and forget nearly everything is quickly tomorrow’s fish and chip paper. For younger readers, I am referring to the days when Friday night supper came wrapped in old newspapers, but we survived.

2016 was an awful year for the death of familiar faces. Personally I felt the media went somewhat overboard with the demise of David Bowie and George Michael but that reflects the age of those now in charge. I met David briefly once when he guest starred in a Bing Crosby Christmas special at ATV in Borehamwood in the mid 1970s. Alas, Bing died just a few months later. I never met George but recall turning down his group Wham! just as they were starting as I thought the fee was too high.

I remember briefly meeting Carrie Fisher on the Star Wars set. It is so sad she had such troubled times ahead. I met her mother Debbie Reynolds at her Las Vagas casino in the 1990s and she showed me part of her wonderful collection of film costumes. What a sad end for both of them!

2016 claimed many from showbiz but I would like to take this opportunity to recall some that you may have missed. Looking back to my youth and television viewing we lost Conrad Phillips, who played William Tell and from television’s wild west Robert Horton, who co-starred in Wagon Train, as well as Hugh O’Brian, who portrayed Wyatt Earp on the small screen.

We also lost the voice of Lady Penelope in Thunderbirds. the lovely Sylvia Anderson, and the creator of that iconic series The Waltons with the death of Earl Hamner Junior. I still remember visiting the back lot of Warner Brothers in the late 1980s and meeting the late Ralph Waite while they were filming a reunion special.

From the 1960s and 1970s we said farewell to the Man From Uncle Robert Vaughn. who once told me he did an awful television series at Elstree Studios called from my memory The Protectors. Then there was forgotten actress Florence Henderson. who played mum in The Brady Bunch and my old friend Burt Kwouk. forever remembered as Cato in the Pink Panther movies.

Then there was Gene Wilder. who starred in Haunted Honeymoon at Elstree - I recall meeting him on set, and lastly Zsa Zsa Gabor, who also filmed in Borehamwood but but sadly spent her last years bedridden in poor health.

The past is the past so we look forward to 2017 and let us see what it brings us. Personally I look forward to our strolls down memory lane together and thank you for your company. As for 2017 all I can say is, carpe diem!