Last week I looked at all the cars and vans coming in and out of Elstree Studios.

People were coming and going amid the general buzz of a busy and successful studio and, just for a moment, my mind wandered back to perhaps the same day 20 years earlier in 1994.

Then I would stand on the same spot but see before me a closed and semi-derelict site with the majority of the buildings demolished to make way for a 12-acre Tesco.

I was in my sixth year as the chairman of the Save our Studio campaign and it was becoming pretty lonely as most people thought Brent Walker had won. True, they had closed the studio, sacked the staff and ripped out anything that could be sold from furniture to copper wiring and kitchen sinks.

They were dark days and continued for another two years. At one point even the council wanted me to quit, but that has never been my way and eventually public will triumphed against big business and the banks.

In 1997, I was very surprised to be awarded an MBE for my efforts and I felt very proud.

Going back 20 years further, we reach 1974 when again Elstree Studios was on the verge of closure.

The productions that partly filled the stages that year tell the story of the then state of the British film industry.

There was Robin Askwith in Confessions of a Window Cleaner, although that was a success at the box office in the days before home video soft porn, and the TV spin-off movie Man about the House. I am not sure if Elstree can be proud of Alfie Darling, which was a rip-off of Alfie, or the sequel to Percy called Percy’s Progress.

The only saving grace was Murder on the Orient Express, which went into production with a marvellous all-star cast including Sean Connery, Lauren Bacall, Albert Finney and John Gielgud. The budget would not pay for an advert shoot these days.

In 1954, Elstree was still in the era mainly of black and white films and imported Hollywood stars who helped sell the movie abroad.

We had Gregory Peck fighting a whale in the backlot tank for Moby Dick. I wonder how many of the celebrities in Big Brother know they are living in that tank now?

Then there was the legendary Errol Flynn, way past his best, who teamed up with Anna Neagle for Lilacs in the Spring.

Herbert Wilcox directed the film and he once told me: “You had to shoot the main scenes with Flynn before his liquid lunch. He was a sad, broke man but still had a certain charisma.”

For Better For Worse is a long-forgotten comedy that brought Dirk Bogarde on a rare visit to Borehamwood and, of course, there was the classic The Dam Busters starring Richard Todd.

Times and film styles have certainly changed over the past 60 years, but Elstree has survived and embraced them all. I feel proud I have played a small role in that story and hope that you enjoy sharing those memories, good and bad, of yesteryear.