Elstree Studios 90th Birthday Celebrations

Last night, I was honoured to attend a very special occasion. Normally, we stick to Barnet events, but we made an exception last night for two very good reasons.The first is that it's on the doorstep and the second was that my good lady's band, The BBC Elstree Concert Band were performing!

The event was the final night of celebrations for the 90th Birthday of Elstree studios. The event consisted of two halves. The first half had screenings of classic footage of '60's and '70's TV series made at Elstree. including The Saint, The Avengers and Jason King. A whole slate of celebs turned out, most notably Guest of Honour Diana Rigg, and some great film memorabila including Simon Templar's car!. Here are a selection of tweets which give a good flavour of the night.

The owner of the original restored Volvo used by Roger Moore let me have a seat in the car used in the Saint TV Series @ElstreeStudios. pic.twitter.com/xa3MPitdID

— Andrew Stocker. (@TimeLordDrew61) September 25, 2017

A celebration of Iconic 60s & 70s Television @ElstreeStudios - Read my review here: https://t.co/mWYolyjXx0 #CarryOnBlogging pic.twitter.com/b4O8YfbdCs

— Carry On Blogging! (@CarryOnJoan) September 25, 2017

Smashing evening at @ElstreeStudios celebrating 60's & 70's TV. Diana Rigg talked Avengers, and that's Reg Varney's bus from On the Buses. pic.twitter.com/SAGU6yyRcg

— Julian Dutton (@JulianDutton1) September 24, 2017

Kicking off our 60s and 70s TV celebration with stories from Valerie Leon, Giles Watling MP, William Gaunt and Chairman @Morris__Bright pic.twitter.com/bPkiGyc1kF

— Elstree Studios (@ElstreeStudios) September 24, 2017

What a privilege to be part of such a fantastic show. We're thrilled with our new wall in Rushes! Thank you @ElstreeStudios @Morris__Bright pic.twitter.com/8a0zf2CGy6

— ElstreeStudiosEvents (@EventsElstree) September 24, 2017

The Q&A sessions were great. A good selection of anecdotes, not all of which are suitable for a family blog such as this! Dame Diana Rigg looked great. I was fascinated to learn that the reason that Patrick McNee's female sidekicks were so "macho" was not due to a forward looking, feminist agenda, it was just because they originally had a bloke lined up and they couldn't be bothered to rewrite the scripts!

There was also a tribute to Roger Moore. He was always my favourite Bond and he used to live at the top of my road. He also has a very cool Christian name and us Roger's do stick together! The footage from the Saint was great, as was the short, previously unseen interview footage. There were some  very affectionate anecdotes. It was pretty clear just how well liked Roger was.

The second half of the show, had the BBC Elstree band playing a selection of well known TV and Film theme tunes, including The Avengers, The Third Man and Superman. Paul Walsh OBE, a local film historian and campaigner MC'd this section of the show. Paul had been enjoying the hospitality and gave a very down to earth intro of the various tunes, recalling various incidents such as Christopher Reeve, as Superman, dangling in clear view from Shenley Road from a crane. One suspects that Superman IV was not Paul's favourite film from the Period. He spoke rather more affectionately about "Murder on the Orient Express" which had a stellar cast. He also observed that the On The Buses films had made huge profits on tiny budgets.

Paul also observed that back in the 1960's and 1970's TV companies were prepared to take risks when commissioning productions and spend money on decent musical scores as so well demonstrated by the great tunes the band belted out!

Elstree studios are a gem. It was the first time I'd actually been back there since my acting career finished in 1970, apart from once when I accompanied my Dad to drop off a car he'd resprayed for a production. As it was being used in a film, he'd put his best sprayer on it and instructed him to give it a Rolls Royce finish. I can't remember what the film was but we got free tickets and he was horrified to see that all the hard work resulted in 15 seconds on screen and then the car crashing and blowing up. I look forward to the 100 years celebration in 2027.

Hopefully there will be some great output between now and then. Great Britain has amazing creative industries. We need to protect and preserve them. It was an honour to share in there celebrations!

A Hectic and very musical day

It's 23:45 as I write this and I'm home, I can have a glass of wine and relax. I've been on the go since about 9am. It was the Mill Hill Music Complex Open day in association with Youth Music. We had a day of activities such as youth music workshops, recording sessions, live performances. We have two main youth music projects at the studios, Sound Skool which is run by YMCA for 14-18 year olds not in education or training. This is a ten week course and the options are Live Instruments, DJ'ing, MC'ing, Music Technology and Singing. We run a sampler workshop and showcase as part of it today. We also had Rock United, which is a holiday time paid course open to anyone, running band workshops. For the performance section of the show, we had Barnets esteemed Deputy Mayor, Lisa Rutter and her Consort Mark pay us a visit. She was suitably impressed by the show and was very friendly towards everyone. I suspect I could have sold her consort a guitar if I tried hard enough. It is fair to say she made a few friends today. Perhaps the most amusing moment was when one of the carwash customers came down and saw her car. Noticing the mayors emblem, he asked if it was a royal visit.

She also spoke to the team producing the new Barnet Youth magazine, lead by a young man called Yehia, who is a fine example of a Barnet student. Yehia's family fled from Uganda 15 years ago as refugees. They now live in Burnt Oak. Yehia is a student at the London Academy and hopes to become the first student from the Academy to do the PPE course at Oxford. His teachers recommended him and I hope he succeeds. His youth magazine has 17 people involved and they certainly impressed the deputy Mayor with their energy and enthusiasm.

When I'd finished my stint at the studio, I picked up the children and went down to St John the Evangelist church in Waterloo, where my good lady was performing a concert of music with a Magic and Horror theme. She plays with the BBC Elstree Concert Band . There next Concert is Monday 13th December at the Allum Hall in Borehamwood. The theme will be film music. A great night is guaranteed.

A busy if very rewarding day.

Apologies to Mrs T

I owe Mrs T an apology. I am of course referring to my good lady, rather than the blogger who writes a certain blog. I completely ignored all mention of her concert last week at St James church in Muswell Hill with the BBC Elstree Concert Band to raise money for the North London Hospice. The concert was superb, and I was chuffed to bits for them having such an appreciative audience. She's played in the band for over 20 years and they have gone from strength to strength.

You can catch the band again on Wednesday 23rd June playing “Music from the Silver Screen" at St Jude-on-the-Hill, Central Square, London NW11 7AH. This is part of St Judes proms. Money raised goes to the North London Hospice and Toynbee hall. Please support this, it is a superb event with some fine performers. The causes are most deserving.