Well, my friends, this is my last column for 2016 and next year will be the 40th anniversary of my beginning to write this weekly trip down Memory Lane. It started only in the Elstree and Borehamwood Times but I now see it appears in other newspapers around the area, which is great; the more the merrier.

When I started they had just shot a new science fiction movie called Star Wars at Elstree Studios and I made the mistake of telling a young George Lucas that it would do little business. He is now a billionaire in California and I am a pensioner in Borehamwood so what do I know. I remember meeting Harrison Ford and thinking his acting was a bit wooden but he might get a few years stardom out of it. He now holds the record for starring in the most successful box office hits of all time. A decade later I was asked to show a young film maker around Elstree Studios as a favour to his uncle who was the parish clerk in Shenley. A lovely lad, but I guessed he would never make much impression as he lived in New Zealand. His name is Peter Jackson and he has gone on to be an Oscar winning director, multi millionaire and got a knighthood compared with my MBE.

So if any young film maker meets me next year, do not take any notice of what I say.

Next year I hope to help host two special plaque unveilings honouring a legend of the cinema and a Hollywood star, not to mention a special event at Elstree Studios so I am not yet dead in the water having been around the film world, man and boy, for 56 years.

Last week I had a meeting in the Elstree Studios bar with their events and catering supremo Lee, who cheered me up by telling me he was not even born when Star Wars was shooting at the Studio. By pure coincidence the bar was crowded with people celebrating the 20th anniversary of a very successful company called Everything Audio being at the facility, a reunion of post production veterans like the great Ray Merrin and a couple of lovely young West End singers serenading us as their agent is also based at the Studio, plus the pleasure of fellow veteran Roger Morris, who is the successful managing director these days.

This year we seem to have lost so many names from showbiz, and what is worse many were from the 1960s and 1970s, which is a bit too close to home.

At Elstree Studios the senior judge Len Goodman bowed out of Strictly Come Dancing having been with the show from the start. It has made him a multi-millionaire in what could have been his retirement years and he will continue to star in the Hollywood version, which pays him a great deal more than the £100,000 per series he gets from the BBC. Now in his early 70s, I understand why Len wants to spend more time with his family. Showbiz and the public have short memories so I sure Strictly will absorb the shock as it did when Brucie left and be bigger and better next year.

Finally my wish for next year: Elstree Studios, get on with building a new sound stage. The BBC Elstree Centre, get on with your plans for a new EastEnders set. I want to be around to see these things.

As for you, my friends old or new who have travelled down Memory Lane with me all these years or even just this year. I wish you a happy and healthy New Year. I am so honoured you bother to read this. I look forward to sharing your company next year. If any of you are spending Christmas alone like me, but in my case by choice, remember you are just as important as anyone else and to everyone God bless.