This week we travel back 50 years to Elstree Studios in 1970 to see what was happening. The Studios was still fully manned, with hundreds of staff employed year round, which sadly meant the facility was about to enter an era awash in red ink.

Bryan Forbes had been appointed head of production and tasked with keeping the studio afloat. Bryan told me: "When I arrived I expected to enter a battlefield but not Hiroshima. They promised me a revolving production fund that did not revolve and when I asked for enough money to renovate the ageing buildings they gave me enough to repaint it."

Bryan was keen to launch a programme of family films, which did not sit well with some colleagues who felt that era had passed. He had box office success with The Railway Children and Tales Of Beatrix Potter and critical success with The Go Between, which won the top award at Cannes. However they were not blockbusters or as successful as On The Buses, made by one of his critical colleagues at Elstree. Bryan also made the mistake of deciding to direct one of the films himself, starring his wife and called The Raging Moon. It sank without trace and the following year Bryan resigned. He became a friend in later years and was very talented but I think was the wrong man for the job.

Borehamwood Times:

A fans' location tour for On the Buses

Hammer films made four pictures at the Studio entitled Scars Of Dracula, The Vampire Lovers, Lust For A Vampire and Horror Of Frankenstein, all with good casts but low budgets and it was apparent it was the end of an era for that genre of film. The Exorcist and The Omen were only a couple of years away.

A couple of comedies were also produced and both were successful, which should have made Bryan smell the coffee. Up Pompeii was a film spin off of the very popular television series starred Frankie Howerd. I met him several times in later years but that is a story for another time. Suffice to say he was a character and I turned down his offer to massage his thigh!

The other film was Percy, which was about a penis transplant. It was successful but not Elstree's finest hour.

John Mills returned to Elstree to star in Dulcima which also fared badly at the box office . However, The Abominable Dr Phibes, starring Hollywood veterans Vincent Price and Joseph Cotten was a hit. It was a stylish, rather odd horror movie but has become a cult success.

1970 was moving towards the end of an era for Elstree Studios. Within a few short years it would stop making movies itself and become a facility to hire. That in turn heralded the time when you stopped having full-time staff and moved towards freelancers and outside franchises. The gravy train derailed for the out of date Union work practices and by 1973 Elstree almost closed forever. I cannot believe all this was half a century ago. To think I was young then. No madam, don't titter. Mock not!

  • Paul Welsh is a Borehamwood writer and historian of Elstree Studios