In the 1950s if you had to name one film star linked with Elstree Studios, it would have been Richard Todd.

At one time the studio had to employ two full-time secretaries just to handle his fan mail.

I have known Richard for about 20 years and we first met when he came back to Elstree to appear in a BBC TV documentary on which I was the programme consultant. I still remember us filming a scene at the studio with Richard talking to camera, when out from a sound stage door behind him, but in shot, emerged Harrison Ford in his Indiana Jones costume. I still think we should have retained that shot in the programme, reflecting on screen heroes from different eras.

Richard told me his screen career began at Elstree. "I was spotted at a cocktail party in 1948 by a Hollywood director who was over here looking for a young unknown to play the lead in The Hasty Heart.

"The film proved a big success for me and resulted in an Oscar nomination and a seven-year contract from the studio. Mind you it was not fantastic money in those days. I attended the premiere in Leicester Square and was mobbed by thousands, yet I was paid only £50 more than my stand-in!"

Richard was to spend 14 years under contract, and ABPC even awarded him a certificate giving him the freedom of the studio' the only one ever issued.

"It was my second home," he said. "I remember them building the water tank on the backlot now occupied by the Big Brother house for Gregory Peck's Moby Dick directed by John Huston. They bought an old wartime Mosquito and removed its two merlin engines to use as wind machines. The staff at the facility were very skilled and marvellous lads."

While under contract he was loaned to the Walt Disney film company to play Robin Hood and went to Hollywood to make three movies.

"When I was at 20th Century Fox Studios they gave me a very nice bungalow dressing room on the backlot specially decorated with an English theme, which was a nice touch. At Elstree our dressing rooms had running water but it was not always hot!"

Richard also recalled going on location to Scotland in 1953 for exterior shots on Rob Roy. "In one scene I had to run 20 yards over the heath in costume and waving a sword above my head but I tripped in a rabbit hole, tore a hamstring and ended up being carted off to hospital."

Perhaps his most famous film was war classic The Dam Busters.

"That was done with great care and they spent nearly two years in pre-production, and shot on some of the original locations," he said. "I was very proud of that film and it was so popular here that we ended up having two premieres in Leicester Square. I do remember when we returned to Elstree for the interiors I spent several long days strapped in to a mock-up Lancaster bomber cockpit under very hot lights. I had an RAF pilot instructing me on the right way to fly' the aircraft and between takes he would teach me various flying techniques."

Richard starred in several military themed films, as he recalled. "I played a naval commander in The Yangste Incident which was about a warship trapped in a Chinese river by rebel fighters but we actually shot it near Ipswich. We were able to use the real HMS Amethyst in some scenes as she was on the way to the scrapyard.

"In the Long, the Short and the Tall my co-star Laurence Harvey was very unprofessional and always wanted to be centre of attention. He led a young newcomer named Richard Harris a bit astray.

"In The Longest Day I found myself playing my real-life commanding officer on the same location that I actually served 17 years earlier during the war, which felt a bit strange."

In 1996 we invited Richard back to Elstree where a plaque was unveiled in his honour. The late character actor David Lodge, at the time, recalled a story related to Richard's modest height.

"Richard and myself were in a film with Peter Sellers who realised that Richard was wearing lifts in his shoes. Peter disliked him appearing to be equal height so he started wearing lifts.

"I was taller than both of them but as a joke I also started wearing lifts so we all ended up taller as the film progressed!"

At the unveiling ceremony Richard commented: "My 14-year contract came to an end in 1962, as they were doing throughout the industry so it was quite amicable but they were my happiest years professionally."

As I walked him back to his car Richard turned to me and said; "This has been a marvellous occasion for me and I am so grateful for the town council to have thought of me. Tell the studio if they ever have any parts suitable for an old Elstree veteran, give me a ring."