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Well here we are again, all good friends and jolly good company. Incidentally, can any readers recall where that saying came from?
Last week I had the great pleasure to be invited to the opening of the two giant new sound stages and ancillary buildings at Elstree Studios. It was a low key affair compared to the opening of the previous two giant stages I helped organise back in 1999. Then we had Prince Charles do the honours with the world press attending and later George Lucas attended the naming of the stages after him.
I guess the big difference now is sound stages are springing up everywhere so it no longer a media story. Back in 1999 we had just completed refurbishing Elstree after three years of closure, during which time anything movable had been stripped out. The vital underground car park had been sealed up for years, resulting in water floods and blue asbestos falling down. Fungus was growing on the walls of empty, unheated dressing rooms and it took a giant leap of faith by Hertsmere Borough Council to buy and refurbish. Ok, they had about £60 million in the bank that could only be used on capital expenditure and there was talk about Hertsmere being dissolved into a greater Watford or St Albans Council so it was wonderful timing for those of us saving the studio.
However, this time it does not require such a giant leap of faith as I am told the new stages have already been booked for the next five years by a Hollywood film company! Again it is once again about the luck of timing as I never thought I would live to see these new stages built.
As important to me is that the studio bar has been refurbished and reopened, so after the ceremony I went there in search of free drinks.
What I love is that the new man in charge has called the bar Williams and Wilcox. I can almost guarantee that nobody entering the watering hole will understand the naming but bless the chap I do. The two founding fathers of Elstree Studios back in the…
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Source : times
