Hello everyone and I am glad to see you have clung to the wreckage for another week and once again thank you to readers who stop me and say they enjoy our weekly staggerings down Memory Lane. The latest was a lovely lady shopping in Morrisons who told me her dad was a charge hand at MGM in Borehamwood from 1945 until 1970, when it closed.

This is my last column until next year and concludes the 40th anniversary of my writing these weekly articles. Back then I had hair and a 30 inch waist and ironically one of my early articles was about a new film out of Elstree called Star Wars.

I had visited the set during filming in 1976 and the unit publicist was telling me it had a couple of old timers in it, Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing, but the rest were unknown and it had a furry creature and a talking robot. I met the young director George Lucas and told him I thought the movie would struggle as science fiction was dead at that time in the cinema. I recall much of the crew felt the same and 20th Century Fox seemed to have little faith in its potential.

Now we all know what happened . Even the owners of Elstree Studios lost out as they were offered a percentage of the profits instead of the studio facilities hire fees but declined. Therefore George is a billionaire in California and I am a pensioner in Borehamwood, but that is the magic of showbiz.

When they were shooting Return Of The Jedi at Elstree I was trying to promote the use of our local youth centre at Maxwell Park with a series of free 'meet a star' events. Various people supported me such as the then Doctor Who, Peter Davison, boxing champ Alan Minter, Glenn Hoddle from Spurs and England, Graham Rix from Arsenal, Peter Duncan from Blue Peter and others. So I asked the producer of Return of the Jedi if I could borrow one of its stars and he said would you prefer Mark Hamill or Harrison Ford? I thought the kids would prefer Luke Skywalker so I went with Mark and he could not have done a better job, chatting with 300 kids and signing autographs after a long day filming. He wrote me a lovely handwritten letter the next day saying how much he loved meeting the kids and that to him Borehamwood would forever be the true home of Star Wars. I wonder if any of those now middle aged attendees are reading this column?

When I was chair,am of the Save Elstree Studios campaign from 1988 to 1996 I tried to encourage George and Steven Spielberg to buy the studio, which at the beginning of the campaign was making a healthy profit. They declined, although they did support the campaign. I still think it would have been a good investment for them along with Warner Brothers and it might later have become the home of Harry Potter but it was not to be.

In the mid 1990s I asked 20th Century Fox if I could show the original three films as a publicity boost for the campaign. They refused, citing the original versions were no longer to be shown as they were to be remastered and rereleased. I appealed to George and permission was given to me; they even flew over 35mm prints from the USA. We screened them all day at the old Venue theatre and could have sold the 700 seats several times over. Some of the supporting cast attended and it was a great, although I have to admit I did not bother to watch all of the time but headed for the bar.

You may guess I am not a fanatic about these movies and the last one I saw was called The Phantom Menace. I did not think it was a great movie but it was fun to attend the premiere in Leicester Square with thousands outside the cinema. I recall visiting the set at Leavesden during filming and was asked to sign a document saying something like 'l will kill myself if I reveal what I have seen'. Do you ever get the feeling showbiz lives in a bubble and takes itself a tad too seriously? You can see why I don't get invited anymore.

Lastly, forget any New Year's Eve parties and tune in to BBC at 8pm on 31st December for the special Antiques Roadshow from BBC Elstree Centre. We filmed it back on a very hot day in June and you can see me and other more interesting people with film and television memorabilia. So until next year I hope you enjoy the festive holiday whether alone or with family and more importantly a healthy 2018. Until next time!