Well, we have successfully overcome any jet lag from our memory lane flight to Los Angeles last week and once again I am grateful for your company.

Following my article I got an invite from a business friend suggesting I return to Hollywood after 20 years and see the changes. It sounds nice but have you ever returned to a place of which you had great memories many years ago and realised your memories are better?

A sound stage is what it is wherever you go but I did enjoy visiting the backlot sets in Tinseltown. Possibly my favourite was Universal Studios. I was invited to real Universal which is the production centre next to the theme park and the whole site is about 600 acres from memory. By comparison Elstree Studios is about 15 acres, which is why studio tours here are not really workable.

The production side shares the same backlot as the theme park and I remember I was invited by a vice president of something for lunch. Alas, we both consumed way too much Californian red wine and she then suggested we boarded an 'executive' golf cart style vehicle and visit the backlot sets.

I am surprised either of us survived the experience, weaving between vehicles loaded with tourists from the theme park but it was enjoyable. I loved visiting the standing street set where they shot those 1940s Sherlock Holmes adventures with Basil Rathbone and the Psycho house. We were standing outside it when a tourist tram stopped to take pictures. I am still not sure if they thought I was Norman Bates, but that is showbiz.

Nearer home I have great memories of visiting outdoor movie sets. One that sticks in the mind was that of Saving Private Ryan, created in Hatfield which was such a realistic rendering of a bombed out French wartime village.

Who remembers the famous Ivanhoe castle erected on the back lot of MGM in Borehamwood, which stood for several years in the 1950s and played host to the likes of Robert Taylor and Errol Flynn? Today housing occupies the site, as it does for the place the extensive French chateau was created for the 1960s blockbuster The Dirty Dozen at the same studio. Older residents can still recall the night time special effects explosions echoing around the town one night as Lee Marvin and his cohorts blew up the building, as part of the film of course. That would be a good question. Can you name the Dirty Dozen? Originally John Wayne was offered a starring role but declined. Muhammad Ali was one of the visitors to the production.

Of course the backlot of Elstree Studios has hosted great sets for 90 years. In the 1930s it also had a castle set built for a film starring Fay Wray, best remembered today as the 'queen of screams' following her role in the classic King Kong in Hollywood.

Personally I can remember the castle built for the film Willow and the amazing street set constructed for Young Sherlock Holmes, not to mention the snow covered hotel exterior created for The Shining and the wonderful Hanover Street set for that Harrison Ford movie.

I also recall the standing street set that was erected in the 1960s and used in many television episodes shot at Elstree Studios. Roger Moore once told me "we used it a lot while making The Saint. If it was supposed to be France we changed the shop fronts and street signs and had somebody cycle past wearing a beret and with a string of onions around their neck. If it was Bermuda they would put up a few palm trees. I travelled the world but never left Borehamwood."

Across the road at the BBC Elstree Centre, the Albert Square set has dominated since 1985 and is shortly to move, be rebuilt and expanded on another part of the site. When it was ATV I remember visiting outdoor sets on the same space such as a replica of the Globe Theatre for Shakespeare with Tim Curry, a building site for Auf Wiedersehen Pet and other sets.

Unlike Hollywood, exterior sets are seldom retained but they remain in my memory. I salute the unsung heroes of the industry who create with such skill such wonderful sets.