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Alas, readers I feel autumn has arrived so it will soon be time for me to regale you with tales of yesteryear around a burning fire rather than walking down Memory Lane via Lovers Leap and Dead Men’s Gulch. When do you decide, gentlemen, to put on those long johns and you ladies that rather fetching second petticoat?
This week I look back on what I consider the most fascinating part of a historic film studio, which is the backlot. To be honest, one film stage looks much like another whether it is in Borehamwood or Hollywood.
Our oldest studio in Borehamwood opened in 1914 in the days when workers were summoned back to work with the tolling of the studio bell. Its backlot came into its own when it was under the ownership of ATV, especially during the 1970s and 1980s. I remember visiting a pottery town built for the Clayhangers, and a life size reproduction of the Globe Theatre, not to mention the building site for Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. I was invited to the unveiling of the EastEnders set back in about 1985 by Keith Clement, then head of what is now the BBC Elstree Centre. Who knew the soap opera would still be on air all these years later?
The Overlook Hotel under construction on the backlot at Elstree Studios
Elstree Studios has of course hosted a number of outdoor sets over the decades. I recall visiting the castle created for Willow, the marvellous hotel exterior and maze for The Shining, and the Victorian street set for Young Sherlock Holmes. Sometimes a production would create its own backlot, such as for Saving Private Ryan at Hatfield, which I found amazing. We must always salute the unsung heroes of film production, who are the creative craft people who make these things possible. Of course this computer technology is beginning to replace such skills but they are still building sets such as for The Crown on the Elstree backlot so not all is lost.
I have told you before about my wandering around alone on the just-closed 120-acre…
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Source : times
