Film studios in and around London...
(...that have been used to make TV)
When is a film studio a television studio? Or vice versa? It's not that simple in some cases deciding where each studio should belong. Pinewood is arguably the UK's premier film studio - but it also has two of the best equipped large TV studios on its site. Nevertheless, its primary function is film so it's here. Similarly, Elstree Studios now have several very well equipped multicamera TV studios. But their history is in film - so they are here too.
Of course, 'film' hardly exists any more as an originating medium - most features shot in the UK use digital video cameras - often the same cameras that are used to shoot TV dramas. The lines are thus becoming even more blurred.
So - by a 'film studio' I mean a site with several sound stages - most of which are simple 4-wallers. These can be used to shoot feature films or TV dramas, single camera TV comedies, ads, pop promos, and so on. They can also be used to make multicamera TV shows too - using a temporary flat floor and an OB unit for facilities.
Anyway, if you can't find the studio you're looking for on this page it may be on the Independent TV Studios page. I haven't included Denham incidentally as, to my knowledge, those extraordinary studios never produced any television, just features.
And yes, I have included studios on this page that are not actually in London but close enough to be associated with the capital.
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As well as the major studios listed below, London also has a number of other 'film and TV' studios dotted about that are available for hire. Most of these are relatively small and almost all are a conversion of an industrial building - usually with a smart client room/green room and a few rooms for wardrobe/make-up. They often have a simple scaffold grid, pre-lit semi permanent green screens or white cycs and sometimes a local stock of lights or even a camera or two for hire. Their stages provide a very useful facility to people making commercials, pop promos or who need to shoot a simple interview or talking head. Here are some examples:
Broadley Studio - 1 stage of 750 sq ft (30 x 28ft) Has a three-sided white infinity cyc. Camberwell Studios - 2 stages of 1,300 sq ft and 400 sq ft. Both stages have pre-lit pre-lit green screens with cove. The Camden Studio - 1 pre-lit stage of 1,300 sq ft (39 x 33ft) with L-shaped cyc Centrestage Studios - 2 purpose built stages of 2,500 sq ft (50 x 50ft) and 1,500 sq ft (50 x 30ft) with permanent white and green cycs. Constructed after former studios in Euston were redeveloped. Filmscape Studios - a single 2,000 sq ft stage with white cyc at one end Halliford Studios - (opened in 1955 for the shooting of commercials) - 2 stages of 3,600 sq ft (60 x 60ft) and 2,400 (60 x 40ft) sq ft with permanent cycs. Sadly, these studios closed in July 2018 to make way for a development of 24 houses. The last production was Tracy Ullman Breaks the News, for BBC1. Magic Eye Studios - now closed but used to have 4 or 5 stages up to about 2,500 sq ft. Perhaps surprisingly, the largest stage was used for an early series of The Weakest Link using an OB truck. Mount Pleasant Studio - a single pre-lit stage of 1,270 sq ft (41 x 31ft) Silver Road studios - 4 stages from 920 sq ft - 190 sq ft (an equipped TV production gallery was also available plus SD cameras.) Closed at the end of July 2014 but said they were planning to open new studios elsewhere. SLV - 2 stages of 850sq ft (37 x 23ft) and 280 sq ft (21 x 14ft) Waterloo Film studios (opened in 1993) - 4 stages - 2,100 sq ft, 1,280 sq ft, 750 sq ft, 200 sq ft. The company that ran these - Spectrecom Films - now operates the old Cactus TV studios in Kennington. Waterloo Studios closed towards the end of 2014. Green Rock/TOG Studios - (opened in June 2018) an equipped TV studio of 600 sq ft in Henry Wood House.
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However, I am concentrating here on those film studios that have a history of making network television programmes - drama, comedy or entertainment.
It is also worth noting that due to the current shortage of suitable stages, many TV dramas and even some features are being shot in old deserted factories and leaky warehouses. These include places like the Gillette Building in Isleworth where 24: Live Another Day was made, the Peak Freans factory in Bermondsey, where Spooks and Hustle were shot, the old Tate and Lyle building in Greenwich, where The Smoke was filmed and Neasden Studios (an ex-carpet warehouse) where Mr Selfridge was made.
Film studios listed below in the order they originally opened:
Walton Studios (Hepworth, Nettlefold, Sapphire)
Ealing Studios (Will Barker, Ealing Studios, BBC, BBRK, NFTS, Ealing Studios)
Elstree (British National, BIP, ABPC, EMI, EMI-MGM,Thorn-EMI, Cannon, Goldcrest, Elstree Film and TV, Elstree Studios)
Shepperton (Sound City, British Lion, Lion International, Lee International, Scott brothers, Pinewood-Shepperton, Pinewood Studios Group) includes Lion Television
Pinewood (Rank, Pinewood-Shepperton)
3 Mills Studios (Bow Studios, 3 Mills Island, Edwin Shirley, Workspace, LDA, Olympic Park Legacy Co., London Legacy Development Corporation)
Black Island / Duke's Island Studios
Studio 2000, Borehamwood (formerly Millennium Studios)
West London Film Studios (formerly HDS and Chak89 Studios)
Sky Studios Elstree (Borehamwood)
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NB - Film studios are almost always measured in feet, not metres. They also hardly ever have footage markings on the studio walls. That is because in the movie world a set is built on a stage in a position that is convenient to the scene crew. When it is finished, the DoP will look at the set and tell his gaffer where he wants each lamp to be rigged. This will happen over the following few hours or even days. In the TV world, the set is designed and a plan is sent to the lighting director before it is erected in the studio. He or she will then design the lighting on paper or computer for that set, based on the designer's drawings. This is called a lighting plot. Using the LD's plot, the lights will be hung in specific positions in the studio - either on bars or monopoles (telescopes) or sometimes trusses. So the lights are rigged BEFORE the set is built. It is essential therefore that the set is erected within a few centimetres of where it was drawn on the designer's plan or the lighting will not work. There will be no time to re-rig and make adjustments if it is well off its marks. This therefore never happens. Yeah - I wish.
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Walton Studios - film studios with a huge influence on the early years of British television
1899 - 1962
(revised March 2020)
When I started this website I only included multicamera TV studios - and the larger ones at that. I have since added film studios that have made multicamera TV programmes on their stages and film studios where single camera TV comedy and drama has been made. However, back in 2006 I was persuaded to include Walton Studios by Mitch Mitchell, an early contributor to this site. He is a great fan of old TV dramas and in the nicest possible way he put some pressure on me to include a reference to Walton Studios. Since he did take the trouble to write to me with huge amounts of useful info on all kinds of other studios - I felt obliged to acquiesce....
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The studios were in Walton-on-Thames, not far from Shepperton. They started life back in 1899, when Cecil Hepworth leased a house called The Rosary in Hurst Grove for £36 a year and built an 18 x 15ft 'stage' in the back garden. Hepworth was an inventor of exhibition and photographic equipment who had decided that he wanted to try his hand at film making. He created a production company - Hepwix - together with his cousin Monty Wicks and began by making 'actualities', or local newsreels. He then moved on to making films using trick photography in his tiny studio. By 1905 Hepworth had added a new larger stage - indoors at first floor level but still utilising natural light - much of the walls and ceiling were made of frosted glass. Thus Hepworth Studios were created. He seems to have been a man full of imagination - as well as probably filming the first slow-motion footage, he also devised a system of mounting a camera dolly on a short length of railway-type track - thus probably creating the first tracking shots in cinema. Unlike other studios, production continued at the studio through the First World War, both by making propaganda films and by renting to visiting companies. Many films were made by the Hepworth company and several actors became stars as a result. Perhaps the best remembered today is Ronald Colman. However, following the Great War, British film companies were all struggling to survive and in 1923, despite some critical successes, both Cecil Hepworth and his film company were declared bankrupt. By then there were two stages and the studios were very well equipped. However, the receiver was a man who knew nothing of the value of all this and it was all sold off at a pittance - the library of old films made by Hepworth was melted down to make dope for aircraft wings. In 1926 the studios were purchased by Archibald Nettlefold, a theatrical producer and recreational farmer who was part of a family of industrialists from Birmingham. Now there's a combination. (His surname was in fact the 'N' in the engineering company 'GKN.') The newly renamed Nettlefold Studios made a few comedy silents which were not hugely successful and were one of the last studios to convert to sound in 1930. However, they quickly caught up and in 1932 were the first studio in Britain with the new 'high fidelity' sound system. Nettlefold acquired further land at the rear of the studios and expanded Hepworth's original site, enjoying a fruitful relationship with Butcher's Films. The next few years saw Nettlefold Studios concentrate on making quota quickies. These were paid for by the big US film companies at the rate of £1 per foot so they had to be made very cheaply and quickly. Like most film studios around London, Nettlefold was commandeered by the government for the duration of the Second World War. Initially this was for storage but following a direct hit to their factory at Kingston-upon-Thames only five miles away, the Vickers-Armstrong aircraft company moved here and built two new 'hangars'. It is not clear what happened to Nettlefold himself but by 1947 the studios were owned by Ernest G. Roy and had three stages, including the two new aircraft hangers. A modest string of films was produced but the studios lacked the driving force of Nettlefold. However, one or two films have survived in popular memory - Tom Brown's Schooldays ('51), Alastair Sim's version of Scrooge ('51) and The Pickwick Papers ('52). By the mid 1950s they had succumbed to the overall decline that saw many studios go under. However, rather than close - their saviour was the newly emerging world of commercial television.
Television saves the day... In 1955 Sapphire Films began hiring studio space, eventually buying the studios and renaming them Walton Studios. The company was owned by the powerful American producer Hannah Weinstein. In order to avoid the anti-Communist persecution and hysteria of McCarthyism sweeping the US in the early 1950s, Weinstein had moved her family to Europe in 1950 and established her own production company, Sapphire Films, in London in 1952. She pre-sold the idea of a Robin Hood series to an American flour company with the same name (they would sponsor the series in America) but because her politics were known to be left-wing she was unable to make the series in the US. England was no problem of course and since the series was made here she also did a deal with Lew Grade's ITC company to sell initially 39 half hour episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood. Over the following four years no less than 143 episodes were made on 35mm film. The series made a star of Richard Greene, and the opening musical sting and theme tune were sung by small boys in playgrounds all over the country for many years. Dozens of well-known English actors performed in the programme - some playing more than one part over the years. The scripts were of an unusually high quality because Weinstein made use of McCarthy-era blacklisted American screen writers, some working under assumed names. Naturally, none of these was actually a member of the communist party, they just didn't agree with the extreme right wing politics sweeping America at the time. Often stories contained themes exploring social justice - the subject matter was of course highly suited to that. Ironically, the show became as popular in the US as it was in Britain, being shown on the CBS network weekly from 1955 to 1958. Each episode took only four and a half days to shoot. To make that many episodes so quickly involved revolutionary film-making techniques. The most original was that the scenery was made in sections that could be re-arranged in any order and almost everything was on wheels. It was said that they could change a set and be ready to shoot in six minutes. The man responsible for devising this technique was Peter Proud, an art director with 28 years of film experience. Setting and striking is normally very time-consuming but lighting a set can take even longer. Proud's solution at Walton Studios was to have a pre-lit area and simply move the set into the light. I imagine there was a bit more to it than simply that but - 'stone' walls, doorways, windows, pillars and a fireplace all mounted on hidden castors instantly became different rooms or corridors within a castle whilst bushes and lightweight canvas tree trunks were trucked about to form various parts of the forest. There was one enormous hollow tree that appeared in almost every episode in a different place. Viewers must have assumed that Sherwood Forest was riddled with hollow trees. There were sometimes a few exterior location shots and these were mostly done on Wisley Common and the Foxwarren Park Estate near Cobham which was owned by Hannah Weinstein. They were often shot by a second unit, using stunt riders rather than the leads and rarely involving any dialogue. The back lot at Walton Studios also had a castle set and a village set that were used extensively in series 1 and 2. A larger castle set was later built in the grounds of Weinstein's estate for series 3 and 4. This was also used for The Adventures of Sir Lancelot. The Adventures of Robin Hood developed a visual style of its own and was hugely popular. So much so that Lew Grade decided to make something very similar himself. Thus at his newly acquired National Film Studios in Elstree, ITP (the production arm of ITC) began to make The Adventures of William Tell. The two series were almost identical in style and were shown by ATV around the same time. Most people would have assumed they were made by the same company but no. Sapphire Films sold the Robin Hood programmes to ITC which was a subsidiary of ATV and responsible for the distribution of their programmes all over the world. Sapphire made several more series employing the same excellent screen writers: The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956), The Buccaneers (1956), Sword of Freedom (1957) and detective/spy series The Four Just Men (1959). For many people of a certain generation these dramas made by Sapphire at Walton-on-Thames epitomise some of the best of British television from the late 50s/early '60s. Incidentally, the last 14 episodes of Sir Lancelot were shot in colour for the American market, making this the first British colour TV series. (The next was Stingray, made in Slough seven years later in 1963.) Other TV dramas were also made at Walton around this time but not by Sapphire. These included some or all episodes of Sailor of Fortune starring Lorne Greene in 1955-56 and some episodes of The Adventures of Aggie (others were made by HDF at Highbury) in 1956-57. The studios continued to be used to make features too. Popular films of the day included I Was Monty's Double ('58) and The Navy Lark ('59).
One would have thought that the success of this work would have guaranteed the longevity of the studios. However, several things combined to bring it all to a close. Apparently, Weinstein's new husband mortgaged the property and assets of the studios for the promise of a fortune in Florida. The fortune never came and he did a runner. Meanwhile, The Four Just Men was received with glowing reviews by critics in Britain and America. However, the 39 episode series was not deemed suitable by the US networks and was only syndicated by local stations. The income from US sales was therefore much less than had been anticipated. As distributors, ITC did their best to sell it around the world and had some success. Not enough to counter the lack of an American sponsor, however. At the same time, ITC were said to be driving a very hard bargain with regard to the amount they would pay Sapphire for any further shows they might make. The sums would simply not add up and the bank foreclosed.
On Monday 16th January, the studio staff arrived at work to be told that Walton Studios had gone into liquidation. Much of the equipment went to Shepperton including the dubbing stage that had been built only a few years earlier. Shepperton also received stage D from here which they called 'The Robin Hood Stage' and which became their I stage. According to a report in the Kinematograph Weekly - December 13 1962 - Shepperton were 'proud to have received a stage from Walton' with the dimensions 125 x 55ft (or 123 x 56ft in another account). The studio lot was sold to the local Council and became Hepworth Way and part of the 1960s Walton-on-Thames shopping centre (now itself demolished.) The flats at Hepworth Way and the shopping centre apparently feature in the film Psychomania. I am told that it was also the location for Monty Python's 'Can housewives tell the difference between...?' sketch. In 1962 Weinstein returned to America, where she continued her political concerns. The only remaining part of the studios is the old power house, which was converted into a theatre some years ago and is used by the local amateur drama group.
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Ealing Studios
1907 - present
(revised March 2020)
In 1902 Will Barker, a pioneer of British cinema, bought two houses on Ealing Green and the land that went with them. He built his first stage at Ealing in 1907 - like most of that period it was made of glass in order to maximise the available light. Two more glass stages were soon added along with workshops, prop stores and a laboratory. He made many modestly successful films here which included a version of Hamlet. This was particularly notable as it was filmed all in one day. The sets were apparently stacked in front of each other and as each scene was completed the scenery was struck to reveal the next one. I suppose they only had to pay the actors for one day's work. Extraordinary.
Barker went into partnership with Bertie Samuelson to produce a film about Queen Victoria which was so successful that the latter went and established his own studios in Isleworth. However, it is said that in later years he became so disillusioned with the job of producing films that he advised his sons to concentrate on working in the technical side of the industry - and indeed the name of Samuelson became associated with camera and lighting hire for many years.
Barker retired from the industry after the First World War and in 1920 Ealing Studios were sold to a company called General Film Renters who, unsurprisingly, rented the studios to whoever wanted to use them. By 1930 Basil Dean's company Associated Talking Pictures had taken ownership and he decided to rebuild much of the site. It is largely his redevelopment that still exists today. He constructed 4 stages - the first in the UK built for sound. Stage 2 opened in 1931 and stages 3A and 3B in 1933. Stages 2, 3A and 3B are still in use.
Stage 1 was converted to offices many years ago but was originally 58 x 34ft. Stage 2 is 125ft x 75ft wall to wall with a height to grid of 34ft. Stages 3A and 3B are each 85 x 70ft with a height of 32ft. There was also a 'model stage' which was 79 x 61ft.
In 1938 Michael Balcon joined the studios as Head of Production and the golden age of Ealing began.
The Studio became best known for its comedies such as The Ladykillers, The Lavender Hill Mob, Passport to Pimlico and Kind Hearts and Coronets. Some of the stars who became associated with Ealing were Alec Guinness, Alastair Sim, Peter Sellars, Gracie Fields and George Formby. He made no less than 11 films here.
Unfortunately, the studios began to have diminishing success around 1955 and were in financial difficulties. This coincided with the realisation at the BBC that they had run out of room at Lime Grove to keep the film department working efficiently.
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Ealing in the 1930s. The building with the curved roof is stage 2 and the other alongside contains stages 3A and 3B. Although the site all around has been updated and rebuilt, the three stages remain today much as you see them here. |
The BBC Years
By 1955 film was used at the BBC mostly for news and current affairs, with some location inserts for studio dramas and comedies. Almost nothing was filmed on stages - as of course the BBC had no dedicated film stages at that time: all their studios were being used to make multicamera TV programmes. They had 10 film camera crews and at Lime Grove there were 14 cutting rooms (editing suites as we would now call them) along with viewing theatres and dubbing suites but there simply was not enough space there. So the BBC began looking for a suitable site for its rapidly expanding Film Department.
Dozens of buildings, some more suitable than others, were looked at such as theatres, cinemas, even closed-down ice rinks. The Board of Management set aside £240,000 to purchase suitable premises as soon as something could be found. They then heard a rumour that Ealing Studios were in financial trouble and began secret negotiations to purchase the property and all its equipment. Of course, the studios were far bigger and better facilities than they were originally seeking but were in many ways ideal - not least being only 20 minutes from Lime Grove and the proposed Television Centre in White City.
On 15th September 1955 the Board of Governors gave the go-ahead and the purchase was completed on 27th January 1956. Ealing Studios thus became BBC Television Film Studios (TFS).
The money set aside was insufficient and they actually paid £350,000 for the land and buildings. However, they also had to find another £200,000 for the film library and all the technical equipment. These were significant sums in those days. There were serious concerns within the BBC at the huge costs involved and it was made very clear by the DG of the day that the BBC would not move in and refurb the whole site bringing it up to their normal high technical standards. The intention at the time was not to replace any existing equipment unless absolutely necessary. In fact, it was anticipated that the stages would be used mostly for storage and rehearsal space. There was clearly a worry that money might be drained from programme making at Lime Grove, Television Theatre and Riverside Studios into a world of movie-making for television which might cost vastly more than shooting the equivalent programme live in a TV studio.
Fred Hamilton has written to me. He was an assistant cameraman and worked with Peter Sargent to shoot some sequences for a drama called Jesus of Nazareth around the middle of 1956. This was the first time one of the Ealing stages had been used by the BBC - they filmed on stage 3A. A small set was built and they lit it with what was left of the old Ealing Studios kit. The camera was a huge, heavy 35mm Vincent Visatone in an equally massive blimp. In later years Fred went on to light the first series of Colditz at Ealing - more on this later. In his autobiography 'Zoom In When You See The Tears' Fred also mentions that the exterior set from The Ladykillers was still on the back lot so they used it as a set for some BBC dramas.
The stages soon began to prove how useful they were for all sorts of work that was impractical to do live in a typical multicamera television studio. According to a BBC document published in 1960, stage 2 was used for large or complicated sets, stage 3A was used for 'general filming' and stage 3B very simple filming such as interviews or for rehearsals.
In order to speed up lighting time on the stages the BBC installed overhead gantries and used rolling towers with lights mounted on them. Unfortunately, the gantries did not last very long at a useful height. Fred Hamilton's autobiography describes how when some scenes for Quatermass and the Pit were filmed on stage 2 in 1958, they were raised to fit the set in. Unfortunately, no money was made available to restore them to the previous more useful height which he writes was a real problem in future years. He also describes the difficulties he had lighting some scenes for Dr Who. These were sets that would have been impractical to build in the studio in Lime Grove where most of the episode was recorded.
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Stage 2. I confess I am not sure whether the overhead lighting gantries shown here are at the 'pre or post' Quatermass height. However, they look pretty high to me. Can you help? |
Despite only a few years earlier being determined not to spend any more money here, according to the 1960 document they proposed installing a complex system of catwalks over the stage floors at a relatively low height (16ft). Some of these at one end of stage 2 would be capable of being raised to 20ft giving extra height if a cyclorama was in use. It seems unlikely that this relatively sophisticated lighting system was ever installed.
John Barlow has sent me a story that amused me. It seems that at some point during his tenure as Head of Film, the Health and Safety Executive were involved in a dispute between BBC TFS and their neighbours. Apparently, the washing of various local residents was becoming soiled when hung out to dry. John found that he was in danger of something similar happening to him when it transpired that the soot was coming from the studio's diesel generators. These were ancient DC gennies and were based on old ship turbines. They had not been replaced with modern AC generators due to the original policy of spending as little as possible here. However, replacement was clearly overdue. Unfortunately, the machines were so old and heavy that in their removal the underground foul drains were damaged, resulting in an even bigger bill to be paid. John says he retained a nut as a memento. A nut?
In fact, the stages here were not used to make dramas for a number of years. At least, not entire dramas. They were however used to film scenes that would have been too difficult to achieve in a TV studio - involving special effects such as fire or water for example. Stage 2 has a tank which proved very useful on several occasions. As mentioned earlier, Quatermass and the Pit used a stage for some scenes and Dr Who was a regular user of Ealing for various scenes in the '60s and '70s although most of it was of course recorded on multicamera video at Lime Grove, Riverside or TV Centre.
By 1960 several big dramas included scenes shot here including Nelson and A Tale of Two Cities with the stages being used to film some interiors. In 1965 no drama was made completely on film but by 1969 things had changed and nine plays were made on film (on location and/or using the Ealing stages).
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A scene from Wuthering Heights ('62) being filmed during the BBC years. The actors are Keith Michell and Claire Bloom. Most of this was recorded at TV Centre but for some reason this scene was filmed at Ealing. Tubby Englander was the DoP. thanks to David Aley for this info |
Probably the first all-film television play was made in 1966 when Jonathan Miller made his acclaimed version of Alice In Wonderland, with the huge courtroom set being constructed on stage 2. This was the largest set built to date on that stage. Until Colditz that is...
One of the classic series shot at Ealing between 1972 and 1974 was indeed Colditz. Most of the interiors were recorded on videotape at TV Centre but the castle courtyard was built on stage 2 and scenes were shot on 16mm film. One of the largest sets ever constructed here, it was extremely accurate and realistic - including a cobbled floor. Filming in the actual courtyard in East Germany was of course not practical but this set managed to convince many viewers that it was the real thing.
During the '70s and '80s the stages continued to be used for a mix of comedy and drama inserts into shows that had most of their running time recorded at TV Centre. Porridge was a typical example between 1974 and 1977 - some of the larger prison sets were built here. However, the number of dramas shot entirely on film gradually increased until by the beginning of the 1990s almost all drama was shot single camera - although some was now being recorded using lightweight video cameras.
Notable dramas using these stages included Dennis Potter's Pennies From Heaven ('78) and The Singing Detective ('86). There was an interesting difference between these two remarkable series. The Singing Detective was shot entirely on film - on location and on the stages at Ealing. However, most of the running time of Pennies From Heaven was recorded in TC6 at TV Centre using the new Link 110 cameras. These produced pictures that were completely different from the 16mm film sequences. This difference in image quality as well as the obvious difference in shooting style between single camera and multicamera was something of a distraction on this drama - as with many plays, series and comedies of the period but it was considered acceptable by most viewers.
By 1986 it had become the norm to shoot major drama series entirely on film and to be honest I think The Singing Detective was all the better for that. Mixing film and video within the same programme for no artistic reason has always been a personal gripe of mine - I think the same medium should be used throughout. I should perhaps mention that I worked as a lowly camera assistant on the TV Centre scenes of Pennies From Heaven. I thought it looked absolutely superb but the film sequences jarred horribly with the studio sequences. It should all have been shot one way or the other.
It was not surprising that most producers and directors preferred working with film. There was the obvious glamour associated with the medium but it also allowed for far more freedom in locations, which of course writers loved. If sets were needed they could be built on a stage at Ealing and the rest shot on real locations. As well as major dramas like Fortunes of War ('87) and An Ungentlemanly Act ('92), Ealing was also used for popular series like Shoestring ('79, '80).
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Cameras, film formats and single camera video used by the BBC
When the BBC first started using Ealing, the most popular film format was 35mm. 16mm was seen as an amateur format and the image quality was relatively poor - partly due to the quality of film emulsion in the 1950s but also due to poor image stability and the lack of suitable cameras and lenses. 16mm Auricon cameras were being used by the news department but the image quality was not considered good enough for drama. However, 35mm was expensive and the equipment big and heavy so there was a desire to move to 16mm if at all possible. Sound too was an issue. However, by 1958 it was possible to use a 16mm Arriflex along with an EMI L2B tape recorder that at last produced acceptable sound and pictures. Later popular cameras included the Eclair NPR and Arri's answer to it - the BL. Forty of these were purchased in the 1960s and each cameraman was given his own camera rather than using a central pool. Overnight all the previous issues of reliability and complaints about faults disappeared as each cameraman treasured his own piece of invaluable kit. Around the beginning of the 1980s the super-16 format began to take over from standard 16mm. This uses the same width of film but it has only one set of sprocket holes and the image fills all the available space. This increases resolution and decreases grain producing excellent results. The image quality continued to improve with the ever increasing sophistication of film stock. This format continued to be used on a few dramas in the post millennium period (eg Merlin between 2008 and 2012) but it gradually died out.
In fact, film is hardly used for TV production at all any more. It has been replaced by digital video cameras using large CCD chips and uncompressed data storage such as the Sony CineAlta, Red One and Arri Alexa and Amira. These cameras produce images in many respects superior to 35mm film (some might disagree with this!) but their images are certainly better than the HD television system can handle or transmit. In fact, almost all drama is shot now in 4K, often with High Dynamic Range. Current digital cameras are the end of a chain that started back in the mid 1970s with the Bosch Fernseh KCR-40 - a tubed lightweight camera that required a separate video recorder but was a revolution in video camera design compared with the huge studio cameras in use at the time. The real groundbreaker was the Ikegami HL-79. Released in 1979 it produced excellent pictures for its day and was not only used as the hand-held camera of choice in TV studios, it also began to be used as a location drama camera - often linked to a small van or OB truck in which might be a racks engineer with a 1 inch videotape recorder. One of these vehicles was based at Ealing and was called the 'Location Production Unit.' One of its successes was The Mayor of Casterbridge. Interestingly, the BBC OB department also built a similar vehicle. Somewhat controversially, so did the BBC Studios department, which built two - named 'Studio Insert Units'. The SIUs were used for EastEnders and various sitcoms and were viewed in a somewhat hostile light by both Ealing and BBC OBs, who considered this kind of work to be their remit! The cabled cameras and vans were replaced at Ealing by video cameras with built-in recorders during the 1980s - although these were not usually considered good enough for all dramas or comedy inserts which often still used 16mm film. Six Ealing crews were issued with portable single cameras (PSC) in 1983 and began to try out this new (to them) medium. Its limitations, particularly in contrast range compared with film were obvious but the cameramen involved soon learnt how to light for video and the PSC cameras began to be used on various programmes. Once CCD lightweight cameras became available - particularly the Sony DVW-700 - then video was used far more by Ealing cameramen - although rarely for major dramas. Now film is hardly ever used in TV - the latest generation of digital movie cameras producing far better pictures and with greater flexibilty than 16mm film.
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The beginning of the 1990s saw many changes at the BBC brought about under John Birt's infamous reign as Director General. In a similar manner to the management of more recent years, he decided that the BBC had to leave a number of its properties and included in the list was Ealing. The studios were sold in 1992 and the department moved to share the BBC's outside broadcast base in Acton - where there were of course no studios or stages. Before the move there were around 60 BBC film dept. camera crews and dozens of scene crew, electricians and back-up office staff. However, this arrangement did not last long and a year or two later the entire film department was closed down and everyone lost their jobs. All the camera crews became freelance - and to be honest, most probably never looked back.
The 1990s
Ealing studios were acquired in 1992 by a company called BBRK - their business was scenery, lighting and special effects. They tried to revive the studios as a centre for film production. Unfortunately, the enterprise collapsed in October 1994. However, during this time the BBC filmed the interiors for the excellent Falklands war drama - An Ungentlemanly Act in 1992.
The studios were purchased by the National Film and Television School, which was based at the old Beaconsfield film studios. The intention was to convert the studios into a film school and to leave Beaconsfield. However, the Lottery Commission decided that it would cost too much to convert Ealing and instead granted money to upgrade Beaconsfield. The NFTS continued to own Ealing for a while and hired the facilities to independent production companies for film, TV and commercial work but this was an arrangement that could not last. Nevertheless, some well-known films were made such as An Ideal Husband and parts of Notting Hill.
In March 1999 the studios were put on the market yet again.
The present
In 2000 Ealing was bought by a consortium from Fragile Films, The Manhattan Loft Corporation and author/producer John Kao. In 2001 they were granted planning permission to extensively redevelop the site as a film studio and base for media companies. The original stages have been preserved but most of all the other buildings have been rebuilt or refurbished to very high quality.
The first new film to be made under the 'Ealing Studios' name was The Importance of Being Earnest ('02) and several other successful features have been made here including Shaun of the Dead ('04), Dorian Gray ('09), Burke and Hare ('10), About Time ('13), I Give It A Year ('13), D-Train ('15), The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ('18) and commercially most successful of all - the St Trinian's films ('07, '09).
The stages continue to be used occasionally for TV production - I worked there myself in 2003 lighting the 2 Pints of Lager musical special When Janet Met Johnny. Most notably however, stages 3A and 3B were used to film the 'downstairs' kitchen scenes in Downton Abbey - there being no suitable locations available. Stage 2 was also used for Let's Dance For Comic Relief/Sport Relief from 2009 to 2011. It is to my knowledge the only show ever made at Ealing using a multicamera OB unit.
Incidentally, as well as the original 3 stages, Ealing now offers stage 1 (54 x 52ft) - described as 'sound deadened' and suitable for small sets, rehearsals, model shots, pack shots etc. plus stage 5 (42 x 22ft), previously the old dubbing theatre and also considered suitable for small sets, interviews, model shots etc.
Twickenham Studios (St Margaret's)
1912 - present
(revised March 2020)
Dr Ralph Jupp owned a chain of cinemas during the 1900s which in later years were bought up by Gaumont-British. Flushed with the success of this enterprise, in 1912 he acquired a skating rink and associated buildings in St. Margaret's, near Twickenham. He turned the rink into what was at the time the biggest shooting stage in the UK (165 x 75ft) with the intention of filming movies to be shown in his cinemas. He called the site 'St Margaret's Studios.' His first feature - The House of Temperley - was released in 1913. He had an eye for the American market too so sent someone across to Hollywood to invite producers, directors and actors to come to his new studio.
Everything went swimmingly for the first couple of years until in 1914 two of his key employees - John East and Percy Nash - set up their own 'Neptune' studio in the countryside near Elstree village in north London. These were the studios that eventually became BBC Elstree Centre. Twickenham suffered heavy losses in 1915-16. Jupp's health suffered and the running of the studios was handed over to his cousin.
The Ideal Company then leased the one stage and made several reasonably successful pictures here with some of the top actors of the day. In 1920, a few months before he died, Jupp sold the studios to the Alliance Company. This company spent £23,000 on new lighting equipment - a lot of cash in those days. Sadly, 2 years later Alliance went bust.
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The studios around 1930 |
Over the following decades Twickenham changed hands several times. By 1928 the site was owned by Julius Hagen and was renamed 'Twickenham Film Studios'. A second stage was opened in September 1934. Sound equipment was introduced but due to the proximity of the railway line, a look-out had to be posted to warn of approaching trains before each take.
The studios were very busy in the early 1930s - sometimes one film used a stage during the day and another at night! Unfortunately, disaster struck in 1935 when the main stage was destroyed by fire.
The studio never fully recovered from this and the company went bust again in 1937. During the war they received a direct hit from a bomb which caused extensive damage.
In 1946 rebuilding work commenced when the studios were acquired by Alliance Film Studios Ltd - who owned Southall, Hammersmith (Riverside) and Twickenham. Probably because much of Twickenham was still damaged, most of their work went to the other two studios.
In the mid to late1950s the studios mostly made commercials, half-hour shorts and filmed television dramas. Things changed when Guido Coen took over as head of the studios in 1959. He built the current stage 2 (50 x 40ft) and began to attract a new form of film making. Several of the 'kitchen sink' gritty dramas such as Alfie and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning were made here. Most notably, Twickenham became The Beatles' favourite film studio with A Hard Day's Night, Help! and Let it Be all filmed here. These were apparently shot on the present stage 1.
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A commercial being filmed at Twickenham in 1958. This marvellous photo was sent to me by Jules Hewitt via Dicky Howett. Jules' family business specialised in the manufacture of film lighting equipment. All the luminaires in this photo are 'Hewitt Universal' lights. |
In the 1980s investment was made in new sound post facilities and many famous features were partly or wholly shot on the stages including Reds, Shirley Valentine, The French Lieutenants's Woman, American Werewolf in London and A Fish Called Wanda whilst others such as Blade Runner, Cry Freedom, Ghandi and Superman used the excellent post production facilities.
Many TV dramas and features used the studios throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium. Tragically two of the key personnel who were running the studios died in very different circumstances in 2005 and 2006 and left Twickenham rudderless for a few years. By the beginning of 2012 it looked as though they would very likely be closed and redeveloped.
A vociferous and enthusiastic campaign to save the studios was run by Maria Walker. Many well-known actors and directors gave their support. For several months it looked very likely indeed that the studios had sadly been lost but suddenly success came in August 2012 when Twickenham was bought by Sunny Vohra. He invested heavily in the studios over the following few years. There was also been a name change simply to Twickenham Studios - possibly reflecting the importance of TV work done here. Nice to hear a happy end to a story like this.
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stage 1 |
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stage 3 |
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Twickenham currently has three stages: stage 1 - 118 x 64ft (7,500sq ft) - includes a tank stage 2 - 50 x 40ft (2,000 sq ft) stage 3 - 93 x 60ft (5,551 sq ft) NB - stages 2 and 3 are linked by a 15 x 12ft door, forming an L-shaped stage if necessary. This can be very useful as work on building or dressing a set can continue whilst shooting is continuing on the other stage. The door can then be opened to allow equipment to move from one stage to the other. Stage 2 was built in 1959 and stage 3 possibly around the same time. I have yet to establish when the current stage 1 was built but I assume in 1946 following the war damage. Stages 1 and 3 certainly appear to have been built at different times. Can you help to solve this puzzle??
Although Twickenham's stages are not the largest, its audio post production facilities are amongst the best in the world. There are 4 superbly equipped dubbing suites/theatres here and many award winning features and TV dramas have had their audio post production carried out at Twickenham. Recent titles have included Bohemian Rhapsody and 1917.
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Movies that have filmed scenes on the stages at Twickenham include The Duchess ('08), An Education ('09), My Week With Marilyn ('11), War Horse ('11), The Iron Lady ('11), Before I Go To Sleep ('14), Frankenstein ('14), Bastille Day ('15) but many more well known features have been dubbed and/or mixed here.
TV work includes: Poirot, The Saint, Mother Love, Children of the North, Lipstick On Your Collar, Cold Comfort Farm, Against All Odds, Cats' Eyes, Murder Most Horrid, Our Friends in the North, Deacon Brodie, Talking Heads, Microsoap, Spaced, Dirty Work, Man and Boy, Down To Earth, Tipping the Velvet, The Commander, The Kindness of Strangers, Horrible Histories, Sketchy, Primeval, The Hairy Bikers, Morgana, Horrid Henry, Him and Her, A Young Doctor's Notebook, Mr Sloane, Cuban Fury, Some Girls, Inside Number 9, Crims, Psychobitches, The Kennedys, The Durrells. In 2015 Twickenham hosted its first multi-camera TV gameshow - Tipping Point.
In June 2018 it was announced that the management of these studios would also be marketing the new studios being constructed at the Littlewoods Pools building in Liverpool. Two large stages are planned there, enabling a lot more flexibility in what Twickenham can offer potential clients.
Another interesting development came in March 2020. According to press reports, The Creative District Improvement Company (TCDIC) and subsidiary operating company 'Time + Space Studios' - led by Piers Read and Jeremy Rainbird - had acquired Twickenham Studios and the Littlewoods Studios mentioned above. (Sunny Vohra, who bought the studios eight years previously and saved them from demolition, will stay on as co-owner and chairman.)
They will apparently be spending £50m on this aquisition and further improvement at Twickenham. The work at Twickenham will, it seems, include the addition of film stages and office space - although frankly it's hard to see quite where this might be done, since the site is relatively small and densely packed with existing buildings.
According to their website TCDIC have stated that they will be investing an astonishing £500m in a network of film studios across the UK. They say that they are committed to operating one million sq ft of film and TV production space by 2024. This will include new film studios in Ashford, Kent.
Southall Film Studios
1924 - 1958
(revised March 2020)
The great producer/director GB Samuelson purchased an old aircraft hangar in Gladstone Road, Southall in 1924 with the intention of making silent films there. For whatever reason, the studio appears to have been little used for the first few years but then started making a number of quota quickies.
(Of course, if there was a hangar, there must at one time have been an airfield which is hard to imagine now in that very built-up area just south of the Great Western railway line.)
In the early 1930s ownership changed hands a few times. Unfortunately the main stage was burned to the ground in 1936 but was replaced with 3 stages of 75x50ft, 50x50ft and 50x25ft.
It is likely that the stages were used for storage during the war, as were many around London. In 1946 Southall became part of the Alliance Film Studios group who also owned Twickenham and Hammersmith (Riverside). Many films were made here at this time, starring popular British actors of the period such as Richard Attenborough.
Television began to play an important part in the studios' history from as early as 1952. Three pilot episodes of Colonel March of the Yard were filmed starring Boris Karloff along with Joan Sims, Patricia Owens and Dana Wynter. This is interesting - I wonder who was the intended customer? The BBC made all its own programmes and the first ITV companies would not be on the air until 1955. However, people were talking about the new commercial television for several years before then so maybe Southall made these three episodes in order to create interest in prospective customers as soon as they were awarded franchises. However, just in case, the three episodes were also re-edited to form an 'anthology' feature film called Colonel March Investigates so the money spent on making them would not have been completely wasted.
In 1954 another 23 episodes were shot so they must have found a customer by then. These included such names as Christopher Lee, Anthony Newley, Alfred Burke and a very young Richard O'Sullivan. The series was produced by Hannah Weinstein who also created the very popular Adventures of Robin Hood at Walton Studios. Both productions used very efficient shooting techniques enabling a rapid turnaround of episodes.
Other TV dramas were also made here. However, there were still features being shot. For instance, Hammer made Life With the Lyons here in 1954. This is quite interesting as they already owned Bray Studios by then so why use Southall? I have checked and in 1954 no less than 8 films were shot at Bray, which was a relatively small studio. I can only assume that they couldn't fit that movie in so it was made here. The Lyons Abroad was also made at Southall in 1955 - probably for the same reason. These films were spin-offs from the popular radio comedy show Life With the Lyons.
By 1956 the studios were listed as a television production centre. Commercials became a regular source of work. Pearl and Dean (yes, sing the tune now) made many ads here to be shown in cinemas.
The final title made here in 1958 was The Trollenberg Terror - aka The Crawling Eye. This was first filmed as a TV series then remade as a horror movie. Directed by Quentin Lawrence it starred Forrest Tucker, Janet Munro and, er, Warren Mitchell (better known as Alf Garnett) as Professor Crevett. IMDb describes it thus - 'A series of decapitations on a Swiss mountainside appear to be connected to a mysterious radioactive cloud.' Perhaps a small studio in Southall isn't the obvious place a movie like this might be shot but the film was considered pretty chilling at the time.
The studios sadly closed after making this epic and were demolished. The area is now an industrial estate.
Elstree Studios
1925 - present
(revised March 2020)
Boreham Wood was, in the 1920s, an area of fields and woodland with a single main road running through it. Near the station were a couple of pubs, a few shops and a scattered collection of houses owned mostly by commuters using the nearby Elstree railway station. The station is actually not even close to Elstree village which is a mile away at the top of a hill. It was, however, the nearest village when the station was opened. Thus, Elstree railway station is now in Borehamwood town centre. When the various studios were opened here they took their name from the station, not the wood, and so we had the various 'Elstree' studios which were actually in Borehamwood. Borehamwood expanded over the years - largely thanks to the film industry - and is now a large town whilst Elstree has remained a small village. Is that any clearer? No, I thought not.
The town of Borehamwood has over the years been home to six film studios (seven if you include ELP's Millennium Studios or eight if you include the new Sky studios) and has often been dubbed the 'British Hollywood.' There is sometimes confusion amongst those not well-informed as to which films and TV programmes were made in which studio. By 'studio' I mean a site containing several film stages. This chapter deals with the site that is currently known simply as 'Elstree Studios'. (The only other major studio currently in operation in the town is the BBC Elstree Centre where EastEnders and Holby City are made. The new Sky Studios Elstree are due to open in 2022.)
It was originally created in 1925 by a trio of entrepreneurs - J D Williams, W Schlesinger and Herbert Wilcox and was called British National Studios. There was a stormy two years of operation which ended with the company being taken over by John Maxwell, who had been called in to help by the original three. He renamed the company British International Pictures in 1927.
BIP produced dozens of films - many of them 'quota quickies' - in the years leading up to the war. In 1928 Maxwell began to create a cinema chain - Associated British Cinemas - which by 1930 had grown to 120. By the end of the 1930s BIP had evolved into the Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC) and the studio became known as ABPC Studios. When war broke out in 1939 they were commandeered by the Royal Ordnance Corps and used for storage. Maxwell died in 1940 and control of ABPC passed to Warner Bros. According to the 1942 Kinematograph Year book, in that year the studios had 9 sound stages.
Following the war, the old stages were demolished and new ones built, along with an impressive production block that faced the main road. Four large stages were constructed (each 150 x 100ft) and Hitchcock was one of the first directors to use the new studios with Stagefright. Our subject is television and the history of film-making at Elstree is well documented elsewhere. However - it is worth recording that the '50s, '60s and some of the '70s were particularly busy and many successful movies were made here ranging from Summer Holiday to Star Wars.
The four stages were joined by another - stage 5 - in the mid '50s. It was 137 x 115ft. (Interesting somewhat random dimensions!) This stage was not particularly well soundproofed and apparently can be seen in the On The Buses films doubling as the exterior of the bus garage. It was built over a water tank that had been previously constructed. The tank was quite large - 89 x 49ft and 3ft 6ins deep. (Why didn't they make it 90 x 50ft?)
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Elstree Studios around 1960. Almost none of this remains today. click to see in greater detail |
In the late '50s stage 1 was divided in two - thus creating stage 6. Some years later, following the construction of stages 7, 8 and 9 in 1966, this division was removed. In 1978 another stage 6 was constructed at the back of the site. This was huge - 30,000 sq ft in fact - and was built for The Empire Strikes Back.
However - we are getting ahead of ourselves. ABPC was somewhat reluctantly drawn into the new enterprise of commercial television in 1956. Its subsidiary, ABC Television, took over Warner Bros' studios at Teddington to make television programmes on video but there was plainly a market to make drama series on film too.
Shepperton Studios
1932 - present
(revised March 2020)
From 1955 - when Associated-Rediffusion started to film programmes here because they feared that their Wembley TV studios might not be ready - to the present day (since television dramas are still filmed here), these studios have played a part in our television history. As well as single camera drama the stages have also from time to time seen various multicamera shows recorded using outside broadcast units.
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Shepperton currently has 14 stages but is due to double in size over the next few years. However, it began many years ago - like several UK film studios - growing up around a grand house and estate. In this case, Littleton Park - a 17th century manor house surrounded by 60 acres. The house has changed considerably over the years and was extensively rebuilt at the end of the 19th century following a fire. In 1928 Norman Loudon bought the estate. He was a camera manufacturer but also made a small fortune selling 'flicker' books that gave an impression of movement when flicked with a thumb. His ambitions were rather greater however and in 1932 he founded Sound City Film Producing and Recording Studios. Two stages were constructed in the grounds - one at 110ft x 80 ft and later a second stage 80ft x 45ft. These eventually became stages L and M. The larger one was destroyed during the Second World War and was rebuilt to a slightly smaller size. L is now 100ft x 68ft and is still in use in 2020 but is due to be lost in the planned redevelopment.
In 1936 stages A/B and C/D were constructed. (A and C are 150ft x 120ft; B and D are 100ft x 120ft) These still form the hub of the site. They were superbly designed, with excellent sound insulation and ventilation plants. They form two pairs that are separated by connecting doors, so a very long set can be constructed if necessary. The ability to link two of the stages was, incidentally, used for the 2008 series of Gladiators - made for Sky 1. The show was made on stages A and B and was shot using an OB unit for facilities.
During the war the four large stages were used at first to store sugar, later to manufacture bomber parts when the Vickers-Armstrong factory a few miles away suffered a direct hit. Meanwhile, thousands of decoy aircraft, tanks and guns were built in the scenery construction workshops. These were used to help confuse the pilots of enemy aircraft both in the UK and in North Africa. Following the war in 1945 Sound City reopened, with all four large stages plus the smaller L stage. A year later Shepperton was bought by successful film maker Alexander Korda, who renamed it British Lion Studio Company.
Probably around 1952/3 the huge H stage was moved here from Worton Hall Studios, Isleworth. At the time it was the largest stage in Europe at 250ft x 120ft or 30,000 sq ft. Faced in sheets of corrugated iron, it was probably the ugliest film stage in the UK but my word, it is big. (It is similar in area to the Attenborough stage and new Q stage at Pinewood but is longer and narrower.) It has a small tank but what makes the H stage unique is that the entire floor area can be flooded. This was for example made use of in 2004 when it housed the huge set for the Bat Cave in Batman Begins, complete with flowing river. A full-scale sailing ship was built in it for Elizabeth: The Golden Age in 2006. It was also used for the spooky forest in Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow in 1998. Most of this feature was shot at Leavesden but this set consisted of tons of soil and grass, dozens of real trees and was lit with several hundred space lights - each with its own feed back to a row of Portacabins. The cables were strung across Studio Road on a scaffolding bridge and several generators were parked alongside, the generous electrical feed to the studio being insufficient for this collossal rig. The spacelights were individually adjusted in brightness for each shot giving the soft ambience required - but also providing direction of light. It has proved to be one of the most useful stages in the country over many years. However, it is due to be lost in the plans announced in 2018 for the rebuilding and expansion of Shepperton.
Further investment was made in the studios and in 1953 E, F and G stages were built. (E and F are both 72ft x 44ft; G is 94ft x 72ft) These three stages came into their own in 1955 when Associated-Rediffusion needed a bank of programmes shot on film to get them through the first few weeks of broadcasting. Their Wembley television studios were only just going to be ready in time for the first transmission date. In Derek Threadgall's excellent book 'Shepperton Studios, an independent view' he quotes Peter Graham Scott...
Korda was one of the greats of the British film industry and under his stewardship several successful films were made. However, the company's finances were built on shaky ground. In 1955 the company was wound up and British Lion Films took over the assets of its predecessor. Sadly Korda died of a heart attack in 1956. In 1957 the four main stages were modernised with new roofs and grids but 1961 was the year that saw huge investment here. New wardrobe blocks for stages A/B, C/D and E F G were constructed. A 'new' stage - I (124ft x 57ft) - was moved here from Walton Studios where it had been used in the filming of The Adventures of Robin Hood which had been made for ATV. (This stage was demolished in 2006.) A new dubbing theatre was also built - this probably also came from Walton. Controversially, in the same year the old stable block and distinctive clock tower were demolished along with the restaurant and bar in the Old House to make way for stages J and K. These were considerably smaller than the present J and K. J was 80ft x 36ft and K was a tiny 36ft x 35ft. They were built specifically for screen tests and to be used for television commercials and dramas - although it is not recorded how much of this use they actually had. Certainly, J was too small to be used for anything that needed more than a simple set or two and K was too small to be used for much at all other than pack shots or to film a single person for a screen test. These stages were adapted into a three story admin building in 1996 when the new J and K were built. This was named the David Lean Building.
During the '60s Shepperton was used for a few ITC TV drama series: Man of the World ('62, '63), Man in a Suitcase ('67, '68) Strange Report ('68, '69) and a few episodes of Danger Man ('65) were also shot here although most of it was made at MGM Borehamwood. The majority of ITC's dramas were filmed at Elstree Studios. In 1965 and 1966 the two Peter Cushing Dr Who films were made here. They built huge sets on the H stage as well as using other stages and also made use of the back lot, which was just to the south of the H stage, in the area now occupied by a housing estate. Of particular interest was a very detailed city street set, which took up an area just north of the river. This set consisted of two intersecting roads, with other roads crossing at each end. It had shops, banks and other buildings up to three stories high. It was probably originally built in 1964 for Allez France (aka The Counterfeit Constable.) It was redressed as an 18th century street and used next for The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders in 1965. In 1966 it became present day New York for Promise Her Anything. Night Caller from Outer Space used the set next. Following that, it became Victorian London for A Study In Terror. The set was also used for several episodes of Danger Man and in 1966 The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery shot some scenes on it. Following all these, the set was used for several big stunts and effects in Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD in 1966. It's amazing just how many films and TV dramas made use of this set over a relatively short length of time. The idea of having standing sets that could be redressed and used for different productions was revived when Pinewood was planning something similar but on a vastly more ambitious scale in 2007 with 'Project Pinewood.' Of course, it never happened. (Many thanks to the Terry Nation Army YouTube videos for the info on the back lot street set.)
1965 Stanley Kubrick made a relatively brief return visit to Shepperton. Here's a snippet that might be of interest to film buffs of a certain age and disposition. The first day's shooting on 2001: A Space Odyssey was on the H stage. The set was the excavated site on the Moon where the monolith had been discovered. The 'hole' was 150ft x 50ft x 20 ft deep and at one end had an area representing the Moon's surface. The first day of shooting this extraordinary film was December 29th 1965, some three and a half years before a man would actually step onto the Moon itself. (The majority of the film was shot at the MGM studios in Borehamwood, where it occupied most of the stages there for several years.) Oh well - I think it's interesting, anyway.
British Lion's success grew during the 1960s but they were constantly fighting the overall decline in the British film industry as a whole. Nevertheless, investment continued - in 1965 L stage was re-equipped. In fact, between 1958 and 1966 half a million pounds (a great deal of money at the time) was spent on new buildings and equipment. Unfortunately, during the '70s the decline began to seriously affect the viability of British Lion. In 1972, the company was taken over by Barclay Securities. They intended to redevelop much of the site (a familiar story unfortunately) but luckily and rather surprisingly, tree preservation orders prevented them from carrying out their plans. A campaign was begun to save the studios which resulted in a deal in 1973 whereby the studio backlot was sold off but twenty acres were retained, which included all the existing stages. Barclay Securities was at this time taken over by J H Vavasseur and Co., who became the new owners of Shepperton Studios. A new deal was proposed that increased the site by another two acres and the plans included the proposal to move H stage to another part of the site. It didn't happen. By 1974 the studios were said to be in a run-down state. Studio equipment was sold off to pay for the rebuilding of some roads and the rewiring of several of the stages. Yet another owner arrived in June 1975 when British Lion (by then called Lion International) was bought by Spikings and Deeley. They shortly afterwards changed the name to Mills and Allen International. I hope you're keeping up with all this. In 1977 some more of the site including the original entrance was sold off to be used for housing. This saved the studios from closure. Another part of the site was also threatened but was leased by a company owned by The Who (good for them!). They took over six acres including Littleton House and J and K stages. The redevelopment of that part of the site was thus prevented.
During the 1970s and early '80s stages E, F and G were occupied by a company called BBRK. They often also used the giant stage H. This business was owned by four art directors who specialised in designing sets for distinctive TV commercials. If you lived through that period you will definitely have seen their work which helped define the cultural experience of all of us. Many famous directors shot commercials on their stages on some extraordinary sets. These included the Cadbury's Smash Martians, PG Tips chimps, Hamlet cigars and the ad that stopped me dead in my tracks one day in a cinema on my way to buying an ice cream - the Benson and Hedges swimming pool. Nobody had seen anything like these beautifully made commercials before.
Phil Rutter has written to me with an interesting story. It seems that the builders Taylor Woodrow decided that they needed a studio to create corporate videos. An offshoot of the company called Kadek Vision was created and they took out a lease on a construction workshop in 1977. This was between stages E, F and G and the canteen block. The two-storey building was gutted and a TV studio created within it. Initially it was equipped with low grade Philips Video80 kit but this was later replaced with broadcast quality cameras and RCA quad VTR machines. They dug a trench to install cables linking their VTRs with the BBRK stages so that some ads could be shot on video rather than film. Phil tells me that they made quite a few. This was pretty ground-breaking but to be honest, it never really caught on as a replacement to film. Ads to this day have always tried to look like 30-second features.
In 1984 a major upturn in the fortunes of Shepperton began when the whole site, including The Who's land was purchased by the Lee brothers for £3.6m. They also later took back ownership of the land occupied by the old H stage, which you'll remember had been threatened with demolition to make way for more housing. Lee were running Wembley studios at the time and had had some success there with a mix of commercials, filmed TV drama and one or two major feature films a year. Shepperton became Lee International Studios and a programme of investment began. In fact, they also kept Wembley on until July 1986 - which at the time rather confusingly also had the name 'Lee International Film Studios.' During 1985 stages L and M were upgraded and new workshops surrounding stages A/B and C/D were constructed. These included smart new lighting stores - not surprising considering the new owners. The following year a stylish new art department building adjoining a large workshop block was completed. All seemed to be going very well. The company was so confident in fact, that in 1987 Lee International bought the Panavision company. This stretched the finances considerably but it looked like a good idea at the time. Sadly, very shortly afterwards came 'Black Monday' and huge amounts were wiped off the value of shares worldwide. The company was in difficulties and other problems began to emerge which led to a Serious Fraud Office investigation. Not only that, but film making dried up due to a strike by the US Screen Writers' Guild. American investment bankers Warburg-Pincus bought out the company, and the Lee brothers lost the influence they had enjoyed over the industry for many years. The studios continued to operate under the Lee International name, however. I have read that the emphasis of operations at Shepperton focused on television production around this time, but I have yet to establish any examples of drama series made here in the late '80s. The new owners continued with the steady programme of investment. In 1994, R and S stages were opened on the northern edge of the site alongside H stage. (R is 120ft x 85ft and S is 100ft x 100ft) They were constructed using the steel from the old stage 6 at Elstree, previously built for The Empire Strikes Back. The original Elstree stage had been dismantled to make way for a Tesco superstore and sold to Shepperton. R and S are a different shape from the one they were built from and in fact some steel girders remained - they were used on the later construction of the W stage.
In 1995 a new chapter began when Ridley and Tony Scott bought the studios. They immediately brought an experienced and fresh eye to the studios which became known simply as 'Shepperton Studios'. Within a few months they began to develop much of the site with new facilities. In 1996 three stages were built. W is 130ft x 80ft and the double stage J & K are larger - J is 150ft x 100ft and K is 120ft x 100ft. When it opened, the building was one single very large stage and was used for the film Lost in Space. After that movie wrapped it was divided into the present two stages - J & K. The earlier much smaller J and K were adapted to become The David Lean Building. The next five years saw a period of stability during which the studios were used for many big British and international movies. By now, Shepperton was equipped with many good sized stages and a useful back lot that were attracting film makers. However, they were in direct competition with Pinewood which was not helping either of them financially. Each studio was also having to turn movies down because they weren't quite big enough to fit in all the potential work. The answer was to combine assets so on 11th February 2001 a merger with Pinewood was announced and a new company - Pinewood-Shepperton plc - was formed. They are still known as Shepperton Studios but are now part of the Pinewood Studios Group.
In May 2004 Pinewood-Shepperton submitted a planning application to carry out a major rebuilding programme over ten years. It was intended to increase the amount of square footage of stages and supporting areas by more than twenty percent. There was a similar long-term plan submitted for Pinewood. The Pinewood plan was partly carried out with some modifications but relatively little redevelopment took place here compared with what was planned. In September 2006, Pinewood Shepperton plc announced that it had entered into a joint venture with Morley Fund Management Limited on behalf of Aviva plc Life Funds. The 50:50 joint venture, called Shepperton Studio Property Partnership, acquired the 999 year leasehold interest of Shepperton Studios with a view to further developing the studio in line with the planning consents achieved by the company. Thus, the new partnership was to release the funding necessary to begin the ambitious construction plans mentioned above. The demolition of stage I and construction of 'I block' began in late 2006 - it was then named the John Mills building and was completed in 2007. The 60,000 sq ft Gainsborough Building opened in June 2008. The latter block contains offices and facilities for media companies and additional space for productions currently shooting on the Shepperton stages. However, despite the announcement, rather disapointingly no new stages were actually built.
At the end of 2014 Pinewood-Shepperton bought out Aviva to become sole owners of the studios. They paid £36.8m. In June 2014 it was announced that the controversial major development at Pinewood (PSDF) would be going ahead. At the same time and barely commented upon, Pinewood also stated that 2 new stages would be constructed at Shepperton. However, for whatever reason, these were not built.
In February 2018 there were interesting press reports of a possible major expansion at Shepperton. The Pinewood Group had bought 100 acres of adjoining land and were preparing a plan to significantly increase the facilities here. Proposals were being prepared and a planning application would be submitted soon. This is of course on top of the major expansion taking place at Pinewood itself. These plans moved a little closer in June 2018 when Shepperton confirmed that they were planning to add new sound stages, offices, workshops, backlots, car parking and infrastructure. They were actively consulting with local residents and the local council before submitting a planning application. In October 2018, various major production companies including Disney, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios and Netflix strongly supported the expansion, stating that they would certainly make use of the increased studio space. Shepperton estimated that its expansion would create an annual productivity boost of more than £141m to the UK economy. This would help the government's ambition to double film and high-end TV investment to the UK from £2bn in 2017 to £4bn by 2025. In February 2019 the £500m development moved on to the next phase when outline planning permission was narrowly passed by Spelthorne Borough Council.
I have hardly mentioned any films made here in the history of the studio site above. The list is almost endless and is easily found in several excellent books about Shepperton. However - it would be wrong not to mention any so here are a few notable ones from the post-war years... An Ideal Husband ('47), The Third Man ('49), The Wooden Horse ('50), The Sound Barrier ('52), The Colditz Story ('54), Hobson's Choice ('54), Richard III ('55), Room at the Top ('58), Our Man in Havana ('59), I'm All Right Jack ('59), The Angry Silence ('60), The Guns of Navarone ('61), The L-Shaped Room ('62), Dr Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb ('63), Becket ('64), The Spy Who Came in From The Cold ('64), Darling ('65), A Man For All Seasons ('66), Oliver! ('68), The Day of the Jackal ('72), Young Winston ('72), Return of the Pink Panther ('75), Alien ('78), Privates on Parade ('81), Ghandi ('82), Nineteen Eighty-Four ('83), The Company of Wolves ('84), Passage To India ('84), Out Of Africa ('85), Cry Freedom ('86), 84 Charing Cross Road ('86), Gorillas in the Mist ('87), Henry V ('88), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves ('90), The Crying Game ('91), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein ('93), Four Weddings and a Funeral ('93), The Madness of King George ('94), Sense and Sensibility ('94), Shadowlands ('94), Braveheart ('95), Evita ('95), Elizabeth ('96), Sliding Doors ('97), Shakespeare in Love ('98), Notting Hill ('98), Gladiator ('98), The End of the Affair ('98), Billy Elliot ('99), Spy Game ('00), Chocolat ('00), Possession ('01), Love Actually ('02), K19: The Widowmaker ('02), Finding Neverland ('02), Calender Girls ('02), Troy ('03), Stage Beauty ('03), Mrs Henderson Presents ('04), Batman Begins ('04), The Da Vinci Code ('05), His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass ('06), Black Book ('06), Inkheart ('08), Moon ('08), The Boat that Rocked ('08), FAQs About Time Travel ('08), The Young Victoria ('08), Robin Hood ('09), Nine ('09), Chatroom ('10), Captain America ('10), Hugo Cabret ('10), 47 Ronin ('11), Last Passenger ('11), A Fantastic Fear of Everything ('12), Thor: The Dark World ('13), Gravity ('13), World War Z ('13), Paddington ('14), Guardians of the Galaxy ('14), Into the Woods ('14), Avengers: Age of Ultron ('15), Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass ('15), Dr Strange ('16), Patient Zero ('16), Life ('16), Beauty and the Beast ('16), Mary Poppins Returns ('17), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again ('17), Detective Pikachu ('18), 1917 ('19), Dolittle ('19), The Old Guard ('19), Cruella ('20)
The list above is very impressive and what strikes me is the continuing consistency of the high quality of the films over the years. It is also nice to see that the studios have produced so many excellent British films. Shepperton has been used for several multicamera TV productions over the years. These include You Bet ('88-'95) Red Dwarf ('91-'99 then '12-'15) The National Lottery Big Ticket ('98) The Vicar of Dibley ('97-'06). (I had the pleasure of lighting the Christmas and new year episodes for 2004/5 on stage B.) As mentioned above, Sky 1's Gladiators ('08) was recorded here too - series one on A and B stages and series 2 just on the A stage. In 2011 ITV's Dancing on Ice moved to the J and K stages at Shepperton from its previous home at Elstree but it returned to Elstree in 2012. Due to the lack of available TV studios, in the autumn of 2014 K stage was shared by 8 Out of 10 Cats and Russell Howard's Good News. An OB truck provided facilities and the lighting rigs for both shows were suspended on trussing. The audience seating was shared but the sets were built and struck each week for the two shows. Neither show returned for their next series but managed to book proper TV studios elsewhere. You may draw your own conclusions. I hope to add a list of single-camera television drama and comedy shot here in due course but I have noted that Blackadder Back and Forth was shot here in 1999, Jam and Jerusalem in 2006 and BBC comedy Beautiful People was made here in 2008. For several years, the longest-running sitcom on British TV was made at Shepperton. I refer of course to Last of the Summer Wine. The interiors were shot here on single camera and the final edited programme projected to a studio audience at Teddington to record their reaction. Interestingly, despite the longevity of the show (and its cast), in its final years it was shot using the latest HD camera technology. One assumes this was to make the most of the beautiful location sequences rather than revealing all the crags and crevices of the distinguished cast.
Whilst dealing with Shepperton, a brief mention should be made about Lion Television Services. This company was an offshoot of British Lion Films and was led by Peter Lloyd, who had previously been running the Granville Studio. It was formed in 1969 and was an independent company with an OB unit that was based at these studios, occasionally using one of the stages to make programmes.
Regarding Lion TV, Mike Fitch has sent me the following... '...originally formed by an ex-ATV producer called Peter Lloyd. We had a garage and offices built on the left hand side just after coming through the main gate. We didn't fit out a studio there but we often used the scanner as a plug in to a studio with great success. We started off with a b&w scanner with Emi 2028 cameras, whilst we were building our colour scanner which was equipped with LDK 3 cameras. The first Head of Cameras was Roy Garner, ex ATV and then it was the late Dave Swann who tragically died in 1989 in a hotel fire in Bulgaria. The other cameramen at that time were John Howard, an Oz whereabouts not known, Barrie Dodd, who became Head of Cameras at Visions Mobiles, and Dave Barber (Rocket) who eventually formed his own OB company which is Telegenic. After a couple of years British Lion put us up for sale and we were bought by Trident Recordings, who renamed us Trilion.' Trilion are covered on the Independent TV Studios page.
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Pinewood Studios
1935 - present
(Revised March 2020)
Pinewood is the UK's largest studio - currently with 24 sound stages, an underwater stage, an exterior tank and 3 TV studios. It is probably the best known UK film studio in the world. Although Pinewood quite rightly deserves this fame for all the successful feature films made here, many TV dramas, comedies and entertainment shows have also been made in Pinewood's TV studios and film stages.
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The photograph above shows Pinewood Studios in the 1950s. (Compare it with the cutaway drawing below to discover what each building was used for.) At that time there were only five main sound stages: A - E. The old stately home, Heatherden Hall, can be seen foreground right. Its grounds have been used for many a location, including of course several of the Carry On films. The triangular pattern of paths on the large lawn on the foreground left indicates by coincidence the site and shape of the huge outdoor 'Paddock Tank', which was built in 1959/60. The open area towards the top of the picture is now occupied by several more stages, supporting buildings and the back lot - and the fields to the top right over the road have been occupied by stages too since 2016. |
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This advertisement shows the studios as they were in 1961. There are five main stages, two smaller ones - F and G - and the long narrow one (top right, marked '21') later called stage H is referred to here as the 'tunnel stage.' Click on the image to see it in greater resolution. |
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Pinewood's story dates from 1934 when Charles Boot, a businessman with film-making ambitions, bought Heatherden Hall. A year later he met J Arthur Rank and the rest is, as they say, history. Stages A - E were the first to be built and still form the hub of the site. In 1957 an additional two smaller stages (F and G) were brought into operation along with two new viewing theatres. Other stages have been added over the years including, of course, the huge 007 stage - which was originally built in 1976 for the film The Spy Who Loved Me. When completed it was 334ft x 136ft and was the largest stage in the world. It also had one of the biggest indoor tanks - at 297ft x 72ft and nearly nine feet deep. It was in fact a 'silent' stage as it was not soundproofed. Nevertheless, dialogue was often recorded in it - although filming sometimes had to wait for the occasional passing aircraft. This stage was completely destroyed by fire in June 1984 and reopened in January 1985, with a few alterations to its design, as the 'Albert R Broccoli 007 Stage', in honour of the producer of many early Bond movies. It is however known throughout the industry simply as 'The Bond Stage'.
On Sunday 30th July 2006, during the derigging of sets for Casino Royale, fire broke out once again. The stage was almost completely destroyed but within a few months it had been dismantled and trucks laden with steel were arriving on site to begin the construction of its replacement. The new stage was completed in March 2007. It is said to have better sound insulation than before and the design is rather different with vertical walls rather than the sloping ones of its predecessor. The structural steel frame is now cleverly outside the walls thus increasing the useable floor area considerably. It has gone from about 45,000 sq ft to 59,000 sq ft and is the largest in Europe. Even that wasn't big enough for the film Prometheus in 2011. One end of the stage was opened up and a temporary structure extended it many more feet onto the back lot.
There is little point in trying to name all the films that have been made at Pinewood. The list goes on and on. It includes some of the greatest and most successful movies made anywhere in the world. The studios' own website is an excellent source of historical material and there are several books that recount the ups and downs of these studios. But - our subject is television, so... Pinewood was first and foremost a film studio. However, the increasing demand for television drama shot on film created a new market in the early 1960s. According to George Perry's book, 'Movies from the Mansion', in 1964 stage H was built specifically to house MCA productions, who were to make several filmed TV series. Owen and Burford's more recent book 'The Pinewood Story' says the same. The books state that as well as the 'new' stage a self-contained block was constructed with admin areas, dressing rooms, make-up and wardrobe. The first TV series was called Court Martial and consisted of 26 x 48-minute episodes. I must confess, I have a problem with this account. To be frank, H stage never looked as though it was built to make television productions in the 1960s. It is no longer with us but for many years was an ugly, concrete construction and was in fact much older than that. It can be seen on aerial photos of the site dating back to the 1950s and in the drawing shown above is referred to as the 'tunnel stage.' It was very narrow - making it rather difficult to arrange sets within it, I would have thought. It joined onto the Large Process Stage - another even narrower long building and was part of that complex. Confusingly, the Large Process Stage is now called stage H. The original H stage was a very odd shape being 89 feet long but only 36ft 6ins wide. (The current H stage is possibly even more strange being 115ft x 28ft.)
My conclusion, although I have yet to find final proof of this, is that the tunnel stage was refurbished and renamed H in 1964. Thus the stage was not actually built for MCA, rather it was adapted from its previous use. New admin and wardrobe/makeup facilities were created alongside it for MCA to use. However, this is not all they used. Bill Hill, one of their producers, has recalled that... 'The people at Pinewood built us our requirements as a self-contained unit. They gutted a whole block and reconstructed it, creating an admin block, completely self-contained and inter-communicating, plus dressing rooms, make-up, hairdressing and wardrobe departments. They modified three stages for our production. (My emphasis) This went on during July and August. The unit of 150 people started to arrive ready to shoot on 7 September.' (This quotation is gratefully taken from Owen and Burford's 'The Pinewood Story.') Thus, it seems that two more stages were involved, as well as H. Stages F and G were nearby so one assumes that these three formed the dedicated MCA complex.
In 1966, work began on two new stages - J & K. Constructing them would cost £352,000. Previous stages on studio sites in the UK had mostly been built out of steel, clad in concrete - often painted cream. Frankly, these old stages are not particularly attractive as buildings. However, J and K were different in many ways. They were faced with red brick and with their admin and wardrobe/make-up facilities as part of the construction they form a nicely proportioned and visually attractive construction. The Pinewood management and architects visited studios all over the world to discover the latest techniques in design and construction and applied them to these stages. Television was very much in mind when they were designed. This requires fast re-lighting of sets so a grid with monopoles was included. Monopoles allow lights to be rigged with great accuracy and to be positioned much faster than on conventional film stages. (The way overhead lights are rigged on film stages is to mount them on elevated or suspended platforms or to hang them on scaffold poles, ladder beams or trusses that are hung from the grid via steel lines or chain hoists. This is a very slow and relatively inflexible method.) In J & K a grid was designed combining monopoles for lightweight lamps and I-beams enabling very heavy lights and scenery to be suspended. The other main difference between a TV studio and film stage is the floor. A film stage traditionally has a floor covered in hard wooden blocks that can have nails hammered in, enabling scenery to be secured rigidly to the ground. Thus, any camera moves have to incorporate the use of tracks as the floor is too uneven to roll a dolly across it. This takes time to set up - time that does not exist in the making of television programmes. TV studios have a hard concrete floor covered with perfectly flat lino or resin, enabling the wheels of camera peds or dollies to run smoothly over it. J and K were intended to be used for both film and television so this created a problem. The solution was to have a hard smooth floor that had a wooden surface laid over it when required. The wood block floor was laid in removable pallets 8ft x 5ft which sat on top of the flat TV floor. In fact, after a year or two the wood stayed down until 2000, when the stages became dedicated TV studios and new resin floors were laid. More on this later. The stages were also constructed with very effective acoustic isolation, being built on separate concrete rafts. The centre production office/control room/makeup and wardrobe area between the stages sits on its own T-shaped floating raft. This is all quite a contrast to some of today's studios that have been very simply and cheaply adapted from former industrial buildings.
From the sound point of view, the stages included 'high grade microphones and the installation of a Mellotron.' For those of us old enough to remember bands like Yes, Genesis and King Crimson, the word Mellotron conjures up the sound of grand sweeping strings, brass sections, 8-voice choirs and many other classic sounds of '70s progressive rock. However, because the Mellotron was basically a keyboard with a pre-recorded tape linked to each key on the keyboard, there were non-musical versions available that had sound effects on each key so that these could be played in immediately in real time, much as digital samplers are used today, thus saving time on the dub. Another bit of forward planning in the design of these stages was to include space for TV control rooms. At the time of construction, all the TV drama made at Pinewood was on film but they considered the possibility that in future they might have to record on videotape using TV cameras. Thus, control rooms were incorporated between the stages, with windows at first floor level looking on to the studios. The rooms were not equipped and were initially used as observation rooms but they soon became dressing rooms and production offices. After a few years the windows were boarded up. They were left like that for many years but were re-glazed in 2013 when they once again became observation rooms. The galleries were eventually equipped in 2000 and 2001 - although not quite as originally intended. Until 2012, studio TV-one had its production gallery at ground floor level although TV-two's production gallery was on the first floor in the space it was originally designed to go all those years ago. The lighting galleries were both on the ground floor.
Over at Elstree a new block containing stages 8 and 9 was being built at the same time - these stages had a similar grid with monopoles and also TV control rooms between the stages that, like Pinewood, were not equipped but included in the building just in case they would be needed in the future. How right they were. J and K (now known as TV-two and TV-one respectively) are quite large as TV studios go at 110 x 80 ft gross - 106 x 74 metric ft within firelanes. We will come to their use as TV studios shortly...
In 1969, stages L and M were built - using the same design principles of a monopole grid and hard floor with wooden surface. These stages did not however have TV control room suites included. They are 105 x 90 feet wall to wall, so slightly shorter than J and K but usefully quite a bit wider.
L and M are still mostly used as film stages, although they have often been used to make TV dramas on single camera film or video - for example, they were Gerry Anderson's base in 1970 for the last 9 episodes of UFO, between 1973 and 1976 when he made 48 episodes of Space 1999 and again in 1994 and 1995 for 24 episodes of Space Precinct. The Persuaders with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis was also made in one of these stages at the same time as UFO in the other. New Tricks was a more recent regular occupant with 107 episodes over 12 series between 2003 and 2015. Stage M also featured prominently in the first series of Ricky Gervais' comedy Extras. L and M have been booked in the past for multi-camera productions using drive-in OB trucks as control rooms. For example, a series of the gameshow Strike it Lucky was recorded in 1994 in one of this pair. Pinewood have considered converting them into TV studios with control rooms and resin floors in the past but at the time all the stages on the site were very busy with film work. In fact, according to press reports in 2007, EastEnders looked as though it was due to move to Pinewood within a year or two. These two stages were earmarked to be converted into studios for that programme. However, the plans were abandoned and EastEnders stayed at BBC Elstree. If Pinewood do ever increase the number of TV studios on this site, L and/or M are the obvious candidates. For many years it looked possible that this was about to happen but film bookings always took precedence. Since 2019 all the stages here have been booked by Disney and frankly it seems unlikely that they will give up one or both of these stages for multicamera TV use.
TV series and dramas shot on film in the 20th century at Pinewood have included Court Martial ('64), Man in a Suitcase ('66), The Avengers - 2 eps ('66), Strange Report ('68), From A Bird's Eye View ('69), UFO ('70), The Persuaders ('70-'72), Shirley's World ('71), The Zoo Gang ('73), Space 1999 ('73, '76), The New Avengers (''76, '77), The Professionals ('77), Press Gang ('89), Ivanhoe ('81), The Hunchback of Notre Dame ('81), Witness For the Prosecution ('82), The Last Days of Pompeii ('83), Master of the Game (''83), Squaring the Circle ('83), The Corsican Brothers ('84), Deceptions ('85), Still Crazy Like a Fox ('86), Pack of Lies ('87), Hazard of Hearts ('87), some sketches for French and Saunders ('87-'98), A Man For All Seasons ('88), War and Remembrance ('88), Press Gang ('89), Crucifer of Blood ('90), Fry and Laurie's Jeeves and Wooster ('91), The Camomile Lawn ('91), an episode of Inspector Morse ('91), Bye Bye Baby ('91), Tales From the Poop Deck ('91), Dennis Potter's Lipstick on Your Collar ('92), Lady Chatterley ('92), Head Over Heels ('92), Minder ('93), The Borrowers ('93), Moving Story ('93), Space Precinct ('94, '95), Chandler and Co. ('94, '95), Poirot ('94), The Spooks of Bottle Bay ('94), Class Act ('95), The Final Cut, ('95), Last of the Summer Wine ('95, '98, '05, '06), Ivanhoe ('96), The Preventers, ('96), Hostile Waters ('96), Born To Run ('96), Jonathan Creek ('96, '97, '99, '04), Crime Traveller ('97), Potamus Park ('96, '97), Invasion Earth ('97), The Vanishing Man ('97), CI5: The New Professionals ('98), Little White Lies ('98), Hornblower ('98, '00, '01, '02), Roger Roger ('98), Midsomer Murders ('98), Harbour Lights ('98) and the brilliant Longitude ('99). Dennis Potter's final two drama series, Karaoke and Cold Lazarus were filmed at Pinewood in 1995 - unique in that in order to fulfill the writer's dying wish they were jointly financed and transmitted on both BBC1 and Channel 4. Parts of the two British episodes of Friends -The One With Ross' Wedding were also filmed here in 1998 - the rest was made in front of an audience at Fountain Studios. More recent single-camera TV dramas and comedies shot here (often using L or M stages) have included Dinotopia ('00), The Lost World ('01), The Queen's Nose ('01), Trial and Retribution ('02), Wild West ('02), Spooks ('03-'11), Ray Winstone's Henry VIII ('03), Auf Wiedersehen Pet ('03, '04), My Dad's the Prime Minister ('04), two episodes of Dr Who ('06), some sketches for Dead Ringers ('03, '04, '05), some sketches for Little Britain ('03-'06), Grandma's House ('10), some sketches for That Mitchell and Webb Look ('06-'10), scenes for Come Fly With Me ('10) New Tricks ('03-'12) and Episodes ('10, '11). Episodes was particularly noteworthy, being set in Hollywood but with almost all the interiors and some exteriors shot on a stage here in Pinewood.
A number of gameshows and entertainment programmes have also used various stages as multicamera studios. These include Strike it Lucky ('94), You Bet ('95), Dog Eat Dog ('01), Shafted ('01), Braniac: Science Abuse ('04, '05 '06), X-Perimental ('04), The Whole 19 Yards ('09), The Magicians ('11) and Got To Dance ('11) which was transmitted live from the R stage. A fibre network has been installed all round the Pinewood site enabling any of the stages to transmit live TV and in 2011 the link to the BT Tower was upgraded to uncompressed HD. Although Pinewood has recently had its ability to handle live TV upgraded, in fact the first live TV broadcast was from the K stage in 1992. This was for the children's Saturday morning show Parallel 9 which ran for several months in the summers of '92 - '94. The K stage became the surface of a distant planet whilst celebrity guests had to enter a tatty little caravan on the back lot, which of course was the 'portal' to Parallel 9. Weekends are usually quiet at Pinewood (apart from the occasional fire) so this show did not interfere with the normal running of the studios. Dragon's Den has also been shot here at Pinewood. The first two series in 2004/5 used a real location but after that the show built a set on the F stage (100 x 76 ft wall to wall). Since 2012 they have used various studios and stages in Salford and Manchester.
In February 2000, Pinewood was purchased from Rank by a business consortium headed by Michael Grade and Ivan Dunleavy. In June of the same year, J stage began conversion into a dedicated TV studio, with a resin floor and its own fully equipped gallery suite with digital mixer and associated electronics. In 2001, K was similarly converted into a digital TV studio specifically for The Weakest Link, which had previously been using Capital and then Magic Eye Studios in Wandsworth. (Thanks to Neil Wallace for that info.)
Following some further refurbishment in 2005 the studios were renamed 'TV-one' and 'TV-two'. (K became one and J became two.) The studios specialise in series with standing sets but do occasionally accommodate single productions. For many years TV-one had The Weakest Link as a regular booking whilst TV-two had sitcoms like My Family, According to Bex and All About Me filling its schedule. The first series of The Catherine Tate Show was also recorded in TV-two . Test the Nation came from TV-one on a few occasions when Fountain was busy and the Christmas special of The Green Green Grass was recorded in TV-two in October 2005. It was shot in high definition using an OB unit for facilities as the studio did not have its own HD gear. The second series of Extras was also filmed in TV-two in 2006. This series dealt with the making of a sitcom which was part recorded using the studio's facilities. Most of the series was shot on single camera Digibeta. Exterior shots showed BBC TV Centre but no, the studio was actually here at Pinewood. The Extras 2007 Christmas special was also made here in the summer of that year. In the spring of 2007 TV-one was the home of the second series of The IT Crowd, the production requesting that they have a studio with the production gallery on the ground floor. I had the pleasure of returning to the studios in November 2007 when I lit a revival Christmas special of To The Manor Born in TV-one. This was shot in HD using an OB truck parked in front of the building. Other shows around this time included Lily Allen and Friends in 2008 and Would I Lie To You in 2009.
2008 saw an interesting development. The highly acclaimed theatre production of King Lear, with Ian McKellan in the title role, was recorded in TV-two for C4 and the American PBS channel. Unfortunately this didn't seem to herald a return to recording successful theatre productions for television so that many more millions can see them - in the way the BBC did for many years but oddly abandoned in the early 1990s. Actually, that's not strictly true any longer. Since about 2012 several productions have been broadcast live from the National Theatre and Royal Opera House to cinemas around the country. This only became possible when cinemas were equipped with digital projectors.
In 2009 a BBC Children's series - ZingZillas - took up residence in TV-one for most of the year. This meant that the final series of Weakest Link before its move to Glasgow was moved into TV-two. The knock-on effect of this was that My Family had to move from its home of several years to Teddington - a move they were not said to be happy about. This in turn unfortunately disrupted several regular Teddington bookings including Harry Hill's TV Burp which undoubtedly affected subsequent bookings at Teddington. Once My Family wrapped, Teddington's studio 1 was nothing like as busy as it had been previously. The wisdom of all this is not for me to comment on here but it certainly caused much discussion amongst many people in the industry. The first part of 2010 was somewhat thin on the ground for TV bookings in these two Pinewood studios and from the summer they were rented out as film stages for the X-Men: First Class movie. Film bookings extended well into 2011, TV-one being used as a props workshop supporting Ridley Scott's Prometheus. It was also used as a wardrobe store for Snow White and the Huntsman for many months from 2011 into 2012. This doesn't on the face of it seem the best use of a TV studio but I guess Pinewood's sales and marketing people know best. TV-two saw the return of Would I Lie To You every year from 2010 to 2019. Lee Mack's All Star Cast was also made in TV-two in 2011. In May 2012 I had the pleasure of lighting the very funny Angelos Epithemiou Show for Channel 4 in TV-two. Another show I regularly light in TV-two is Taskmaster - the excellent comedy game show with Greg Davies and Alex Horne. The studio sequences feature a beautiful Victorian Theatre set designed by James Dillon. The first series was shot in an actual theatre, series 2 was recorded at Fountain but since 2016 every series has been recorded here. The show moved from Dave to Channel 4 in 2020 - 4 more series have been commissioned. Other bookings have included Duck Quacks Don't Echo, Insert Name Here, Through The Keyhole and The Generation Game with Mel and Sue. I was also privileged to light a special for National Geographic in April 2015 called T-Rex Autopsy. Following a year or more of research, a special effects company took many months to construct a life size T-Rex as if it had just died. Its internal organs were painstakingly recreated and placed into the body. Four experts (who had no idea what they would discover) spent 2 days cutting the beast open and removing all the major organs which were then dissected. It was brilliant television and huge fun - although unfortunately, the corridors and toilets of the TV block ended up smothered in sticky 'blood'. I did feel sorry for the cleaners.
Since the closure of most of TV Centre and TLS, bookings have understandably been busier here. Sitcoms have included Count Arthur Strong and Birds of a Feather in TV-two, Brotherhood (which I lit) in TV-one and I Live With Models in TV-two. Still Open All Hours was recorded in TV-one in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. Lee Mack's popular sitcom Not Going Out (another show I light) moved here late in 2017. It had previously used Teddington, TV Centre, BBC Elstree and Elstree Studios. More series are due to be recorded in 2020, '21 and '22.
TV-three In December 2012 it was announced that Camelot would be leaving their 1,200 sq ft studio run by Arqiva - a few miles away in Chalfont Grove. The National Lottery Draws moved into TV-one from January 2013 until a purpose-built studio and associated facilities were completed elsewhere on the Pinewood lot. The old scoring stage (once used to record orchestral soundtracks) was converted into a TV studio and renamed TV-three. The Lotto draws moved there in October 2013 but in January 2017 the BBC stopped showing the draw live on TV. The set and lighting rig were therefore removed. TV-three is much smaller than the other two studios but twice the size of the old Chalfont Lotto studio at 2,640 sq ft. It has a dedicated suite of control rooms next to the studio and its own cameras. These can be used for TV shows being recorded on other nearby stages. The 7,500 sq ft F stage sits directly alongside TV-three and since fibre links were installed in the autumn of 2014, is able to share this gallery suite and TV-three's cameras for TV shows with standing sets. The Richard Attenborough stage is a short walk across a roadway so TV-three's galleries might also be a practical alternative to using an OB truck for major shows in that huge space. However, that stage is usually fully booked by features and is now part of Disney's empire anyway.
In 2001 Pinewood purchased Shepperton Studios to form Pinewood-Shepperton. Michael Grade remained as chairman. The business with all its facilities and 36 stages became one of the world's premier film and television resources. During 2006 the company began operating under the name of the Pinewood Studios Group and marketed the various stages and TV studios at Pinewood and Shepperton (and Teddington until it closed) as one operation.
In May 2004 Pinewood-Shepperton declared an intention to redevelop both sites and increase their film and TV studio space significantly over the following ten years, demolishing some old stages and building several new ones. In April 2005 the company bought the lease to Teddington Studios when they went bust, thus saving them from closure. This unexpected acquisition may have delayed some expansion in the TV side of the business at Pinewood itself. In 2007 planning permission for the Master Plan was granted and work immediately began on a new entrance and gatehouse and some new buildings nearby. The Queen opened the gatehouse on 2nd November. According to the Pinewood website at least three new film stages were planned (see the drawing below). The 2007 plan indicated that the car park in front of the two TV studios was to be developed. It looked likely that a 15,000 sq ft TV studio was to be built there. Although it is unlikely now that a fully equipped TV studio will be built, this may eventually be the site for a new sound stage which could be used for TV production using the galleries nearby. In 2010 a 'temporary' workshop building was erected that is likely to remain until the new stage is built.
In fact, the Pinewood Master Plan began its development in 2003 (although planning permission took several years to obtain) and the industry moved on significantly over the following decade. Blockbuster feature films and big TV entertainment productions now demand very large stages which was not the case back then. Towards the end of 2011 construction of a very large stage (initially referred to as T stage) commenced. It was built on the area opposite stages L and M where the old H stage and some workshops used to be located. It received its first booking in February 2012 (the feature film Les Misérables) and was officially opened and named as 'The Richard Attenborough Stage' in April 2012. It was also used in 2014 for Star Wars: The Force Awakens amongst many other stages on the site.
It is an impressive 30,000 sq ft (203ft x 148 ft and 50ft high). This is very large indeed - about half the area of the 007 stage but much larger than any of the other stages at the time. The Richard Attenborough stage was intended for major TV entertainment shows as well as feature film production. It has emergency exits and other facilities enabling a large studio audience to be handled if required. It was more than twice the size of the largest TV studio in the country so not surprisingly Pinewood were looking to attract big live event TV productions. No technical facilities were included - these would have to be supplied by an OB truck or derig facilities - or by using TV-three's nearby galleries. The first TV show recorded here was The Love Machine - made by Princess Productions for Sky Living in July 2012. Unfortunately, the stage does not appear to have been used for any other TV show but this is probably due to its regular booking by feature films.
At the beginning of September 2007 the Pinewood Studios Group surprisingly announced that they were considering purchasing the BBC Studios part of BBC Resources. They spent nearly 1 million pounds on the bidding process but in the end the sale collapsed. It seems that Pinewood were not prepared to take on the pension liabilities of the BBC staff. Back in 2007 Ivan Dunleavy had announced that the company was planning to significantly increase the proportion of TV vs film at Pinewood. According to the press, he stated... 'We are looking to achieve a parity with film in terms of revenue. The UK TV market is large and diverse, we want to increase our share in it." Dunleavy apparently said that the company could increase the revenue share from TV, which currently stands at 30%, to 50% over the next three years.' This interesting statement probably reflected the company's declared interest at the time in purchasing BBC Studios. It is likely that the purchase of the business would have been followed by the construction and/or conversion of several new TV studios at Pinewood. The staff and much of the equipment would have been moved to Pinewood over the following 3 or 4 years (along with the BBC's regular programme bookings) enabling TV Centre to be demolished in 2013. Of course, the purchase of the business fell through, and the total demolition of TV Centre did not happen - although only three studios remain.
Another story will also have affected Pinewood's plans to increase revenue from television... In the summer of 2007 various rumours began to circulate widely, mostly from people associated with BBC Elstree, that EastEnders might be planning to leave Borehamwood and the BBC studios there sold off for redevelopment. These rumours grew and indeed were reported in two or three newspapers. According to press reports, Pinewood was the most likely site for the programme to move to. Albert Square and its surrounding roads would have been reconstructed on the back lot here and three stages taken over and converted into television studios. I gather that L and M were the ones earmarked, given their original TV-based design, plus R, which is next door. Of course, a great deal of space would also have been required for prop and set storage and for offices and post-production suites. The story was repeated in the press in March 2008 but was officially denied by BBC spokespersons. They claimed that in the current economic climate it would not be possible to sell the Elstree site for the money they would be seeking. Thus EastEnders would be staying where it was for the time being. It seems that the BBC were hoping for £300m from the sale of that site which would almost entirely be given over to housing. However, the crash in property values diminished the value of the BBC's Elstree studio site considerably so a sale became unlikely for several years. Thus EastEnders remains at Elstree for the foreseeable future and major (very costly) investment is being made there to exterior sets and technical equipment.
Over the years, changes in tax laws have seen the fortunes of Pinewood wax and wane as movie-making is so easily influenced by production costs. An uncertain period in 2005 was improved when the tax laws were made more encouraging in 2006. However, the availability of cheap labour and facilities in eastern Europe affected the number of films made here in the following few years. Things are now very different of course and the demand for studio space for shooting features and TV drama has never been greater.
For most of the first decade of this century the television side of the business was thriving and the two TV studios were kept very busy. As the TV side of the business diminished towards the end of the decade the pendulum swung back towards the film side and the stages were busy all year round with features. In November 2011 the government announced that it was extending UK film tax relief until the end of December 2015, which was excellent news for Pinewood and of course all the other British film studios. 2010 saw a considerable reduction in Pinewood-Shepperton's income from television, compared to film. It fell from £11.3m in 2009 to £8.2m in 2010. This decline continued in the first half of 2011 - but was offset by a big increase in revenue generated from movie production. For much of this period the two TV studios were occupied by feature films and many of the studios at Teddington were relatively quiet. The Pinewood management partly blamed the BBC and ITV for using their in-house studios more than before in a press statement. However, more than half of all the entertainment programmes shown on BBC and ITV channels are made by independent companies who are relatively free to make their shows where they like and Pinewood has an interesting advantage over the other London TV studios in that it is technically a 'regional' studio since it is (just) outside the M25. It therefore enables programme makers to tick that particular box if they have to. In fact around that time several entertainment shows used film stages at Pinewood and Shepperton to record series such as Ant and Dec's Push The Button, The Whole 19 Yards, Got To Dance and The Love Machine.
Although Pinewood-Shepperton was seen to be operating successfully (total revenue in 2010 increased by 8%) in April 2011 an unexpected bid was made to buy the company. This was from Peel Media, the company who own and run MediaCity in Salford. They already owned 29.7% of Pinewood and launched an £87.8m takeover bid. Two weeks later, Mohammed Al Fayed, former owner of Harrods, was also said to be considering an all-cash bid for the company. On 27th April it was announced that Peel had increased its offer to £96m and this new offer was accepted by the directors of the group. Michael Grade stayed on as chairman and Peel said that they would allow Pinewood to continue to operate autonomously. Being owned by Peel gave Pinewood greater financial stability which enabled long term investment to begin. Previously, the company had to pass a large proportion of its profits to a number of shareholders leaving relatively little for major investment. Peel seemed to be looking at Pinewood in the long term enabling the immediate construction of two new large stages and some welcome investment in the two main TV studios and throughout the whole lot. I can report that all the buildings are now clean and freshly painted - and old cables, pipes and other clutter have been removed giving a much smarter appearance all round. Most of the old dilapidated buildings and workshops have gone and everywhere gives the impression of a very successful and busy enterprise.
In July 2016 it was announced that Pinewood had agreed to a takeover by Aermont, a London based asset management business. The deal was backed by Venus Grafton, a wholly owned subsidiary of PW Real Estate Fund III LP. No, me neither. My understanding (sketchy though that may be) is that this new owner would be able to fund the continuing expansion of the site - which therefore is probably a good thing.
Although the 10 year Master Plan was published by Pinewood in 2004, by no means did all of the proposed development actually happen. Of course, the studios have a smart new gatehouse (curiously with the security hut on the wrong side of the road), the Richard Attenborough stage opened in 2012 and Q stage in 2013 but most of the other redevelopment on the main site has yet to happen. The Q stage was constructed during 2012/13 in the south dock area replacing a 16,700 sq ft silent stage and some offices and workshops and opened in September 2013. It has its own very large workshops and office areas included as part of the development. It is in a part of the site that was earmarked for development in the Master Plan so planning permission was already granted.
Following the rejection of 'Project Pinewood' in January 2012 which would have been on land owned by the studios on the other side of the road, (see above), in August 2012 Pinewood announced that it would submit a new planning application for major development by the end of the year. In fact the application was made on Feb 1st 2013. Consultation took place with local residents during the autumn. The proposed expansion recognised the fact that over the previous few years most of Pinewood's stages had been fully booked and work had been turned away. They could at that time only handle two feature films at the same time and this sometimes also meant that TV work had to be turned away. The aim was eventually to be able to handle four features plus more TV work. Pinewood would also have been aware that Warner Bros' new studios opening in 2012 at Leavesden had taken the crown from Pinewood in offering the newest and some of the largest stages in the country. The new development was much more practical than Project Pinewood and appeared to be more aware of the environmental consequences of building on Green Belt land.
The plans indicated several new stages on the existing site (indicated in white). One is the large Q stage that opened in 2013. Another is in front of the two TV studios and was also shown on the 2004 Master Plan. However, in 2020 this is still occupied by a 'temporary' workshop. A third new stage occupies the area of car park 1 next to the D stage. This is about the same size as Stages A, D and E and was not on the original Master Plan. However, this area is often occupied by a unit base for one of the films being shot on site - with Winnebagos, catering etc. It's hard to see where these would be located if this useful space is lost so it seems unlikely that a stage will in fact be built here. Similarly, a new building is also indicated next to E stage and in fact the site was cleared in 2019, losing the old process stage, but this area seems to be intended as a base for unit vehicles. Another area has been cleared for unit vehicles on the west side of the site next to Q stage - this is not indicated on the plans above. A multi-storey car park was also planned on part of the Northern car park near the main entrance. Frankly, this cannot happen too soon as parking is an absolute bloody nightmare at Pinewood. Permission for the whole scheme was refused by the local council but a public enquiry began in November 2013 following an appeal by Pinewood. The government announced in June 2014 that permission had been granted in the national interest. A formal planning application for the first phase of development was made in October and was passed later in the year.
Incidentally, no new-build TV studios were planned, but in October 2014 fibre links were installed between the galleries of TV-three and F stage (100 x 76ft wall to wall), which is in the same block. Weekend Kitchen With Waitrose for Channel 4 was the first booking to use these. It is not known when if ever the stage will receive a TV-friendly resin floor and a flexible lighting grid. Until then, to be honest, it remains a film stage.
Significant development has now happened on the land on the East side of the road. The original plans indicated that 10 large or very large stages would be built there, along with a number of workshops, production offices and support facilities. In fact, 9 stages have been built. The original plans also indicated that some of the stages would have a 'city street' set built into them enabling scenes to be shot on site that would otherwise involve closing off parts of a real city centre - a feint echo of Project Pinewood. However this does not appear to have happened. A large area of natural open ground including a wooded hill has been retained for the use of local residents along with a wide green border containing footpaths round the perimeter. A grass bund conceals much of the site but in fact, some of the new stages can be seen from the M25 near the junction with the M40.
This new expansion was known as the Pinewood Studios Development Framework (PSDF). In March 2015 Pinewood announced that they would be selling 8 million shares to raise £30m to go towards funding the development. The rest was loaned by four of the major banks. Phase 1 was said to cost £65m. The first phase of construction was completed in June 2016 and consisted of five new stages: stage 1 - 24,700 sq ft; stage 2 - 24,700 sq ft; stage 3 - 34,400 sq ft; stage 4 - 24,700 sq ft and stage 5 a whopping 38,800 sq ft. Phase 1 also included 10 new workshops and some production offices. In October 2017, stage 5 was renamed The Roger Moore Stage. An excellent idea in my view. Roger had visited Pinewood in September 2016 to pay tribute to the studios in their 80th year. He had an office at Pinewood for decades and of course starred in many of the Bond films that were made here. Sadly he died in May 2017 aged 89.
The PSDF was intended to be tackled in three phases - the total cost estimated at £200m. Each phase was due to take around 5 years but Phase 2, consisting of four more stages plus workshops, offices etc began to be constructed in September 2018 and the whole scheme was completed by the end of 2019. Stage 6 is 25,250 sq ft, stages 7 and 8 are 27,500 sq ft and stage 9 is 10,500 sq ft. Meanwhile, Pinewood are planning to almost double the number of stages at Shepperton.
In September 2019 Pinewood announced that Disney had signed a long term lease for ALL their stages, not just the new ones on the eastern lot which they had occupied as soon as they were available. The press announcement stated that 'a number of TV studios' were not part of this deal, which will be a huge relief to many TV production companies. The deal was announced just a few months after Netflix announced a similar arrangement for all the stages at Shepperton. With Warner Bros owning Leavesden one wonders where other production companies will make their films now.
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Pinewood Studios in 2020, following the major redevelopment. Now one of the largest and best equipped film studios in the world. with thanks to the Pinewood website |
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MGM-British Studios Borehamwood 1937 - 1970 (Revised May 2020)
Although these superb studios were only a few hundred yards down the road from the ones we now call 'Elstree Studios' and 'BBC Elstree Centre' they were always named more accurately as being in Borehamwood rather than Elstree. Naturally, they were mostly used for making feature films but a few television productions were also shot here. Most have been forgotten but there was one particular series that helped define the 1960s - Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner. Before that, McGoohan starred in Danger Man... but we will come to these in due course.
The first TV series filmed here were intended for US television using a mix of British and American actors. Dick and the Duchess was a 26 episode sitcom that began shooting in 1958. It was followed by Rendezvous in 1959. This was a 60 minute drama - 28 episodes were filmed here in Borehamwood and a further 13 in the US. Zero One was filmed between 1961 and 1965. It starred Nigel Patrick and was set around the world of international air security. This was a very rare collaboration between the BBC and a Hollywood Studio. 39 episodes were made in total. Journey To The Unknown was a horror/sci-fi TV seres made here in 1968 by Hammer Films and 20th Century Fox. It featured a mix of British and American actors and has been reported to be the most expensive TV drama filmed in Britain up to then, which is surprising as it came after The Prisoner, which can't have been cheap to make. It was originally to be called Tales Of The Unknown but changed its name just before release. One episode was set around the making of a TV show - the Intertel facilities at Wycombe Road were used for this. There have been no DVDs of it but most eps are available on YouTube and it is remembered by many people who loved it at the time. Actually, 'loved' may be the wrong word. Various people describe watching it when they were very young and being deeply disturbed by some of the stories! Perhaps because of its relative obscurity it has gained something of a cult status. Seventeen episodes were filmed, primarily for ABC TV in the US but it did poorly in the ratings there so only one season was completed. Four double-length features were later released for TV sales that cut together two episodes each. These were called Journey Into Darkness, Journey to the Unknown, Journey to Murder and Journey to Midnight.
Let's wind the clock back to how these studios came about. They were created by Paul Soskin, a film producer, and his uncle Simon Soskin, who named them Amalgamated Studios. As they neared completion in 1937 it turned out that a production deal with Columbia had fallen through. This combined with far greater construction costs than anticipated (don't these people watch Grand Designs or Homes Under the Hammer?) meant that they were forced to call in the receivers. Apparently, technical equipment had been ordered from America but when it arrived, there was no way of paying for it. Back then, stages without lighting or other technical kit in them could not be rented out. In 1939 the ownership of the studios eventually passed to the builders - McAlpine - who put them on the market hoping to sell them to a suitable studio management company. John Maxwell immediately made a good offer - he owned Elstree Studios just down the road. They were outdated and needed rebuilding (which in fact happened after the war.) However, J Arthur Rank knew that they would be major competitors to his newly opened Pinewood and Denham studios so he snapped them up. Rather cynically, he had no intention of using them for filming - he just wanted them unavailable for other film-makers to use. Rank contacted his old pal Sir Malcolm McAlpine, who sold the studios to him for less than the offer Maxwell had made. Make of that what you will. Rank immediately leased the studios to the Ministry of Works, with the intention that the stages would be used for Government document storage. They began filling the studios with files and paperwork. However, in October 1940 it was decided that it would be more useful to the war effort if the stages were used to manufacture aircraft parts so large numbers of documents were stored elsewhere or simply dumped. Structural changes were made to enable the stages to become factories and workshops. Meanwhile, the ownership of the studios passed from Rank to Prudential Insurance - he was having to raise cash to save his own studios. Although Rank had hoped the Borehamwood studios would never be used for film making, this change of ownership meant that he couldn't prevent that happening after the war.
In April 1944 Prudential sold the studios to Alexander Korda, who by then was working for MGM. The plan was to create a top quality film studio when the war ended to be used for making international movies starring a mix of British and American actors. (I imagine J Arthur Rank was not amused.) They were renamed MGM-British Studios and came to be considered by many to be the most glamorous, best designed and best equipped studios in Europe. After the war, they were heavily invested in by MGM, who had to remove the wartime machinery, lay wooden floors and raise the grids in most of the stages, which were then equipped with all the latest kit from Hollywood. MGM also purchased a great deal of land around the studios, enabling future expansion to take place and creating a very large back lot, which would prove invaluable in the years to come. It took until June 1948 to carry out all the redevelopment of the site. However, in fact a couple of British films had used the facilities before the official opening - one was Brighton Rock. Although several films were made here from the late 1940s, MGM struggled to come up with a major success until Ivanhoe in 1952. In 1958 MGM rented out studio space to 20th-Century Fox for the making of The Inn of the Sixth Happiness starring Ingrid Bergman, which was a huge international success. This had involved the construction of a large set on the back lot representing a fortified Chinese town. It covered 500,000 sq feet and was the first of many big sets built behind the stages, in the style of typical Hollywood studios.
1958 was also the year that Tom Thumb was made here. This was an immediate hit and became a firm favourite with children for decades thanks in future years to VHS and then DVD sales. Successes in the early '60s included The VIPs and The Yellow Rolls Royce which had a large cast of very famous international stars.
The studios were of course primarily used for making films but our subject is television. The first well known TV drama made here was Danger Man, starring Patrick McGoohan, series one being filmed in 1960. It was the idea of Ralph Smart, one of the writers on The Invisible Man which was filmed at ATV's Elstree studios just down the road. He got together with Ian Fleming and they decided to create a James Bond series for TV. Unfortunately, the rights to Bond had been sold to Eon Productions - the first Bond film Dr No had yet to be made but buying the rights back was not possible. Along with another writer, Ian Stuart Black, they created a new character working as a freelancer in the world of espionage - 'John Drake' He was to be cool, ruthless, a casual user of women and able to solve any problem using his bare fists or a loaded gun. (In other words, James Bond.) They sold the idea to ATV's Lew Grade and he gave the go-ahead. They selected Patrick McGoohan to play the lead. He was tall, good looking and with an extraordinary screen presence. He agreed to play the part but on one or two conditions. He had it put in his contract that he would never be seen kissing a woman, his character would always treat them with respect and also that any problems would be solved by his brainpower before he had to resort to fighting. So the character became not so much James Bond as Dr Who. McGoohan had had some bad experiences during his recent contract with Rank and was not going to make the same mistake twice. I have seen a documentary where people who knew him described him as being a devout Catholic - explaining that his personal moral code affected what he was prepared to do on screen, both in Danger Man and later in The Prisoner. The first series was popular in Britain but only moderately so in the US. Maybe they wanted to see more kissing and fighting. A second series was therefore not commissioned. However, once Dr No came out in the cinemas in 1962 and ABC's The Avengers grew in popularity, the world of secret agents suddenly became big business so Lew Grade thought again about another series of Danger Man (It was called Secret Agent in the US). The length was increased to 50 minutes and the show ran for a total of 86 episodes over four series. McGoohan became the highest paid actor in the UK. In his later career he acquired a reputation for being difficult to work with but I have read accounts of people who worked on Danger Man who said he was absolutely charming and often joined members of the crew down the pub for a pint. Incidentally, although the majority of the filming was done here in Borehamwood, the last 6 eps of series 2 were made at Shepperton. Enthusiasts have noted the various scenes that were shot on standing sets on the back lot at Shepperton. The standing sets at MGM as well as other locations around Borehamwood were also often used.
An episode of the first series of Danger Man had used Portmeirion as a location to represent an Italian village. Situated on the coast in north Wales, it was the personal project of architect Sir Clough Williams-Ellis who designed it to fit organically into the natural landscape of sea and mountains. (He was still building it during the filming of Danger Man and later The Prisoner.) Although clearly with a Mediterranean look about it, he denied that it was a copy of an Italian village and in fact the architecture borrows from several styles and periods. McGoohan was struck by its unique qualities which helped him form the germ of an idea for a new show once Danger Man had wrapped.
The Prisoner was an extraordinary series that was unlike anything previously made on TV. It was very much of its time - filmed in 1966 and 1967 it was about a secret agent who had for some undisclosed reason decided to give up his job. We see him in his London flat, gas is pumped in through the keyhole, he passes out and wakes up still in his flat but - when he opens the curtains he is in a mysterious village from which there is no escape. Each episode had a different 'Number 2' who attempted to break our hero. Meanwhile he (number 6) tried to escape. The series was baffling, ground-breaking, occasionally somewhat pretentious but built up a very loyal audience. It tackled some pretty deep subjects to do with freedom, democracy, politics and religion but all within the framework of a prime-time mystery spy thriller. Most importantly, it was never made clear who were the goodies and who were the baddies - we never knew whether Number 6 had been caught by 'us' or 'them.' The show still has an enthusiastic fan base. It was the Twin Peaks or Lost of its day. Nothing like it had ever been made before. Many people assumed that McGoohan was playing the same character as in Danger Man - John Drake. He always denied this but according to some who worked on it, the early printed scripts had his character's lines spoken by 'Drake.' In later scripts his lines were down as being spoken by 'P' (for Prisoner). His rules of what he would and would not do on screen still applied. The script for episode 2 called for him to kiss a woman whilst he whispered instructions in her ear so that the bugging microphones couldn't hear him. Much to the frustration of the writer and director he refused to kiss her so the scene didn't work as it should have. Many of the exteriors were filmed in Portmeirion but all the interiors and some exteriors were shot at MGM in Borehamwood. The show was based in stage 6 - appropriately enough - but occasionally other stages were used - for example, Billy Casper informs me that the episode 'Fall-Out' used some old sets from Battle Beneath the Earth on stages 1 and 2. Exteriors shot on a stage here included a beach scene (using the stage's tank), the woodland scenes, some scenes at the outdoor cafe and many of the scenes outside Number 6's house. The lighting is always the giveaway! That and the painted backcloths. None of this would have been noticed on TV when these shows were first broadcast but are apparent now on today's high definition TVs. There was one particularly striking interior set - a large circular room with backlit walls, and panels in the floor from which chairs or tables or other things might emerge. This set was dressed and redressed to become several different chambers in which the controlling powers were running The Village.
The first series ended after 13 episodes but it was agreed between Lew Grade and McGoohan that another whole series would be too many so they would finish it with only four more. Rather like Twin Peaks or Lost - everyone wanted to know how it was going to end and in particular who was 'Number 1'? The final episode satisfied almost nobody - the press and viewers were furious that a nice neat tidy answer was not forthcoming but of course with a series as enigmatic as this how could there be one? Just like Twin Peaks and Lost in fact. Those involved in making The Prisoner tell how McGoohan was obsessed with it and controlled everything. More than one director was fired by him. He ended up directing some episodes himself and some were also written by him under false names. His acting performance in the series is quite exceptional but his power on set when working was at times disturbing to the crew and other cast members - Leo McKern who played a two-hander with him towards the end of the series is said to have had a nervous breakdown, the intensity of acting with McGoohan was so stressful. I can thoroughly recommend the Blu-ray release of this series. The image quality is astonishingly good - the original 35mm colour print has been beautifully cleaned up and graded. The style of the show is clearly very 1960s but much of it still stands up remarkably well - the performances are particularly strong from McGoohan and his supporting cast. It is easy to see why it made such an impact. Apart from a series called Rafferty and a handful of episodes of Columbo in the US, McGoohan rarely acted in TV dramas after The Prisoner and only appeared in a few movies during the rest of his life - these included Ice Station Zebra ('68), Scanners ('81) and Braveheart ('95). To be fair, in 2000 he did agree to give his voice to a character called 'Number 6' in The Simpsons episode The Computer Wore Menace Shoes. So maybe he did have a sense of humour after all. He died in January 2009.
Whilst McGoohan was changing the face of television on one of the stages at MGM, Stanley Kubrick was taking over most of the other stages with a film that would change the face of cinema - 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film was not well received by some at first but over the years it grew to become considered one of the best ever made - in 2012 it was voted the 6th greatest film ever in the Sight and Sound poll of movie critics and their similar poll of film directors placed 2001 the second greatest film ever made. Praise indeed. (In case you were wondering, the directors placed Ozu Yasujiro's Tokyo Story first.) Originally with a working title of Voyage Beyond the Stars, 2001 was co-written with Arthur C Clarke. Based on one of his short stories it was developed into an epic saga about primitive mankind being taught how to survive by a far superior alien race four million years ago and then making contact again in 2001 to help us on our way and stop us from destroying ourselves. At least, that's what I think it's about. Kubrick always refused to explain the film but the novel that he and Clarke co-wrote whilst the film was being made is much more easy to understand than the film, which baffled audiences when it first appeared, possibly since Kubrick did not follow the conventional rules of storytelling. It didn't baffle me. I was 15 when I saw it and was completely knocked out by it. I saw it 9 times over the following couple of years and it remains my number 1 greatest ever film. And I have seen that Japanese one. He was insistent that the space hardware in the film should be technically and scientifically accurate. Real aerospace companies from Britain and the US were involved in designing much of what appeared on screen. This was at the same time as some of them were working on the actual moon landings - Apollo 11 landed on the Moon after the movie was completed but much of the design of the interiors and exteriors of the spacecraft was modified during the filming in order to keep up with the rapid development of real science and technology. For example, the craft in the film were originally metallic in finish but it then became apparent that NASA were painting their spacecraft white so the model shots thus far filmed were scrapped and re-made. After the first scene on the Moon was shot at Shepperton around Christmas 1965, filming began at MGM Borehamwood in January 1966. Scenes involving actors were completed by July or September - accounts differ. It then took a year to work out how to film the Dawn of Man sequences. Meanwhile, effects photography continued until March 1968. The film occupied seven of the ten stages at MGM at various times plus occasionally other studios such as ABPC Elstree and Shepperton. It went way way over time and budget but its photography and model shots were so well done that they still stand up today. There was of course no CGI in those days - effects shots on other films were usually done using travelling mattes and bluescreen that always caused grain and picture degradation. Kubrick insisted that the image quality should be pristine so new techniques were developed. These included front axial projection and shooting effects using multiple takes 'in camera.' This involved an early purely mechanical version of motion control, before computers were available.
The spacecraft models were huge in order to look as realistic on camera as possible. For example, the Discovery was about 60 feet long. Kubrick insisted that the lighting should appear to be from a point source (the sun) and of course everything had to be in focus. This meant that the camera lens was stopped down to a pinhole. Thus, a sequence where a spaceship appears to glide past the camera in a few seconds was shot with each frame being exposed for 4 seconds, then the camera (not the model) was moved a fraction of an inch, so that the simplest of moves would take many hours to shoot. Then it would all be done again having wound the film back in the camera to precisely the same frame in order to add a foreground spacecraft or a background planet, then again to add images of people seen through windows. These were done by covering the model in black velvet and fixing white card to the windows. Pre-filmed sequences were then projected onto the card a frame at a time whilst the camera moved a fraction of an inch, exactly repeating the previous move. Sometimes these separate takes were months apart. Eventually, the film would be processed and the rushes viewed and if there was the slightest of wobbles or other issues like mismatching exposure it was all shot again. One sequence revealed a disturbance when it was finally viewed in the rushes. It had been filmed in June 1966. They worked out that it had happened when England scored the winning goal in the World Cup final. Despite the camera and model being very securely fixed, the crew jumping up and down in celebration in the corner of the stage had been enough to register on camera. Finally a star field was added using an animation technique. Rather than using a travelling matte, each individual frame of previously shot models was lined up using a grid by a room full of women who used photographic enlargers to note which parts of the image had spacecraft or planets over them. In another room, people painted the stars out using black paint in each individual frame of film so that the stars disappeared behind the spaceships and planets - and then the two images were combined. This laborious technique enabled crisp, grain-free 70mm images to be maintained throughout the film.
Incidentally, on a documentary on the making of The Prisoner, one of the editors interviewed tells the story of how there was a scene where 'Number 6' uses a sextant to look at the stars. They needed to cut to a shot of the stars but filming such a thing was surprisingly difficult and expensive. He went next door and had a chat with one of his mates who was working on 2001. He 'lent' him a star field shot which duly appeared in The Prisoner. Kubrick of course knew nothing of this and heads would have rolled if he had found out. Most impressive were the sequences where astronauts appeared to be walking on the outer walls of a centrifuge creating artificial gravity. A huge rotating circular set was constructed on one of the largest stages at MGM - it was built by Vickers-Armstrong (one of the UK's leading aerospace companies) and was some 12 metres in diameter, costing around half a million pounds in 1960s money. This enabled some of the most effective space travel scenes to be filmed that had been seen on screen up to that time or even since then.
I would strongly recommend buying the 4K UHD Blu-ray of this film. It was released to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its release in 2018 and is the result of a new 8K scan from the original negatives. It has been graded to be as accurate as possible to the original colour balance. Dirt and scratches have been removed but no digital enhancement has been done. The high dynamic range (HDR) makes the skies in the Dawn of Man scenes astonishingly realistic, and of course the Star Gate sequence is stunning. This is not to be confused with the re-release of the film shown in some cinemas, supervised by Christopher Nolan. For reasons best known to him, he insisted that the scratches, blemishes and colour casts due to the age of the negative should be retained. I'm not sure Kubrick would have approved, knowing his obsession with technical quality. The images on the 4K Blu-ray are crystal clear and absolutely faultless - as is the multi-track sound. The movie was first shown in Cinerama cinemas - these had huge curved screens and presented films made in Super Panavision 70mm with 7 channel sound. They were in a way similar to today's Imax cinemas in that they projected films on a much bigger screen and in far greater detail than could be seen in normal cinemas. At first, Cinerama used three 35mm films running side by side but from 1965 almost all Cinerama films were shot on a single 70mm film. The Casino was London's main Cinerama theatre from 1954 to 1974 - it is now the Prince Edward Theatre. 2001 played here for 47 weeks from May 1968 to March 1969 and again for 6 weeks in 1972.
Other movies were made here during the run of 2001 - not quite all the stages were occupied by that film. Some well known ones included Blow-Up ('66), The Dirty Dozen ('66), Quatermass and the Pit ('67), Dance of the Vampires ('67), Where Eagles Dare ('68), Inspector Clouseau, ('68). Many of these made use of the large backlot to build exterior sets.
Between April and November 1969, a TV series that has acquired a bit of a cult following was filmed here - Gerry Anderson's UFO. The effects shots were made in his Century 21 studios in Slough but this was his first TV series with real actors rather than puppets. Stages 6 and 7 were used for these scenes. The standing sets on the back lot were seen in some episodes and the 'futuristic' office block at ATV's studios down the road - now called Neptune House - became the 'Supreme Headquarters, Alien Defence Organisation.' It is now where Holby City is filmed. The series starred Ed Bishop, Gabrielle Drake and Michael Billington and was moderately successful - but not enough to warrant a second series. 26 episodes had been ordered but unfortunately the studios closed before series 1 was complete. The last nine eps were shot later at Pinewood. Ed Bishop was familiar with these studios - he played the captain of the ship that travels to the Moon in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Unfortunately for him, all his dialogue was muted in the final cut and his scene is simply played out with music. By a sad coincidence, both Michael Billington and Ed Bishop died within a week of each other in June 2005. About 10 more movies were made in these studios after 2001 wrapped but sadly despite its success, other films made here were less profitable. MGM was in trouble back in the US and they had to cut their costs. The studios in Borehamwood were proving very expensive to run and despite their popularity amongst film-makers, in April 1970 they were closed. UFO was the last production made here. MGM moved down the road to take a 50% share in EMI's studios - they were also struggling. However, this arrangement was only to last three years or so and MGM would then no longer have a studio in the UK.
The site sat empty until it was taken over by Christian Salveson in 1973 who demolished the stages and built facilities to be used as a cold store. Stage 10 was dismantled and sold to Bray where it became their new stage 1. It would later be renumbered stage 2 and would remain in use right up to 2010, reopening in 2018. However, the Studio's film-making days were not quite over. In 1973 there was apparently a scene shot for Holiday on the Buses (I can't say I have seen it) where Stan demolishes an old building; this is in fact rather tragically stage 6 at MGM - the one used to film The Prisoner and UFO. As a complete contrast, in 1978 Kubrick was filming The Shining at EMI Elstree studios down the road. He needed to build a section of the maze that features in the film but the back lot at EMI was already occupied with the Overlook Hotel. Thus, the maze was constructed on the old back lot at MGM. This was for the daylight scenes. The night scenes of the maze in the snow were shot on stage 1 at EMI Elstree. It must have been strange for Kubrick to see the studios closed and in a dilapidated state when a decade earlier he had spent two years here making 2001, when the studios were in their prime. The distinctive white clock tower and admin building lasted until 1986. Despite protests from local people they too were demolished when Christian Salveson left the site and it became a Sainsbury's distribution centre. The back lot was turned into a housing estate. The Sainsbury's buildings were themselves demolished in 2019 to be replaced by a logistics facility (i.e. several warehouses) owned by Panattoni.
For more information on these sadly lost studios I can wholeheartedly recommend Paul Welsh's superb book MGM British Studios - Hollywood in Hertfordshire. It is full of fascinating information about the studios and all the movies made here. It can be purchased from Elstree Screen Heritage, who benefit from the sales.
Bray Studios 1951 - 2010; 2018 - ? (the studios did not accept bookings between 2010 and 2017 but are now in use again, pending redevelopment.) (Revised March 2020)
Bray studios will forever be associated with Hammer horror films but those were only a relatively small part of the studios' history. Although set up as a film studio, after a while the stages were being used used to make a number of TV dramas and in latter years some multicamera sitcoms, a kids' gameshow and a lottery gameshow for the BBC. They were also a favourite location for bands to rehearse tours. Famously, on one occasion in 2007, David Gilmour was in one big stage and Roger Waters was in the other with his band. They met, inevitably, and rather uncomfortably, outside one day and the encounter was filmed. (Watch it on YouTube). Although they had performed a couple of years before when Pink Floyd were reunited for Live 8, this filmed conversation demonstrates quite nicely that their relationship remained somewhat frosty.
But - back to the beginning. Down Place, a distinctive mansion beside the Thames between Windsor and Maidenhead, was owned by one Jacob Tonson. He, by the way, formed the 'Kit-Kat Club' which had nothing to do with chocolate bars. The club didn't meet here, despite what you might have read, but in Tonson's London residence. The house was a private dwelling until 1951 when one wing remained privately occupied, as it still does. The house consists of several parts - the original square shaped house built early in the 18th century - seen on the right in the photo below. Then later that century a long wing was added facing the river, containing a ballroom. That is the façade with the curved porch seen below on the left. Another wing extends away from the river on the left - that is still occupied as private dwellings. Other outbuildings were added and joined up with the original stable block to form one large mansion. Its design included castellations along the roof line. These were ultimately its downfall. Rather than a conventional gutter, rainwater has to run along a channel behind the top of the wall, which can easily become blocked. This caused many leaks into the attic and down the internal walls over the years as the house was poorly maintained by all its owners. The roof itself also had many loose slates and one quick fix was to paint them all with a sealant, rather than re-slating it. Unfortunately, this prevented ventilation in the attic and dampness led to rot and infestation. To add insult to injury, it transpired that the render on the external walls was non-porous - thus trapping the damp inside. Thus in 2016 the house was stripped of all its internal finishes down to bare timber and brick in order to reveal the extent of the damage - which was considerable. However, we are getting ahead of ourselves...
To go back a few years before the beginning of film-making here in 1951 - Hammer Productions Ltd was created in 1934 by an ex-actor, William Hinds, who called himself Will Hammer. Hinds was part of a comedy double-act paired with a bloke called Smith - they lived in Hammersmith, hence 'Hammer and Smith.' The Hammer name stuck. He was a member of the family who became famous for their High Street jewellery shops and he later became the chairman of the Goldhawk Building Society. No, really. He also managed a few theatres and sold bicycles. I'm not making this up. The first Hammer film was The Public Life of Henry the Ninth ('35). I'm sure we all remember that one. In 1935 Will Hammer paired up with one Enriqué Carreras. The pair of them established 'Exclusive Films.' Some of their movies were under the 'Exclusive' banner, others were 'Hammer' films. In 1938 Enriqué's son James joined the company. A little later, Will's son Anthony joined the company too. After the war they began making cheap quota quickies (these have featured in the history of studios throughout this website). They made a film called Dick Barton, Special Agent ('48) which was based on a BBC radio series. Realising that this might be a rich seam of possible movie titles, in 1949 they formed a new company to exploit this new direction - Hammer Film Productions. For the next few years they made low-budget films based on popular radio shows like The Man in Black ('50), A Case For PC49 ('51) and Life With the Lyons ('54). They decided to make these low budget films in large houses rather than renting costly studios. The first one was in Dial Close, Cookham Dean near Maidenhead but the neighbours were not impressed so they had to move on. The next property was Oakley Court, a Victorian gothic mansion beside the Thames between Maidenhead and Windsor, to which they would return in future years. The owner was still in residence but lived in a few rooms and let them have the run of the rest of the house. The Man in Black ('50) was made here. They made two or three films here and also in a house in Harlow, Essex. In 1950 they filmed a few scenes of The Dark Light in Down Place, which was in effect next door to Oakley Court, although a few hundred yards up river. The house was almost derelict - it had been used to store duffel coats during the war (many were still there!) and parts of the floor had collapsed under the weight of all that damp duffel. The owner was living quietly in one wing, separated from the rest of the house. Nevertheless, Down Place proved to be perfect for their needs so in 1951 they took out a one-year lease on the property. Cloudburst ('51) was the first Hammer film completely made here. In fact they liked the house so much that in 1952 they took over the freehold. They named the place 'Bray Studios' after the nearby village (famous for its vicar, its riverside homes where several celebrities have lived over the years and its two Michelin 3-star restaurants. The restaurants came later by the way.) Everything here was very, very basic but a team spirit soon established itself amongst the crew that would last for years.
Frankly, Hammer was not doing too well making its quota quickies and radio adaptations. Just about keeping its head above water but that was about it. Then in 1955 Hammer secured the rights to make a movie version of TV sci-fi series The Quatermass Xperiment. Quatermass was phenomenally successful and was followed up in 1956 with Quatermass II. They realised that horror might be the way to go so made The Curse of Frankenstein ('57) - their first colour film. For the next few years they revelled in blood and gore with films like Dracula ('58), The Hound of the Baskervilles ('59), The Mummy ('59), Curse of the Werewolf ('61), The Damned ('63), Kiss of the Vampire ('63) - well, you get the idea. Most of these films starred Christopher Lee and/or Peter Cushing. These movies used every inch of Down Place which was dressed and redressed for each title, whilst other sets were built on the stages. The exterior set on the back lot was also used for many a graveyard, ancient village or ruined castle.
Despite the popularity of many of their films, the business itself never did that well. In 1955 Bray Studios were in trouble. They cut their regular staff to 60 and started to rely on outside companies to book their facilities. They considered selling the studios but the modest success of each horror film as it came out just about rescued them from disaster. Their US distributors Columbia purchased a 49% share in the studios in order to save them from closure. This investment enabled Bray to build their third and largest stage in 1957. This was of course a terrible time for the British film industry in general. Cinema audiences were plummeting and the creation of ITV in 1955 made things even worse. Why would people pay to go to the 'pictures' when television provided such great entertainment at home for free?
In 1956 the first TV production was filmed at Bray. It was The Errol Flynn Theatre and was made not by Hammer but by Motley Films Ltd, although the credits state 'An Inter-TV Production.' 25 half hour episodes were made it appears, all in one year. They were aimed at the American market but were also shown by the new ITV companies. Errol Flynn himself played the lead in every fourth show but they also starred many leading movie actors including Christopher Lee (of course), Glynis Johns, Leslie Phillips, Herbert Lom, Mai Zetterling and many others. Interestingly, the first in the series (Evil Thoughts) was actually filmed at Walton Studios in 1953 as a pilot for a similar series that was never commissioned.
In January 1964 ABPC became co-owners along with Hammer and Columbia. This was a curious deal. Hammer remained effective owners but they had agreed that they would henceforth make all their films at ABPC Elstree, unless those studios were full. Bray thus became a sort of overspill site. The studios were mothballed for much of 1964. None of Hammer's six films in 1964 was shot at Bray. It was used for a couple of films made by Bill Luckwell but the studios were proving a financial millstone. They reopened in March 1965 and Dracula Prince of Darkness was the first of seven films made by Hammer between '65 and '66 plus two produced by Harry Alan Towers (see Highbury Studios for more info on him). The first four films in 1965 were shot back to back and shared several props and sets which were redressed for each film. In 1965 Hammer also took over the Victorian gothic mansion Oakley Court. (You will remember that they first used it as a filming location in 1950.) This was a few hundred yards along the river from Down Place. I have not been able to establish whether this was a lease or possibly a number of short term rentals whilst the property was unoccupied. (The previous owner had died a few months earlier and the house remained empty until 1979 when it was converted into a luxury hotel). Oakley Court looked even more the thing for making horror films than Down Place and several used the house such as The Reptile ('66), Plague of the Zombies ('66) and And Now The Screaming Starts ('72). However, other less chilling films also used this property including The Rocky Horror Picture Show and - rather surprisingly - Tommy Steele's Half A Sixpence. Some accounts state that the original St Trinian's films used it too but to be honest the dates don't fit, the house doesn't look the same and none of the official location guides mention Oakley Court. In any case, for many films that did use it, it is likely that the exterior and the extensive grounds were used more often than the interior - Down Place was still more suitable for interior shots.
The brief resurgence in Hammer's filmmaking at Bray did not last and the last Hammer horror film made here was The Mummy's Shroud, which wrapped in October 1966. They continued making films but used Elstree. Hammer left Bray in November. They retained ownership of the studios but for the next four years just used them for some effects photography on a few films. In 1970 the studios were used for two significant movies - John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday and Ken Russell's The Music Lovers. Bray was still owned by Hammer at this time although the company itself was nowhere to be seen. However, many of the former crew members worked on those films. They used the three main stages - the ballroom stage was occupied by FX work on When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. The set on the back lot was long gone but the prop stores had various familiar items lying around, left over from classic Hammer horrors.
In November 1970 the studios were sold to Redspring Ltd for £65,000. That wasn't very much even then. They originally planned to demolish the stages and build housing (sound familiar?) but fortunately changed their minds. The studios were renamed 'Bray International Film Centre.' The old stage 1 was demolished and replaced with a larger one opening in 1973. I have been told that this was because the old stage 1 had been 'gutted by fire' but I can find no other record of this. Can you help?
Some significant films were shot at Bray during the 1970s and into the '80s including Pope Joan, The Hireling, Agatha, Loophole and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The early '70s also saw the site being used for effects work on Dr Who and between 1973 and 1975 Bray was booked by Gerry Anderson for SFX work and miniature shots on his series Space 1999. Brian Johnson was the HoD of the team. They used the ballroom stage and stage 3 (Hammer's old stage 2 - the square one close to the house) as shooting stages. The prop store between stage 3 and the house was the main workshop. Other sheds around the site were also used as workshops and for storage. Live action scenes were filmed at Pinewood on stages L and M.
1975 was the year in which the rather curious Anglo-German sci-fi series Star Maidens was filmed. I have read that they used some props and sound effects 'borrowed' from from Space 1999. I assume Gerry was asked.
In 1977 the impressive model shots for the first episode of the BBC's Blake's 7 were shot at Bray. The sequence was so impressive that they blew the entire series budget on it. The FX shots on later episodes were shot by in-house cameramen on a shoestring and were said to be somewhat less spectacular.
Bray seems to have become well established around this time as a centre of excellence for special effects work. In 1978, Ridley Scott's movie Alien took over the site under great secrecy. Stage 2 (the corrugated iron one in the middle of the site) was the model shop and stage 3 (Hammer's old stage 2, next to the house) was the shooting stage. The impressive exterior shots of the Nostromo spacecraft were filmed here, as was the atmospheric landscape of planet LV-426 where the wreck of the strange crescent-shaped spacecraft was discovered. This very convincing model took up the entire stage. The sequence where John Hurt rather foolishly looks into the egg and we see movement inside it was also shot on this stage - or at least, the closeups of the egg were. Ridley Scott's own hands were inside the 'gloves' that formed the embryo alien in the translucent egg - he knew exactly how he wanted it to twitch.
Between 1983 and 1984 Gerry Anderson's Terrahawks was the next TV show to occupy space at Bray. This was his first puppet series since the Supermarionation days of the 1960s on the Slough Trading Estate. The puppet scenes and special effects for all 39 episodes were shot here. The SFX stage was stage 3 (yes, the square one next to the house) and the puppet stage was stage 2 (yes, the corrugated iron one in the middle.) (Don't blame me for the confusing numbers!) The old ballroom stage was by now a viewing theatre and was used as such by the production. The SFX team was a mix of experienced and new, young craftsmen. This show was excellent training for all of them, who went on to great things working on major blockbuster movies. Stage 1 was mostly used at this time for filming commercials or for bands rehearsing for tours.
In 1984 the studios were bought by Samuelson's who shortly afterwards built a brand new large stage (see below). Movies in the 1980s included The Sea Wolves, Dead Man's Folly, A Month in the Country, For Queen and Country and Hope and Glory. TV drama included Paradise Postponed, The Manageress and Inspector Morse. Some of the acts for the 1985 Live Aid concert rehearsed at Bray - in fact a large number of world-class bands and solo artists used the relative privacy of stage 1 or 2 to rehearse their tours over many years. The two main stages were an ideal size to erect the set and lighting rig to be toured. Bray Studios are ideally situated only a short drive from Heathrow and London and with excellent hotels and world famous restaurants nearby. Ian Hall has written to me. He worked at Bray around 2000/2001 and remembers seeing acts rehearse there such as Elton John, the Bee Gees, Lionel Richie, Kylie, Cliff Richard, Eric Clapton, Gabrielle, Anastasia, Westlife, Craig David and Robbie Williams. Robbie's video for Rock DJ was filmed on stage 2 and the fire scene in Supreme was shot in the car park in front of stage 1. Ian also recalls that the condition of the stages and other facilities around that time was pretty ropey.
In 1990 the lease for the studios was taken over by Bray Management Ltd. In July 1999 Broadcast magazine ran a story under the headline 'Bray Studios Saved From Closure.' In it they reported that the studios had been saved 'for the next 15 years.' In the article Peter Gray and his business partner Neville Hendricks are quoted as saying that they were looking to spend '2 or 3 million over the next five years on structural and facilities improvement to bring it into the 21st century.' TV dramas and comedies filmed and/or based here in the '90s and noughties included Inspector Morse, Pie in the Sky, 99-1, Born and Bred, Demob, Dirty Tricks, Invasion Earth, Murder Rooms, Night and Day, Our Friends in the North, Forever Green, Gone To The Dogs, Jeeves and Wooster, Poirot, Roger Roger, Roughnecks, Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Sex Chips & Rock n' Roll, Soldier Soldier, Stick With Me Kid, Still Life at the Penguin Cafe (ballet), The Detectives, The Gentleman Thief, The Safe House, The Unknown Soldier, The Wyvern Mystery, Titmuss Regained, The Turn of the Screw and Murder Most Horrid.
At least two multicamera sitcom series were recorded here. One was How Do You Want Me ('97, '99), starring Dylan Moran and Charlotte Colman. Far more controversial was Heil Honey I'm Home ('90), a spoof '50's-style sitcom in questionable taste depicting Hitler and Eva Braun living next door to a Jewish couple. It was made for the ill-fated BSB channel Galaxy but only one episode was ever aired. The rest of the series was never transmitted. When Sky took over BSB they were appalled by the show and immediately scrapped it. One of the camera crew told me that they were working on the final episode but were sent home at lunchtime before it was recorded. Sky had just bought BSB and the series had been pulled. So 4 unseen episodes may still exist somewhere. The pilot (ep 1) was in fact made at Pinewood - that's the only one to survive. I gather the old Tyne Tees Television OB scanner was used for facilities here at Bray. They probably shoved it in the river when the show was scrapped.
There was also a BBC1 lottery show - Red Alert. Two series were recorded in 1999. 200 episodes of the CBeebies series Fimbles were made at Bray from 2001. In 2003 Stage 1 was the home of Inside Clyde, a kids' gameshow set within the internal organs of a human being called - er - Clyde. It was presented by Tony Hawks and directed by highly respected David G Croft who now lectures at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield.
The stages at Bray have often been used to shoot commercials. One notable example was the 1998 Guinness ad with the surfer and the waves turning into leaping white horses. The horses (from Billy Smart's Circus) were filmed against green screen on one of the stages here. They were sprayed white, had extensions added to their manes and were trained to gallop up a slope and leap off the end, all whilst being splashed with water. Hmm. Let's hope they appreciated all the awards the commercial won - including 'Best Ad of All Time' in 2002. Movies shot here since 1990 included The Witches, Edward II, Mojo, Velvet Goldmine, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Reign of Fire, The Dark and (ahem) Ali G Indahouse. Probably the last film made before the closure was some miniature and effects work for Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus in 2009.
Sadly, in 2010 Neville Hendricks announced that the studios were no longer economically viable. He said that bookings from films and TV had diminished in recent years and competition from larger studios such as Pinewood and Shepperton meant that they could no longer attract sufficient business. He planned to renovate Down Place and live there with his extended family. The stages and other buildings would be demolished and seven luxury houses would be built. There was inevitably strong opposition to this - some people pointing out that it is the relatively small size of the site and its seclusion that has appealed over the years to so many film-makers and to bands who need to rehearse in privacy. Twickenham studios - a similar sized site - was saved from closure in 2012. However, despite a campaign to save these studios, on 3rd October 2012 planning permission was finally granted.
In a newspaper interview in 2010 Mr Hendricks explained that the stages and facilities were by then very old and needed 'millions' spent on them to bring them up to a reasonable standard. He did possibly have a point - much of the site had had a dilapidated and seedy look to it for a number of years although I would question whether millions needed to be spent on the stages, particularly stage 1. You could build brand new ones for millions - a few hundred thousand would have gone a long way to refurbish the existing ones. However, the support facilities certainly did need some money spent on them. It is worth pointing out that stage 1 was comparatively not very old and stage 2 had a bit of a history but was erected here in 1973 which compares very well with many film stages. Studios like Ealing, Twickenham, Pinewood and Shepperton all have much older stages that are still in regular use. A film stage is a very basic thing - a black box with a grid and some power. It is not like a TV studio which is full of technical equipment that goes out of date. A well-built film stage (like stages 1 and 2 ) can go on for ever. In fact, many films and TV series are now being made in far less suitable facilities than this. Old factories and leaky warehouses are frequently being used now due to the lack of available film stages. Hendricks also explained that the old house needed a great deal spent on it to preserve it for the future. That certainly is a point. It had been very poorly maintained by all its owners over the years. It is unlikely that he would have got his money back from renting studio space if he did spend millions doing up the old house and living in it himself.
So - bitter as it may seem - simple economics brought the studios to a close, although it is a shame he didn't appear to be willing to put the site on the market to see if someone else might make a go of it. He did also appear to turn away work from 2010 onwards which could have kept the studios going for a few years longer whilst discussions continued over their future. Thanks to attractive tax laws and the fall in the value of the pound along with the rise of Netflix, the making of TV dramas and features in the UK is more popular than ever. This has meant that many have really struggled to find film stages to hire and are now having to use unsuitable buildings such as empty factories and warehouses around London due to the severe shortage of available sound stages. My guess is that if it had been put on the open market, an enterprising company or individual could have come in and refurbished stages 1 and 2 for a relatively small amount. Some new dressing rooms/make-up facilities and production offices would have been needed for stage 2. Stage 3 and the surrounding workshops should have been demolished and replaced with new workshops and/or possibly a new medium stage. (In fact, this has now happened - a temporary workshop occupies the land where stage 3 once stood.) The house, however, clearly needed some significant money spent on it. In fact, following detailed structural surveys in 2008 and 2014 that discovered serious damage from rot, damp and wood-boring insects, the interior has been completely stripped back to the basic structure of the building. The old admin wing was found to be beyond saving and was demolished in 2016. It would indeed probably cost millions to restore what is left of the house.
A campaign with a Facebook group and petition was organised in 2013 attempting to save the studios, despite the planning permission decision. The occasional newspaper report mentioned it. Terry Gilliam was one notable director who lent his support but it remained unclear how the studios could be saved. I have been informed that the decision by the planning committee was challenged on the grounds that that they might have been given false information which may have affected their decision. However, this last minute attempt to save this valuable asset for the UK film industry was unsuccessful. What a waste!
Rather unexpectedly, it seems that at the end of 2014 Mr Hendricks quietly sold the studios to another developer - Farmglade. Knowledge of this sale was not made public until the summer of 2015 when they revealed new plans. Thus the opportunity to sell to a company willing to keep the studios open was very sadly missed. Farmglade submitted completely different proposals to the local council and very disappointingly, planning permission was granted in October 2015, despite the clear demand for studio space at that time. A modification to the plans was also given planning permission in April 2017. However, a condition of the permission was that work on the development must be started by February 2019 - a date that has now of course passed. The proposals were for Down Place to be turned into 10 apartments and 15 houses to be built. All stages and other facilities were to be demolished. However, stages 1, 2 and 4 (now called 3) are currently still standing...
Despite the on-going closure of the studios, it seems that against all odds, some filming did take place in 2017. I have yet to establish exactly what was involved but I have read that this may have included pick up shots for Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. Meanwhile, in January 2018 there were rumours of some very good news. The story was that the developers were considering selling the studios to an enterprise that intended to refurbish the stages and other facilities and bring them back into use. This may yet be so but in the meantime, Farmglade have decided to postpone the redevelopment and re-open the studios themselves in order to make some money on their investment for the time being at least. This is hardly surprising - the housing market is not as vibrant as it was, whilst demand for studio space continues to rise. During 2018 some more buildings were demolished, including stage 3 (the west wing of the old house had been demolished in 2016) and some new construction took place. These are large 'temporary' buildings which one assumes are being used as workshops and prop/costume stores. (It's worth mentioning in passing that some 'temporary' workshops at Pinewood have been standing since 2010 so these may be here for a number of years to come.) The brickwork above the Stage 2 dock door has also been repaired. Interestingly, the field between the studios and the main road has been given a large hardstanding area with a couple of workshop buildings on it. There is a sign at a new entrance saying 'Bray Studios, South Lot.' So, not only are the studios back in use, they appear to have expanded! (Any info on these and other developments gratefully received - in confidence of course.)
In May 2018 it was announced that Rocketman, a musical about Elton John, was preparing to shoot at Bray. It was thought that the project would occupy the studios for about 9 months. Interestingly, the Leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead now seemed to be very enthusiastic about filming resuming here. Simon Dudley is quoted as saying 'It's incredibly exciting. There are a number of projects that are being filmed. They are really exciting projects and there's a possibility that there will be some investment.' He is reported to have said 'The reopening of the studios makes the Borough stand out even more. It's very exciting because there are a lot of people here who are involved in the arts, media and entertainment.' This is all quite extraordinary since the same council previously seemed to accept what the owners told them on two previous occasions - that there was no demand for studio space in this area! Maybe they have now spoken to a few people in the industry and discovered the truth. Anyway - local Conservative councillor, David Coppinger, is quoted as saying 'The demand for filming, mainly because of companies like Netflix, is increasing and there is not enough studio capacity, so the owner of the land has reinstated the studio. We will see yet again Hollywood film stars in Bray which has to be good for our local economy.' This last minute conversion by the Royal Borough is obviously very welcome indeed. Let's hope they do all they can to support efforts to keep the studios open on a permanent basis.
In May 2019 there was a press announcement that I'm sure thrilled many fans of Hammer films and lovers of Bray Studios. The BBC's version of Dracula had begun shooting at Bray! The show wrapped on 1st August. Made by Hartswood Films, with scripts by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss - this is the dream team that created Sherlock some years earlier. The drama was in three parts and was very well received when it was transmitted on BBC1 at Christmas. In September 2019 Bray was being used to shoot series 2 of There She Goes, with Jessica Hynes and David Tennant. Please drop me an email if you know of any other TV shows or films being made here.
In August 2018 I was contacted by one of the neighbours. He informed me that a great deal of activity had been happening on site, which was then occupied by a large number of movie-related vehicles. He confirmed that some buildings had been demolished and new constructions had replaced them. Some considerable investment in the studios appeared to be happening, which is of course very encouraging! The neighbours were apparently contacted by Farmglade who confirmed that the housing market was currently poor so they were postponing the redevelopment. They said that they had had a number of offers to use the studios which they couldn't turn down. Let's hope they have had a permanent change of mind for the use of the site.
As to the future of Bray Studios - Down Place will probably cost millions to restore and become habitable again. If the entire site including the house cannot become a permanent film studio once more, my hope would be that the northern part of the site near the river could be separated from the studio part. The house could be renovated and turned into 3 or 4 luxury dwellings and a new wing constructed, containing several more apartments where the old admin block once stood. The profit from selling these homes in such a sought after area would hopefully pay for the renovation of the old house, enabling the studios to continue operating - maybe with a new stage and other much needed facilities such as a production block and permanent workshops, replacing the temporary buildings. It would be sad to see the old house lost to the industry but it is effectively gone already and is an empty shell. At least this way it would be saved from collapse and the studios themselves could continue to make films and television drama.
For much more information on Bray I can heartily recommend Wayne Kinsey's excellent book 'Inside Bray Studios', published in 2018 by Peveril Publishing. It is superbly researched and full of fascinating details and hundreds of photos.
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Jacob Street Studios
1984 - 1994
Located a few hundred yards downstream of Tower Bridge on the south bank of the river, these studios were in their day the largest in London, covering 3.25 acres. They were originally a Spillers' dog biscuit factory - no, really - and began with 4 stages, increasing to 7 by the time they closed. Apparently, the empty factory was used as a location for a pop video and the makers realised that the buildings would make great film stages until redevelopment took place - as still often happens today. In fact this temporary use went on for 11 years.
Several highly regarded feature films were shot here either entirely or partly including Highlander ('86) with Christopher Lambert, Personal Services ('87) with Julie Walters and Prick up Your Ears ('87) with Vanessa Redgrave, Gary Oldman and Alfred Molina. Other movies included Biggles - Adventures in Time ('86), The Young Americans ('93), and Different For Girls ('96).
Jacob St was used to make pop videos, commercials and several TV dramas. Best known of these was LWT's London's Burning. This was based on the 1986 TV movie written by Jack Rosenthal. It ran from 1988 - 2002 and there were 171 episodes. The original fire station featured is on Wolseley St in London and was opposite the Jacob St Studios. When the studios closed in 1994 another fire station was used. The Comic Strip 2 was also filmed here.
The studios were demolished to make way for a large residential development.
3 Mills Studios
mid '80s - present
(revised March 2020)
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The House Mill ahead and the Clock Mill to its right. The third mill was rather carelessly lost 500 years ago. photo thanks to Wikipedia |
These studios are located on Three Mill Island, Bromley-by-Bow in East London. The island is said to be London's oldest surviving industrial centre and is the location of The Clock Mill and The House Mill - the latter being the largest and most powerful of the four remaining tidal mills in Britain. It last turned in 1941 but there are plans to restore it to working condition as a power generator. In fact there may have been several mills on the island at the time of the Domesday Book - these reduced to three by the 12th century (when the island gained its name) and in the 16th century the three became two - the House Mill and the Clock Mill, seen above. These together had a total of seven large waterwheels and in the 19th century they were processing around 125 tons of maize and barley per week.
The mills and associated facilities on the island have been built and rebuilt several times over the centuries. As well as maize and barley they were even briefly used to produce gunpowder. In the 19th century Nicholson's acquired the site and used it to distil gin. Following air-raid damage during the war this ceased but the remaining buildings continued to be used for warehousing. This lasted in parts of the site right up to the early 1990s.
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The 'old lab' and gin still. An example of the lovely old buildings that are all around the 3 Mills site. |
Some of the old distillery buildings began to be used for film production from the mid 1980s. There are conflicting reports on the precise sequence of events but this seems the most likely (unless you know different?) - two companies established themselves here: Bow Studios and 3 Mills Island Studios.
In 1993 the two studio businesses and all the other buildings on the island were bought by Workspace Group - a property company specialising in the provision of accommodation for small businesses. Workspace invested over £8m in the site - a considerable amount. At the same time Edwin Shirley, a former actor and businessman, saw the potential in these facilities so he formed Edwin Shirley Productions (ESP), took out a lease and became the management company for the new 3 Mills Studios.
Unfortunately in 2001 there appears to have been a legal dispute between Workspace Group and ESP over lease contracts and rent payments. According to press reports at the time, Workspace 'ousted' ESP from the studios. There seems to have been some concern at the time that the studios would close but Workspace declared that they were committed to seeing film-making continue. They brought in a consultant from Leavesden Studios to help take over the running of 3 Mills.
In August 2004 the studios were taken over by the London Development Agency who transferred ownership to the Olympic Park Legacy Company in 2010. Some of the stages were used as rehearsal rooms for the opening and closing Olympic ceremonies. This enterprise is now known as the London Legacy Development Corporation.
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The studio site pre 2014 (thanks to the 3 Mills website). The pink areas are stages, dark blue are 'warehouses', orange are prop stores, light green are rehearsal rooms, light blue are production offices, beige are workshops. Stage 10 is now 3 rehearsal rooms. The impressive size of the whole studio complex is clear but it is also interesting how it formed two distinct halves. In 2014 the site was considerably reduced in size when all the stages and facilities to the west were demolished for redevelopment. |
As you can guess from the long history, the site is now an attractive mix of buildings of various shapes and sizes. There are no fully equipped TV studios here but there are an impressive 11 stages plus a number of rehearsal rooms, workshops, prop stores and over 200 production offices. Most stages were adapted from previous industrial use so have a variety of proportions and roof heights. Most have fairly basic grids unlike the purpose built stages at sites like Pinewood, Elstree, Leavesden or Shepperton. Only stage 15 has air extraction built in and none has air cooling which means they are bound to get pretty warm when used for long periods with a big lighting rig.
The studio site until 2014 was two separate sites side by side and linked by a bridge over the river. On the west were stages A, C and D and associated workshops and offices and to the east the island with the old mills and the numbered stages 1 - 15. (stages 3, 10, 13, and 14 no longer exist.) In 2014, despite increased demand for studio space, the entire western section was closed and demolished for redevelopment. The studios are owned by the London Legacy Development Corporation - who, let's be honest, are not particularly interested in film and TV but have a remit to redevelop and upgrade this whole area with new housing, business premises and shops.
The stages are used for all kinds of work including pop videos and commercials and for rehearsing rock tours and West End musicals etc. Several feature films have also been made here such as Topsy Turvy, 28 Days Later, Sexy Beast, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Made in Dagenham, Sunshine and Attack the Block. 3 Mills is also used to film single-camera TV drama and in recent years they have occasionally been used to record multi-camera TV shows using OB units. Not only that but live TV comes from here now - channel 4's Million Pound Drop is made at 3 Mills. The 2015 series of Masterchef was also shot here.
Most features have been made in the stages to the west, which offered a degree of privacy away from the rest of the site. With these having been lost, it is possible that 3 Mills will find it more difficult to attract this kind of work in the future.
These studios are reasonably close to tube and DLR stations and with good road, rail and even air connections via London City. However, they are situated well away from most of London's other film and TV studios so those working in the industry living to the west probably find them not as easy to commute to. They are also sited well away from prop hire and scenery companies which are mostly located to the west of London. Also, as mentioned above, most of the stages do not have the flexible grids found elsewhere and none has built-in air conditioning - so 3 Mills have had to attract business in other ways. Quite sensibly, I am told that they are relatively cheap to hire and so are ideal for shows with standing sets or, let's be honest, low budgets. However, that's far from all - the site is long established as a busy studio centre and is well equipped with production office and workshop/wardrobe/make-up areas. It also contains many beautiful old buildings plus the surrounding waterways of course and by all accounts is a very pleasant environment to work in.
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The Sound of Music Live
On 20th December 2015, ITV presented a very ambitious production - a live staging of The Sound of Music, with a delightful performance by Kara Tointon as Maria. A similar show had been made by NBC in America in December 2013 - to somewhat mixed reviews (although further live musicals have followed there). ITV thought the Brits should do it too - and by many accounts they did it rather better. Of course, although commissioned by ITV Studios, the show was actually made by a team of highly experienced British TV freelancers - most were once BBC or ITV staff but for many years they have been working on a range of productions from music and entertainment shows to multicamera sitcoms. Three stages were taken over here at 3 Mills. (The show was originally due to be made over the Easter holidays at Leavesden Studios but for various reasons was postponed.) Two of the stages are linked but the third is across a car park so when the cast moved from stage to stage during ad breaks a team of umbrella handlers were standing by. Technical facilities were provided by Telegenic. There were 14 Sony HDC 2500 cameras on various mounts (mostly peds) and 3 Sony F55 CineAlta cameras on Steadicam mounts. The F55s were chosen because of the shallow depth of field they would give but I understand that picture matching of the two camera types did prove to be a problem at times. Mind you, the final result was impeccable. The orchestra was prerecorded but all sound was live - each actor had two radiomics hidden in their hair or costume. The stages used were as follows: stage 11 - The Abbey - 3 peds, a hothead on overhead track and 3 Steadicams stage 6 - The bedroom and the concert hall - 3 peds, 1 Technocrane and 2 Steadicams stage 5 - The villa and garden - 4 peds, 1 Merlin arm and 3 Steadicams Of course, this was not the first time musicals or operas have been made in TV studios. The BBC made several in the '70s and '80s at TV Centre - usually in TC1 with a live orchestra in one of the other studios and ATV made one or two at Elstree. However, these were always pre-recorded. Also, of course, many operas and theatre productions have been transmitted live to cinemas since about 2012. However, these were transmissions of existing, well rehearsed productions. To my knowledge, this is the first time a new musical theatre production has been transmitted live from a studio in the UK since the late 1940s and '50s, when such things came from Alexandra Palace and were simply seen by the crew as another working day.
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Multicamera TV shows made at 3 Mills have included 24 Hour Quiz, The Grid, Big Brother (series 1 and 2), Blue Peter Christmas Panto, The Slammer ('06, '08), Hell's Kitchen ('07, '09), Gordon Ramsay's Cookalong Live ('08), Katy Brand's Big Ass Show ('08), Britain's Next Top Model ('10), Million Pound Drop ('10, '11, '12, '13), A Comedy Roast ('10), Ant and Dec Push The Button ('11), The Sound of Music Live ('15)
Single camera dramas and comedies have included Bad Girls, The Canterbury Tales, Chickens, Cold Lazarus, Crocodile Shoes, Hornblower, Hunting Venus, Kavanagh QC, Letting Go, London Bridge, London's Burning, Manchild, Prime Suspect, Randall and Hopkirk (deceased), The Diary of Anne Frank, Waterloo Road, Ashes to Ashes, The Bill, Lead Balloon, Luther, Whitechapel, The Royals, Jekyll & Hyde, The Job Lot.
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There are/were 14 stages as follows:
Stage 1 - 3,945 sq ft - mostly used as a rehearsal room for musicals Stage 2 - 3,129 sq ft - very dead acoustic and mostly used for theatrical and musical rehearsals Stage 4 - 6,034 sq ft - (links to stage 6) square shape and used for some single camera dramas such as Diary of Anne Frank Stage 5 - 10,437 sq ft - same size as arena of Royal Albert Hall. Often used for rehearsals but also commercials and features such as Attack The Block. Stage 6 - 8,056 sq ft. Contains an L-shaped blue screen. Used for Hells' Kitchen and The Slammer amongst many others. Stage 7 - 13,483 sq ft - largest stage here. Used for Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway, Bad Girls, Never Let Me Go plus many others. Stage 8 - smallest at 3,802 sq ft. Used for Hell's Kitchen, 28 weeks Later, Lead Balloon etc. Stage 9 - 8,949 sq ft. Million Pound Drop, The Slammer, Terry Pratchett's Hogfather and so on. Stage 11 - 8,128 sq ft and with a block and tackle grid. Million Pound Drop, The Mighty Boosh and many rock tour rehearsals. Has a covered area alongside suitable for an OB scanner or portacabins providing TV facilities. Stage 12 - 7,834 sq ft and with highest grid on site. Used for Million Pound Drop, Diary of Anne Frank, Ant and Dec's Push The Button, Sunshine. Stage 15 - 5,320 sq ft and the newest (purpose-built) stage on site with gantry, I-beam grid and external power source for OB scanner. Gordon Ramsay Cookalong Live, The Deep Blue Sea plus various ads etc.
The following stages no longer exist: Stage A - 10,499 sq ft. Several features such as Eastern Promises, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Enter Shikara made here. Stage B became a workshop. Stage C - 9,169 sq ft. Direct access to stages A and D. Fantastic Mr Fox, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Sunshine. Stage D - 9,402 sq ft - Fantastic Mr Fox, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Sunshine.
Stages A, C and D were grouped together on the west of the site along with various workshops and warehouses and were ideal as a base for making feature films. This area was separated from the rest of the site by a central gate in the roadway that linked the two halves of 3 Mills.
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stage 1 - mostly used for rehearsals |
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stage 7 - largest stage at 206ft x 81ft widest, 59ft narrowest |
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stage 11 - fitted with an I-beam grid and 100ft x 82ft. |
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stage 15 - purpose built with an I-beam grid and 84ft x 77ft. This stage also has air extraction (the only stage with this) and a wooden floor. |
All the above images with thanks to the 3 Mills website.
3 Mills is not a major studio like Pinewood, Shepperton or Leavesden. Most of the stages are relatively small by film standards but are ideal for shooting TV drama, commercials, pop promos and low budget features. They have also been used for a few multicamera TV shows with standing sets. 3 Mills might be compared with Black Island/Dukes Island studios or West London Studios (HDS). All are appealing to the same market. Their only possible handicap is their location but thanks to the Olympics, the east of London has enjoyed considerable investment in transport links and a general uplift to the area. These studios are benefitting from all that.
Although the stages are currently simple black boxes, in August 2015 it was reported that 3 Mills were considering investing £10m into one of the stages to turn it into a TV studio. However, in February 2016 studio head Tom Avison was reported as saying that the demand for TV drama and features makes that type of work currently more viable.
In 2016 the LLDC - owners of 3 Mills - announced that they were considering using 3 Mills as storage for a museum that was planned to move to the Olympic Park. No firm decision had been taken but the long term future of these buildings for use as film stages was put in some doubt.
Then on 5th October 2017 it emerged that the LLDC were considering disposing of 3 Mills completely. According to a published document they noted that 'the local context is dramatically changing, with 3 Mills Studios at the centre of an emerging town centre.' It stated that the the site is surrounded by three significant developments which will deliver around 3,500 new homes. They noted that 'the LLDC has the opportunity to further support the town centre development and long term regeneration of this part of the lower Lea Valley by integrating part, or all of the 3 Mills Studios site into the emerging context. LLDC is now considering disposing of its interest in the site on the open market.'
However, as of March 2020, the studios were alive and kicking and as busy as ever. Paul de Carvalho, general manager, contacted me and pointed out that 3 Mills was still the home of Masterchef and hosting plenty of high end TV drama and the occasional multi-camera show including Al Murray's Great British Pub Quiz and the UK version of RuPaul's Drag Race. So this is all very encouraging to hear and it seems that rumours of the death of 3 Mills have been greatly exaggerated.
Black Island/Duke's Island Studios
1992? - present
Just off the A40 Western Avenue in North Acton are two large buildings containing film stages just a few hundred metres from each other. They are both owned and operated by the Island Studios group, which also has Cape Island and Gold Island Studios in South Africa and Manchester Island Studios in, er, Manchester.
Apparently the Black Island building was originally a cold store. It was then acquired by AFM Lighting to be turned into a 4-waller studio complex with AFM supplying all the rigging and lighting facilities. The earliest mention I can find of Black Island Studios is in 1992. (Can you confirm that this is when they were established?) AFM merged with Lee Lighting in 2008 to form Panalux.
The studios provide a very useful facility for single camera shoots - especially commercials and pop promos although I understand that they are occasionally used for TV dramas and single-camera comedies.
To my knowledge they are not often used for multi-camera TV shows but Oasis recorded a televised concert on one of the Black Island stages in August 2008. Black Island has also been the location since 2005 for the boardroom scenes in the BBC's The Apprentice. This is a set of course, not a real boardroom and is shot with multiple cameras but is not vision mixed at the time. Another show shot in a similar way is Channel 4's Four Rooms. The first series was shot at a real location but subsequent series have been recorded in a set on one of the stages at Black Island. As a complete contrast, The Dick and Dom Diaries was recorded at Duke's Island in 2008. I'm also told that David G Croft directed a children's reality gameshow series called Starfinder here in 2003. Pilots have included Pro-Celebrity Bowls, believe it or not. The excellent Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe was shot on Duke Island's Blue stage early in 2015 - previous series used studio 2 at Teddington.
The stages are also often used for bands to rehearse tours. A few low-budget features have been filmed here too.
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Black Island stage 1 |
Black Island stage 5 |
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Black Island stage 6 with thanks to the Island Studios website |
Duke's Island white stage |
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The stages available are as follows: Black Island stage 1 - 150 x 65ft (9,750 sq ft) stage 2 - 90 x 65ft (5,850 sq ft) stage 3 - 100 x 65ft (6,500 sq ft) stage 4 - 45 x 40ft (1,800 sq ft) stage 5 - 150 x 110ft (16,500 sq ft) stage 6 - 90 x 55ft (4,950 sq ft)
Duke's Island red stage - 45 x 40ft (1,800 sq ft) white stage - 80 x 56ft (4,480 sq ft) blue stage - 70 x 70ft (4,900 sq ft)
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All of the stages have cycloramas, some with coves. The three Duke's Island stages have runway beams for rigging as does stage 5 at Black Island. There are plenty of associated dressing rooms, make-up rooms, production offices etc.
I have drawn a bit of a blank trying to establish titles of TV dramas or comedies that have been shot here. Can you help???
Warner Bros Studios, Leavesden
1994 - present
(revised March 2020)
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Leavesden as it was following the major redevelopment in 2012. In the foreground are new workshops, then the new stages behind. On the far left are the two buildings used for the Warner Bros Studio Tour. The huge back lot is behind the stages. |
Leavesden Studios - or more accurately 'Warner Bros Studios, Leavesden' - are located north of Watford just a mile or two inside the M25, about the same distance from central London as Pinewood is. These two major studios are about 17 miles apart from each other, round the M25.
Before the 1930s the present studio site was part of a farm and called One Mile Field. The clue to its size is in the name. In 1932 the local council were looking for a suitable location to construct an airfield and this was one of two that were considered. Interestingly, it was also proposed that film studios should be constructed here and this was the preferred choice of the local parish council. In fact, neither project happened. The field was purchased by the council and in 1937 an enormous park including several playing fields was planned. It was to be called the King George V Recreation Ground. Some preliminary work commenced in 1939 but the park was not completed. In any case, the declaration of war in September 1939 put all such projects on hold.
At the outbreak of war the Handley Page aircraft company requested that other factories be built around London to help assemble its Halifax bombers. The De Havilland company agreed to do this and began to look for suitable sites to construct an airfield with associated factories. The King George V Recreation Ground was ideal and work was begun in January 1940.
George Wimpey Ltd constructed a single tarmac runway, about 3,000 ft long by 150ft wide. They also built two factories - No.1 factory was built to the north of the runway and No.2 factory on the eastern perimeter. There were also two 'flight clearance' sheds built - one near each end of the runway. These were very large hangars where aircraft could be prepped ready for their first flight.
Many years later, No.1 Factory formed part of the film studios used for the Harry Potter movies.
No.2 Factory was demolished when part of the airfield was sold off to construct a business park in the 1990s and was never used for film making.
But - back to the war. No. 2 factory was used to construct Mosquito fighter/bombers. The Mosquito was a very fast 2-engine aircraft made mostly of plywood that had a variety of versions including night-fighter and tactical bomber. An astonishing 1,476 of them were made at Leavesden. The Mosquitos also used the flight shed at the western end of the runway near the A41. This building was used from the mid '90s to 2009 as an occasional overspill film stage. It has now been replaced by a brand new sound stage.
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Mosquitos being manufactured at Leavesden during the war in the No. 2 factory - now demolished. |
Meanwhile, No.1 factory was used to assemble Halifax bombers. The Halifax was a large 4-engine bomber, almost as successful as the more famous Avro Lancaster. 700 were built here. In the same way that bits of Airbus airliners are manufactured now in various factories all over Europe, different sections of the Halifax and its engines were constructed in factories around London. Before the war these all manufactured cars, lorries and buses. A new company - the London Aircraft Production Group - was formed to coordinate this process which ended with the assembly of the aircraft at Leavesden prior to their first flights. It is said that pilots liked the Leavesden Halifaxes because the seats were beautifully made in green leather. The company that made those previously constructed London Buses. The Leavesden Halifaxes also had superior riveting, which increased the top speed of the aircraft by 10-15 knots. Very important when being attacked by a prowling Bf 110 night fighter somewhere over Germany.
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A Halifax bomber being assembled in No.1 Factory. Possibly this is where the Great Hall in Hogwarts was located some 60 years later. |
The last Halifax made at Leavesden was named 'London Pride' and was rolled out on 16th April 1945 with great celebration from many of the great and good including Sir Frederick Handley-Page.
Following the war, No.1 Factory was taken over by the DeHavilland Aircraft Engine Division. This was one of the first factories in the world to manufacture commercial jet engines. For example, the Ghost engine was made here in 1947, which powered the Comet airliner and the Venom fighter.
During the Korean war which ran from 1950-1953, DeHavilland anticipated a significant increase in orders for military aircraft. They decided to double the size of the Leavesden factory so constructed workshops alongside the existing hangars and a new admin block with a control tower at the runway end. These new facilities were completed in 1954. They are still in use today as part of the new WB film studio complex.
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Above is No.1 Factory as it was in 1948 - camouflage paint on the roofs still there from the recent war. The row of hangars in which the Halifax bombers were assembled became film stages between 1994 and 2009. Below is the same view in 1954 following the addition of the extra workshop space that would be used to manufacture aircraft engines. This area still remains in the WB Studios and is referred to as a 'multifunction zone'. The smart new office block seen below is still in use. At the left hand end of the lower picture can be seen the new control tower for the airfield. The smaller wartime one is the round white building in front of the old hangars. In case you were wondering - the tall white tower seen on the picture above was a temporary control tower erected to give a view of the runway in 1948 to see over the new buildings whilst they were being constructed. Once the new control tower was operational it was removed. (That's useless factoid No. 857B.) |
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In 1959 the DeHavilland company became part of Hawker Siddeley which in turn was taken over in 1966 by Rolls Royce. They based their 'small gas turbine division' at Leavesden, where many engines for aircraft and in particular for helicopters were made. The last engine manufactured here was a Gnome for a Wessex helicopter in 1993.
During the '60s, '70s, '80s and into the early '90s the airfield was used for general aviation and several business and charter aircraft were based here - as was the Goodyear Blimp.
In '91 and '92 there were no orders for Rolls-Royce helicopter engines, partly due to the recession and of course to the collapse of the Soviet Union. This led to big cutbacks in defence spending. Sadly but inevitably RR decided to close the facility. They had left the site by June 1993 but the airfield remained open for a few more months. However, on 31st March 1994 the last flight left the airfield and it was closed to aviation.
In 1994 the Bond film Goldeneye was unable to use Pinewood as the stages there were fully booked. Eon, the production company, looked for an alternative studio but only this airfield offered the large stages they needed by converting several of the old hangars.
What at first was seen as a temporary fix to a problem turned out to be rather more permanent. The old aircraft factory No.1 proved to be an excellent place to make movies. The arrangement of several large hangars linked to thousands of square feet of workshop space was ideal. Also of course, being an airfield there was and is a large area upon which to build exterior sets. This back lot has the added advantage of a very low horizon with no visible buildings.
In 1995 the airfield was bought by 'Millennium Group' who intended to turn it into a theme park based on movies. They also planned to keep some film making here and to sell off part of the site for housing and a business park. The housing and business park went ahead but the theme park plans were never submitted to the council for approval.
In 1996 George Lucas returned to England to make the first of his Star Wars prequels - The Phantom Menace. The original three films had of course been made at Elstree Studios, a few miles south of here, but those studios were no longer able to provide sufficient space. Leavesden was ideal. It could be sealed off from the rest of the world and there was more than enough space to construct large sets and fill stages with spaceships, alien worlds and giant greenscreens.
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One of the old stages in use. Although converted from aircraft hangars they were equipped with proper film stage grids as can be seen here. The new stages however have higher and better designed grids. |
In 1997 the studios were used to make Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. No, me neither.
1998 saw Tim Burton move in to make Sleepy Hollow. Most of the film was shot here but curiously, the spooky forest was built on the 30,000 sq ft H stage at Shepperton. Odd, since A and B stages here were a similar size. As a complete contrast, An Ideal Husband was also filmed here in 1998.
In 2000 Warner Bros leased the whole airfield and began to make the first of the Harry Potter films - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. They made 8 movies in total, completing the series in 2009.
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Leavesden during the Harry Potter years. The area with zig-zag roofing is the workshop space built after the war for manufacturing aircraft engines. The stages are on the right (previously the wartime Halifax factory) and the two buildings at an angle in the centre were wartime aircraft hangars being used now as stages. The upper one is stage C which you can see has had an extension added to it. The lower one is the D stage which had a tank for shooting underwater scenes built within it. The D stage is the only one still remaining. To the left can be seen the exterior set for Privet Drive - Harry's muggle home. image thanks to Windows Live |
During this time there were 7 stages including a huge one over 74,000 sq ft. These were adapted from existing hangars. The old flight shed on the west side of the airfield was also occasionally used as a silent stage. Stage D had an underwater tank 60ft x 60ft and 20ft deep built within it, so nearly twice as big as the underwater stage at Pinewood. This was constructed in 2004 for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which contained several underwater scenes.
The original stages were as follows:
A - 243 x 132 x 30ft (32,000 sq ft)
B - 231 x 132 x 30ft (30,500 sq ft)
C - 122 x 92 x 28ft (11,000 sq ft but had a temporary extension added)
D - 123 x 96 x 28ft (contained underwater tank)
E - later used as a workshop area
F - 15,300sq ft
G - 19,200 sq ft
H/I - 74,500 sq ft
Flight shed - 48,000 sq ft
Most of the above had very limited sound attenuation, as they were of course adapted from industrial units.
The back lot had several familiar sets built on it including Privet Drive, the main courtyard at Hogwarts, Hagrid's hut and part of the rickety bridge at Hogwarts. Most of these had bluescreens built round them and the backgrounds were added in post production. None of these sets now remain in situ but Harry's house and part of the bridge were dismantled and reconstructed in the exterior part of the Warner Bros Studio Tour.
In 2010 Warner Bros announced a proposal to buy the freehold and to redevelop the site as a major international film studio. The plans were agreed and construction began. The stages dating back to the wartime Halifax factory were demolished and replaced with new ones. All are now fully insulated sound stages. This is particularly important as most are positioned next to each other. I have read that many of the original steel frames of the old hangars were incorporated into the structures of the new stages. This explains why they follow very similar outlines and must have saved quite a bit of cost in their construction.
Other buildings were refurbished or had extensions added. There were some new construction workshops and offices added too. The new studios opened on 11th June 2012.
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Above is a plan showing how the old stages were laid out. The exterior walls have remained more or less in the same place but below is a drawing indicating how the new stages are arranged. Stage C has been completely rebuilt and is much larger than before. The pink areas are workshops and the cyan ones are offices. |
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This plan indicates how huge the Leavesden site is and how many stages had been built by 2020. Six new stages were added between 2015 and 2019. Most of the stages and other facilities are top right but stage L on the far left replaced the old flight test shed. J, K and R at the bottom centre (shown in grey here) are the home of the Warner Bros Studio Tour. The blue square in the centre of the back lot is the exterior tank. D stage contains an underwater tank. with thanks to the WB Leavesden website |
What has been completed is a site with superb facilities for every department. There are now 15 stages in the main complex - the 16th is located on the west side of the airfield. This huge stage (L) of nearly 50,000 sq ft replaced the previous flight shed. Only the 007 stage at Pinewood is larger in the UK at 59,000 sq ft. It also has 50,000 sq ft of hard standing outside its dock doors where sets could be extended if required.
The stages have excellent grids with catwalks over them enabling rigging to be relatively fast and flexible. There are numerous workshops positioned all round the site, supporting the various productions taking place.
The new studios were officially opened in April 2013 by Princes William and Harry and the Duchess of Cambridge - who all clearly enjoyed visiting the Harry Potter exhibition and in some ways rather spookily resembled the three leading characters of those books and films.
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The impressive Leavesden site in 2012. The size of the back lot is clear - including what is left of the original runway which has been widened. The block of buildings on the upper left contains the new stages and the Studio Tour with its car park is on the right. The stage replacing the old flight shed is not visible in this photo - it is to the bottom left. image thanks to Kays |
The 2012 stages are as follows:
A - 180 x 130 x 45ft (23,400 sq ft)
B - 180 x 130 x 30ft (23,400 sq ft)
C - 240 x 130 x 45ft (31,200 sq ft)
D - 120 x 90 x 27ft (10,800 sq ft - contains underwater tank)
E - 280 x 120 x 30ft (33,600 sq ft)
F - 280 x 130 x 30ft (36,400 sq ft)
G - 280 x 120 x 30ft (33,600 sq ft)
H - 140 x 130 x 30ft (18,200 sq ft)
I - 140 x 130 x 30ft (18,200 sq ft)
L - (replacing old flight shed) 440 x 112ft (49,280 sq ft) - this is a mute stage
Exterior tank - 250 x 250ft x 4ft deep with an 8ft deep section of 109 x 96ft
In 2015, three more stages were opened:
M - 250 x 140 x 50ft (35,000 sq ft)
N - 140 x 121 x 40ft (17,000 sq ft
O - 140 x 121 x 40ft (17,000 sq ft)
In 2017, another stage was constructed:
P - 250 x 140 x 50ft (35,000 sq ft)
In August 2019, a further two stages were opened:
Q - 140 x 121 x 40ft (17,000 sq ft)
S - 140 x 121 x 40ft (17,000 sq ft)
You will notice that most of these stages are very large indeed.
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The very impressive new C stage at Leavesden. All the stages have been built to this very high specification. with thanks to wbsl.com |
In addition to those listed above, two new stages - J and K - are situated just south of the main block of studio buildings but separated from them. They house the Warner Bros Studio Tour - sometimes known as The Making of Harry Potter. This is not a theme park but an exhibition of actual sets, dismantled from the original stages and re-erected here. There are thousands of props from all 8 movies on display which can be closely examined by visitors. The tour has the highest customer satisfaction rating of any tourist attraction in the world - and quite right too. It is superbly done.
One assumes that if and when the public eventually tire of Harry Potter (maybe in 100 years), this exhibition could cover other WB films. It is also possible that in due course these buildings could become working stages as part of the studio lot. Just to emphasise - Warners have not suggested anywhere that this is planned. Frankly, judging by the continuing popularity of the Studio Tour, it ain't happening any time soon.
Incidentally, you may have spotted that these stages are J & K - the initials of course of J K Rowling. Coincidence or wizardry? You decide. In 2019 another very large building opened as part of the tour containing Gringott's Bank and Bellatrix LeStrange's vault. This is named on the studio site plan as 'R', naturally.
In an interview soon after the reopening, the head of Warner Bros UK was quoted as saying that the site contains 'three smaller TV studios.' I'm not sure which three of those above he means - H and I are the smallest (although still pretty enormous at 18,000 sq ft each!) so may be earmarked for TV drama production. None are actual TV studios in the sense of having resin TV floors and production galleries. In fact, all the stages have concrete floors. The third 'TV studio' he had in mind may be D, which contains the underwater tank. The Warner Bros website indicates that the tank can be covered over and the stage used for normal filming.
Although these studios were for a while best known for the Harry Potter films, they have been used to shoot some scenes on several other movies and in more recent years - entire films. Some have used stages, others just the back lot. I have mentioned two or three above but others have included Die Another Day ('01), The Dark Knight ('07), Sherlock Holmes ('09), Inception ('10), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows ('11), The Dark Knight Rises ('11), Argo ('12), Robopocalypse ('13), Edge of Tomorrow ('13), 300: Rise of an Empire ('13), Tarzan ('14), Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation ('14), Jupiter Ascending ('14), The Man From UNCLE ('14), In the Heart of the Sea ('14), Pan ('15), The Legend of Tarzan ('15), Knights of the Round Table: King Arthur ('15), Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them ('15), Alien: Covenant ('16), King Arthur: Legend of the Sword ('16), Wonder Woman ('16), The Mummy ('16), Kingsman: The Golden Circle ('16), Paddington 2 ('16), Justice League ('16), The Darkest Hour ('17), Tomb Raider ('17), Bohemian Rhapsody ('17), Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald ('17), Overlord ('17), The Current War ('17), Hunter Killer ('17), Mission Impossible - Fallout ('17), Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle ('17), Ready Player One ('17), Cats ('18), The Kid Who Would Be King ('18), Men In Black: International ('18), Pokemon Detective Pikachu ('18), Spider-Man: Far From Home ('18), Fast and Furious 9 ('19), The Witches ('19), Wonder Woman 1984 ('19), Tom and Jerry ('20), Venom 2 ('20)
One notable TV drama made here some time ago was the excellent Longitude ('00). The stages have been very busy shooting international blockbuster movies since they opened and the only TV drama I have heard of being made here in recent years is sci-fi comedy Avenue 5, made for HBO and Sky One in 2019, starring Hugh Laurie.
Going way back, the second series of the kids' gameshow series Pump It Up was recorded on one of the old stages here in 1999 for ITV. The first series had been made the year before in a similar very large converted industrial shed in a village a few miles from here called Park Street Studios. As it happens, that facility had previously been used by another Bond movie - Tomorrow Never Dies. By coincidence, it too was originally an aircraft factory - in its case used by Handley Page. Park Street Studios were demolished around 2007 and the land used for housing.
Late at night on 10th July 2019 fire broke out on the P stage. Fortunately, nobody was injured. The stage contained sets for Avenue 5. Director Armando Iannucci thanked and praised the firefighters for all their work in putting out the fire. Reports said that 14 fire crews were involved so it must have been serious. Two episodes of the show had yet to be filmed and it was not known at the time how the fire would affect those. One assumes that somehow the show went on. Other productions were not affected.
It may not have escaped your notice that these studios are now Pinewood's main commercial rival in the UK. Had Pinewood been able to accommodate Goldeneye all those years ago, Leavesden Studios might never have come about. I wonder where all the Potter films would have been made? Possibly not even in the UK.
Warner Bros owned Teddington Studios back in the 1930s and 1940s. These studios in Leavesden are on an entirely different scale. They are in fact one and a half times the size of Warner's studios in Hollywood. With some of the newest, largest and best-equipped stages in Europe, it will be very interesting to see the kind of work they attract in the coming years.
Millennium Studios / Studio 2000
Borehamwood
1993 - 2006; 2009 - present
(revised March 2020)
Elstree Light and Power (ELP) is a lighting hire company that evolved from Meteorlites - a company that was established in 1976 specialising in rock concert lighting. They developed a system of pre-rigged trussing that enabled complex lighting rigs to be rapidly set and struck. This efficiency was noticed by one or two BBC OB lighting directors around the late 1980s who started to use Meteorlites to provide the lighting for televised concerts, shows and events.
I was console operator on some of these TV productions and had great fun with a 90-way Celco controlling hundreds of Parcans. For one entertainment series recorded in Jersey in 1988 I operated two consoles side by side (about 12 feet long in total) controlling over 1,000 Parcans and other lights mounted on a ground support truss over a massive stage - the rig designed and built by Meteorlites. I needed a chair on well-oiled wheels for that one.
Following the success of their work on BBC OBs, the company headed by Ronan Wilson decided to move away from the world of concert lighting and concentrate on lighting for film and TV. (After all, the guys running the business were not quite as young as they used to be and maybe constant touring was beginning to lose its appeal?) In August 1993 they based themselves in Borehamwood, not far from Elstree Film Studios and changed the company name to Elstree Light and Power (ELP). They also supplied some lighting equipment to the BBC at their Elstree studios for TOTP and other shows.
I should mention at this point that Ronan is one of the industry's great innovators. As well as inventing the pre-rigged truss in his rock and roll days he has devised ingenious solutions to rigging and staging problems for many TV shows. He came up with the idea of a studio on legs that could be sited on top of an OB truck for sports events like Formula 1. ELP have also been responsible for supplying the lighting rig for Question Time, which is staged in every kind of venue from sports halls to arts centres to prestigious historic locations, where it is essential that no damage of any kind is caused to the fixtures and fittings. Other shows they have supplied kit for include The Proms, The Royal Wedding, Robot Wars, Strictly Come Dancing at Wembley and Blackpool, The Voice, Britain's Got Talent, Top Gear, Russell Howard's Stand Up Central, The One Show etc etc etc. They have also provided lighting equipment for many dramas including Lewis and Waking the Dead.
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Above is the Millennium Studios building. The stage is the large shed at the rear of the site. The photo below shows this building fourth from the left, opposite the old MGM film studios, which sadly closed in 1970. 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Prisoner were made there, amongst many other features and TV dramas. |
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ELP named their new premises Millennium Studios. They were bigger than the company needed to store their considerable range of lighting and rigging equipment. Office space was rented out to film and media companies. Much of the Elstree Film Studio site just down the road was in the process of being demolished to make way for the new Tesco store so a number of companies previously based there moved up the road to Millennium Studios including Hammer Films.
On the ground floor of the warehouse an area was set aside to be used as a sound stage. It was (and still is) 80ft x 44ft. It became available for use in January 1995 and was known as 'X' stage. It had a suite of rooms supporting it that included production offices, construction workshop, wardrobe, make-up and green room.
The stage was not equipped with technical facilities (apart from lights, obviously) but was used by a number of TV companies to make single camera drama and entertainment shows or multicamera productions using derig facilities. Some children's programmes were made here - including the first series of The Mysti Show for the BBC in 2004.
In 2005 the Trisha show moved to Channel 5 from ITV and also moved studios from Anglia in Norwich to this studio. (The following year it moved to Maidstone.)
Incidentally, the bar area near the studio was attractively dressed and furnished with some unique bar stools. These were adapted from the carcasses of Link 110 TV cameras that had been skipped by the BBC and 'rescued' by ELP. They were certainly a talking point although not necessarily the most comfortable seats in the world.
Around 2006 ELP decided to move out to much larger facilities at Alconbury - which used to be a USAF airbase. (I remember going to a very impressive airshow there in the 1980s.) The facilities here in Elstree were closed down. ELP dropped the 'Elstree Light and Power' name and became known purely by the initials.
Then in 2009 Ronan Wilson purchased hangars and other facilities at Thurleigh, Bedforshire and ELP moved once again. The airbase used to be an MoD establishment specialising in military research. It was used for testing various missiles, Harrier, Concorde and some flight simulators. That site is now called Millennium Studios. The stages there specialise in providing rehearsal facilities for band tours but can be used for shooting movies, TV drama, pop promos or commercials. ELP also own one of the vast old airship hangars at Cardington in Bedforshire. It is an extraordinary 617 x 180ft and is 52 ft high. A number of films and TV productions have made use of its collossal space.
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In 2009 the stage in Borehamwood was reopened and renamed Studio 2000. It was associated with Denmark Studios, a small 4-waller in north London. It was equipped with a permanent greenscreen (which could be repainted) and was used for various single camera shows such as Rude Tube and Summertown. This business had no connection with ELP. Hire company Production Gear Ltd was also based here. The stage and other spaces were used in 2019 to prep Mischief Theatre's The Goes Wrong Show for BBC1. Each of the 6 sets was built here and rehearsed upon for 2 weeks before transporting to Salford where the show was recorded. I would appreciate any more info on TV shows made in this studio.
At some point around 2018 it appears that Studio 2000 was taken over by a company called Flexoffices. One assumes that the previous owners left the building. They now rent out the studio and all the other spaces within the building.
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West London Film Studios, Hayes (formerly HDS and Chak89 Studios)
1997 - present
(revised March 2020)
These studios were created within some industrial units at the corner of Springfield Road and Beaconsfield Road, Hayes. There is some conflicting and confusing information around so it has been difficult to establish exactly what facilities were available and when they were created. However, I believe the information below is the most likely:
The company HDS was originally based in Reddich and specialised in scenery construction, building a number of sets for all the main broadcasters, including BBC Pebble Mill apparently. The name 'HDS' is derived from the initials of the men who owned it. Later they moved to Hayes.
Initially there were a number of large workshops - some used for constructing and storing scenery with three of them being used as film stages for commercials, pop videos etc. In 1997 these three were converted into TV studios for the new Channel Five soap Family Affairs. The three studios shared two control room suites.
The studios were remarkably well equipped, with 10 Sony 570 cameras shared by the studios. The two production gallery suites were fitted with BTS vision mixers and all the facilities one would hope to see. The main shortcoming was the grids which were very basic fixed beam grids as you find on a film stage rather than a TV studio. These limited the studios to fixed and inflexible lighting rigs and prevented rapid turnarounds and relights. The slightly sloping ceilings and grids on some stages also made things rather challenging.
There were dubbing and editing facilities here and optical links to the BT Tower for live broadcasts. Scenery construction was also carried out in a 40,000 sq ft workshop.
No doubt to to the considerable disappointment of the owners of the studios, Family Affairs only stayed here for two years until 1999, when it moved to TalkbackTHAMES' own studios in Merton to join The Bill.
In 2000, after Family Affairs had left, Sky's business division took over studio 2 and built three small studios within it - A, B and C. They also constructed two new control galleries. They began broadcasting from the studios in September of that year. In addition, elsewhere in the building there was a small news studio (20 x 20ft) with its own control gallery and a 'pack shot' studio (14 x 10ft) with a chromakey cyc.
'Sky Travel Shop' occupied Studio A for 1 day a week as a live production.
Studios B and C were used for 'The Automotive Channel' and 'The Pub Channel' - which was aimed at publicans and not available to the general public. (Non-stop hints and tips from Al Murray, one assumes.) Actually, I'm told that the channel was live for most of the day giving tips on how make your bar/ pub/ club better and included items such as cooking demos. The Automotive Channel broadcast to the motor trade from 8.30am to 1.30pm every weekday.
When the Pub and Automotive channels finished broadcasting their live output, the use of the studios and galleries quickly switched to 'At The Races'.
The two galleries occupied by Sky were equipped with Snell and Wilcox 1524 vision mixers, Calrec sound desks, an Aston concept, 3 Sony Betacam SX machines and digital Sony cameras. There were four cameras per studio with Vinten peds - each with a Radamec pan/tilt head. The cameras were rolled to new positions marked on the floor by the floor manager. I'm told that the sets were partly chromakey and used a 'virtual' system to fill in the gaps.
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One of the three TV studios created by Sky. This is thought to be the current prop store 4C so probably the original home of the Pub Channel. |
From 2001 two more stages (4 and 5) were marketed along with their own production offices, makeup, wardrobe and dressing rooms. They could be linked to either of the original production gallery suites.
The business seems to have got into difficulties around the end of 2003 and ceased operation on 29th April 2004. My understanding is that that the Pub and Automotive Channels were closed down and At The Races moved to Teddington, with Sky Travel Shop becoming a pre-recorded package and going to studio 7 at Sky's HQ in Osterley.
In 2007 a planning application was made to convert the studio site into a mixed use development including function halls, cinema, ten pin bowling, restaurant, health club and multi-level car park. One can get an idea of the size of the site from this alone. That application had the total floor area of the studios at 75,000 sq ft. which must have included the scenery construction workshops and other facilities. The planning application was refused by the local council and by the Mayor of London's office and went to appeal where it was also turned down.
The studios were therefore closed and put up for sale. However...
Pending redevelopment, the studios were taken over by The Collective - a company offering locations for film and TV shooting. They carried out some basic improvements to the facilities but only offered the stages as a simple dry-hire location, with minimal support and management. However, stage 3 was refurbished and made soundproof.
In April 2013 it was announced that the studios had changed their name (albeit briefly) to Chak89. This followed the acquisition of the site by Elbrook Cash and Carry - a leading food and drink wholesaler with an annual turnover of £129m. They also own Chak89 restaurant and banqueting hall. This company specialises in organising weddings and banquets - not just in their own premises but in many prestigious locations around London. They said they were intending to run the site as a film studio for the foreseeable future and have been investing in improving the facilities here - which is extremely welcome. Perhaps not surprisingly given the new owners, there is now on-site catering for example. It is no secret that after HDS left, much of the site was poorly maintained and in need of some considerable tidying up.
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stage 3. At 8,400 sq ft this is one of the largest and is the only one with a cyclorama. |
The stages here have been used for filming commercials and a number of single-camera TV dramas including ITV's Lewis and the BBC's Born and Bred. Other bookings have included New Tricks, A Young Doctor's Notebook, Miss Marple, Misfits, The Last Weekend, Hunted, The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, Him and Her, Hunderby, Derek, Toast of London, Horrible Histories and Episodes.
Some feature films have also used the stages here to shoot scenes. These include The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Imitation Game, Bridget Jones' Baby and Bollywood thriller Rush.
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It seems pretty clear that at some point most of the stages have been renumbered. The sizes and numbers do not tally between those when they were owned by HDS and those advertised now. I assume this is because some of the stages are an irregular shape so it depends how you measure them. According to the best information I can find, during the HDS days the studios were as below:
Studio 1: 8,000 sq ft (92 x 76ft working area) Studio 2 - in 2000 converted into three TV studios: A: 2,000 sq ft B: 1,800 sq ft C: 1,900 sq ft Studio 3: 11,000 sq ft (!) Studio 4: 7,000 sq ft approx Studio 5: 6,530 sq ft (85 x 70ft working area)
However, according to the West London Film Studios website, the stages are now as follows: stage 1: 6,240 sq ft (88 x 68ft) stage 2: 5,300 sq ft (78 x 68ft) stage 3: 7,100 sq ft (97 x 73ft) This stage has a permanent cyclorama. stage 4A: 1,291 sq ft (50 x 25 ft) Currently marketed as a props store. stage 4B: 1,291 sq ft (50 x 25ft) Currently marketed as a props store. stage 4C: 1,700 sq ft (50 x 33ft) Currently marketed as a prop store. stage 5: 7,100 sq ft (113 x 62ft) Was a workshop but now upgraded to a stage with soundproofing. stage 6: 9,400 sq ft (145 x 65ft) This stage has new sound dampening material on the walls and has recently been expanded.
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In the summer of 2014 the name changed yet again - to West London Film Studios. The ownership has not changed, just the name which is probably a lot easier to market than 'Chak89'. US period drama pilot Knifeman starring Tom Hollander was one of the first bookings under the new name. The studios also contain some realistic hospital sets run by The Hospital Location (handily replacing those lost when Wimbledon Studios closed.)
Productions since the studios changed their name include Churchill's Secret (ITV), Fungus the Bogeyman (Sky1), Top Coppers (BBC3) and The Halcyon (ITV). I believe these studios are usually very busy with TV drama and comedy and commercials.
If you have worked here and can let me know any more about the studios I'd appreciate it. I would particularly like to hear from anyone who worked on Family Affairs.
Longcross Film Studios
2006 - present
(revised March 2020)
This facility is unique amongst all those available in the UK for film and TV making. It has one of the largest and most unusual back lots to be found. Originally owned by the Ministry of Defence - and in more recent years by the defence research company QinetiQ - it was where tanks and other military vehicles were developed and tested from 1941. After the war the MoD hung onto it despite protests from locals and they only left in 2005. It was known by several names including 'Forces Vehicle Research and Development Establishment' and 'Defence Evaluation and Research Agency'. The site is currently owned by Crest and Aviva who plan to redevelop it.
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Most British tanks of the '40s-'90s were developed and tested here including the Challenger and Challenger 2, which is famous for its almost impregnable 'Chobham' armour. This was named after the nearby village. No Challenger has ever been lost through enemy fire - one had a Milan anti-tank missile and dozens of RPGs fired at it - it was slightly damaged and 6 hours later was fully operational. Another tank was hit by an astonishing 70 RPGs but was not badly damaged. On another occasion, an IED exploded under the tank - the driver lost 3 toes. The underside armour has been modified to prevent this happening again. One was accidentally destroyed - by another Challenger 2 in a tragic 'blue on blue' incident in the Iraq war. This however was due to a round exploding on the open hatch - not penetrating the Chobham armour. In 2019 the British Army had 227 Challenger 2s in its inventory. 148 are expected to be upgraded and continue in use till around 2035. These are not expected to be replaced, hence facilities like this are no longer required.
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The facility at Longcross is located three miles outside the M25 in Surrey, close to Wentworth golf course. The nearby Longcross railway station was a source of mystery for many years as commuters noted that it always remained open and trains often made unscheduled stops there, despite hardly anyone using it. Clearly the handful of people who did were very, very important. More intriguingly, for many years the station was inaccessible by road and could only be reached via the golf course or down a country lane that reduced to a track, then a footpath.
There is now a large housing estate there and it is accesible by road so boringly it is just another stop on the Waterloo to Reading line.
Longcross Studios are sited literally on the M3 - (OK - maybe not literally on it, but either side of it) - half the site with its extensive buildings is to the north and a bridge capable of supporting the weight of a tank passes over the motorway to the test tracks to the south. The test tracks are in naturally wooded landscape and look like normal country lanes and roads so can be used for filming car chases, stunts etc. They include a loop a mile long which is ideal for dialogue scenes in cars. There is also a high speed track two miles long with banked corners and an off-road track, steep inclines and other challenges. These were used in the Bond film Skyfall and a number of other movies and TV dramas too. Sadly, in 2007 a stunt driver was killed here whilst rehearsing a sequence for The Dark Knight.
The country lane loop was used for the 2013 Christmas special of Not Going Out - a long scene in a car being shot in a controlled environment with no risk or danger from other traffic.
In the centre of the test track lot is a Victorian manor house built in a Jacobean style, previously used as an officers' mess. Its beautiful exterior and interiors are in excellent condition and have been used on many TV dramas.
Within the back lot is even a 9-hole golf course which is certainly unusual to be found on a film lot. Quite what secret weapon the MoD was testing here is open to question.
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stage 1 with thanks to the Longcross Studios website |
On the north side of the M3 are numerous offices, workshops and four stages. These of course were the original factory units where armoured vehicles were constructed. Some have immensely strong roofs as they contained integral cranes that lifted components - they are a very useful height too making them ideal film stages.
stage 1 - 42,000 sq ft: 350 x 120 x 50ft high (This is big!)
stage 2 - 17,600 sq ft: 226 x 78 x 30ft high
stage 3 - 12,400 sq ft: 165 x 75 x 35ft high (this is more of a workshop than a shooting stage but can be used for either.)
stage 4 - a former helicopter testing chamber - 65 x 65 x 35ft high.
The largest stages have been used for big movies like Hugo, War Horse and Clash of the Titans. The scene towards the end of Skyfall on the frozen lake at night was shot here. Other movies have included Green Zone, Wrath of the Titans, John Carter, Jack the Giant Killer, Fast and Furious 6, Captain Phillips, World War Z, Thor 2, Marvel's Dr Strange and Murder on the Orient Express.
TV dramas and comedies shot here since 2006 have included HolbyBlue (Kudos for BBC1), Jekyll (Hartswood for BBC1), series 2 of Hyperdrive (BBC Comedy for BBC2), Primeval, Moving Wallpaper, Lewis, Honest, Echo Beach, Law and Order UK, Foyle's War, Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story, Enid (the Enid Blyton biopic with Helena Bonham-Carter) and part of series 2 of Broadchurch. Since 2014 Call The Midwife has been filmed here.
A planning application was submitted by the owners in 2011 to redevelop the northern part of the site into a business park. This was granted but in July 2013 another application was made that altered the proposals to include a number of houses. Sadly, the redevelopment plans do not include any purpose-built film or TV studios. However, the redevelopment is planned to take place over a long period. The part of the site currently occupied by the studios is set to become a commercial hub, featuring office buildings, shops and cafes. All around will be new housing and the area south of the M3 will become one of the UK's new 'garden villages'.
The housing north of the M3 is due to be completed by 2021 but the commercial area has a completion date of 'after 2030' so the studios will probably remain in operation for a good few years yet.
Arborfield Studios, near Wokingham
2018 (- 2027?)
(Revised March 2020)
Arborfield Garrison, three miles west of Wokingham in Berkshire, was a large British Army base established in 1904. It was closed in 2015 but in its latter years it was the HQ of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. They moved to RAF Lyneham, which had ceased to be used as an airbase. The studio buildings were previously known as Hazebrouck Barracks and were used to train aircraft technicians, avionics technicians and electronics technicians. The site was sold to Wokingham Borough Council, who released it to developers for building houses, a school, shops and other facilities. Two nature parks are also included in the scheme.
In 2017 it was announced that a section of the barracks that includes some large hanger-type buildings would be turned into a temporary film studio. This will be for 9 years, after which the buildings will be handed back to the developer, Crest Nicholson. The studios are being managed by the same team who run Longcross Studios, which are about 16 miles away. These too are 'temporary' film stages on a huge former military site currently being redeveloped.
The first feature film made at Arborfield in 2018 was Disney's Aladdin. Early in 2020 season 2 of The Witcher began filming here for Netflix. A large town set has been constructed on one of the back lots. I have read that they intend to base the series here for a number of years. Season 1 was filmed in Hungary so it's good to see it now being made in the UK.
The studios are offering 4 stages at present - the largest is a very impressive 70,000 sq ft. Another is 16,000 sq ft and the other two are about 13,000 sq ft. The BFI website also mentions two more 'potential' stages of about 7,000 sq ft. each. Facilities being offered include extensive space for wardrobe, art dept, construction and props as well as plenty of office space. There are two back lot areas and ample parking but the planning permission does have some restrictions on filming hours and days.
I'm sure that whilst the current demand for studio space continues, these 'new' studios will be fully booked. Wokingham is a pleasant market town, easily reached from central London by rail from Waterloo or Paddington/Reading or by driving down the M4. The studios are only a 40 minute drive from Heathrow.
ITV studio, Bovingdon Airfield.
2018 - present
(Revised March 2020)
Bovingdon airfield is located south-west of Hemel Hempstead, north of the M25 about 8 miles from Leavesden Studios. It closed as an airfield in 1972. Most of the old RAF buildings have been demolished and the area they occupied has has been converted into a prison. Activities on the remaining site include driver training, motor sport events, paintballing and a regular Saturday market.
The airfield has been used for various feature films over many years including 633 Squadron, Battle of Britain, Mosquito Squadron and The Man With The Golden Gun. In 2015 it was used to film scenes on the planet Scarif for the Star Wars film Rogue One. Wembley Stadium (or at least, part of it) was also constructed here for the Live Aid scenes in Bohemian Rhapsody and some of the World War 1 trenches that feature in the film 1917 were dug here. Other recent features to have shot scenes at Bovingdon have included Justice League, Fast and Furious 6, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt1, Fury, Anna Karenina and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
TV dramas to use the airfield have included Blake's 7 and The Avengers - and the opening title sequence of The Prisoner, with Patrick McGoohan driving his Lotus Seven, is said to have been shot on one of the runways back in 1966.
The remaining facilities here are divided between two businesses - 'Bovingdon Airfield' and 'Runways Farm.'
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RAF Bovingdon (not to be confused with Bovington Camp in Dorset, where the army has its tank museum) was constructed as a bomber airfield in 1942. After a few months' use it was handed over to the USAAF who based several squadrons here during the war, mostly flying B-17 Flying Fortresses. It returned to RAF use after the war but was then handed back to the USAF between 1951 and 1963, when C-47 Skytrains were located here. After the USAF left, the airfield was used as a base for the Air Training Corps, who had gliders here between 1968 and 1970.
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Dancing On Ice was a popular programme made by ITV in George Lucas Stage 2 at Elstree between 2006 and 2014, apart from 2011 when it was made at Shepperton. It was then axed and was assumed to have run its course. However, in Jan/Feb 2018, ITV brought it back with a few format changes but the stage at Elstree was unavailable so an alternative studio had to be found. Clearly it had to be large enough to accommodate the ice rink and surrounding set so this limited the options.
In fact, they decided to create a temporary studio at Bovingdon for the show. This consisted of a structure similar to those used for exhibitions or events. It had PVC sheets at the gable ends and thin, uninsulated panels in the side walls - described to me rather brutally as a huge tent. A smaller enclosure was erected alongside to house a practice rink for the contestants. This experiment was not entirely successful. It was very cold inside and the structure moved alarmingly in any wind - the follow-spot operators who were hanging from a truss had difficulty following the skaters at times, as they were swung about by the flexing metalwork. One week in a stiff breeze the gable end blew in and parts of the roof tore off. Not an experience any of those involved wished to repeat.
The principle of using Bovingdon was deemed a good idea but it was acknowledged that the structure they used for the 2018 series was far from ideal. So in the summer of that year a far more substantial steel, warehouse-type building was constructed with 80mm insulated panels in the walls, sitting on a bespoke concrete pad. This stage is 220 x 106ft wall to wall with a 5ft firelane running all round the working area. So, pretty big as TV studios go. Large enough to accommodate the main DOI set at one end and the practice rink behind a black drape at the other.
I have visited the studio and it really is impressive. It is simply huge inside. The roof structure has a very high weight loading, enabling trussing to be rigged anywhere you choose. Very complex lighting and sound rigs can be carried out. Alongside, and connected via a corridor is a supporting 'village' of temporary buildings that feel very permanent when you are in them. There are ample dressing rooms, wardrobe stores, offices, green rooms etc for the largest of productions. This is all rigged and derigged for each show.
There is a 1MW high voltage power supply to the site, which is more than sufficient. The live shows use generators in case of a power cut but in the first year of use, generators had to supply power every day throughout the run of the series - a constant stream of fuel tankers came and went. Thank goodness this is no longer necessary.
The production gallery is an OB truck from Telegenic - with its double folding sides it forms a larger room than in any permanent studio I have seen. The cameras are racked in a temporary building alongside and lighting control is in another large and comfortable temporary building. It is all very impressive indeed.
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The functional, if somewhat unattractive stage built for ITV in 2018. |
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The 2019 series of Dancing On Ice was made here and later that year the stage was used to record the UK version of The Masked Singer - a format originating in South Korea. The sheer size of the building enabled a set to be built that looked massive on camera. The 2020 series of DOI was also made in the stage, which looks likely to remain in use for the foreseeable future. It doesn't have a flat resin floor, TV lighting grid or permanent technical facilities so is better described as a sound stage rather than a TV studio.
According to the tabloid press, the site is said to be haunted with some people experiencing a 'creepy presence' and a number of 'unexplained incidents' having happened over the years. These have included odd sounds and smells and a mysterious mist that follows people around. I'll just leave that here.
This excellent facility was used in 2019 for a drama but apart from series 2 of The Masked Singer and future series of Dancing on Ice it has yet to be booked by other productions. However, I doubt that it will sit here empty for long.
East Brook Studios, Dagenham
from 2021?
(Revised April 2020)
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Above - the site in 2017. Below - the original proposed scheme |
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In October 2016, proposals were announced to build new film studios on a nine-acre site in Dagenham. The Londoneast-uk Enterprise Partnership and Barking and Dagenham Council invested £80,000 to develop a business case for the development, which has the support of London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
The location was formerly the manufacturing plant of pharmaceutical company Sanofi. The remaining buildings have already been used for a number of TV dramas including Humans (C4), Code of a Killer (ITV), New Blood (BBC) and were also used for the feature Avengers: Age of Ultron. These buildings are now a campus for Elutec College of Design and Engineering with the brownfield site alongside to become the film studios.
In December 2016 the site was purchased by the local council for a reported £12m. In October 2017 the studios moved a little closer when according to press reports, Barking and Dagenham Council 'invited expressions of interest' for the creation of the studios. This followed the publication of a report that predicted that the studios were viable and could create 780 jobs and £35m for the economy.
A formal tender process started early in 2018. In February 2018 The Guardian reported that Pinewood had shown an interest in building and running these studios. However, in March the unexpected winner was announced - it was American company Pacifica Ventures in partnership with Media Content Capital. You may recall that Pacifica was the company that expressed an interest in developing and expanding Elstree Studios back in 2007. However, they did not go ahead with those proposals for various reasons.
The plans announced by Pacifica were ambitious and very exciting. They included the following:
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12 sound stages covering 264,000 sq ft
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an undisclosed number of TV studios
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workshops and warehouses
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95,000 sq ft of production office space
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post production and VFX facilities
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training facilities
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large viewing theatre
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'a major event centre'
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'VR and 3D attractions'
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studio tours
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retail and dining outlets
Very little appeared to have been done on site by the summer of 2019. However, there was an announcement in September 2019 that a new 42,000 sq ft 'warehouse' was available for filming along with 3,500 sq ft of ancillary offices. This is not an actual sound stage but is being offered to production companies whilst the rest of the site is prepared and constructed. The ad also mentioned 6 acres of hard standing available for filming - so this suggested that construction of the new stages was not expected to begin in that area for a while.
Sadly, in October 2019 there was an announcement that Pacifica were withdrawing from the project. They blamed 'uncertainties to do with Brexit.' No construction of any stages had begun at this point. Ho hum.
To their credit, Barking and Dagenham Council immediately released £3.4m to 'Be First', the council's development arm, to design and apply for planning permission for the first few stages along with workshops and offices. These will either be operated by a new management company or by the council themselves. (NB - Elstree Studios are very successfully owned and run by their local authority so this could be a way forward.) One assumes more stages and other facilities might follow in future years. Clearly, the earliest one might expect any stages to be available would be in 2021 but no date has yet been announced.
The planning application was submitted in March 2020, just before the Coronavirus stopped everything in its tracks. The plans include 6 sound stages covering 140,000 sq ft, 85,200 sq ft of offices and 174,500 sq ft of workshop space. This will be a much less ambitious scheme than was originally proposed but will nevertheless be a significant addition to the UK's film-making resources.
Of course, as soon as the Coronavirus lockdown is lifted, there will be an even greater demand on studio space to catch up with delayed projects as well as those that would have been shooting anyway.
According to press reports in November 2019, the company owned by Piers Read and Jeremy Rainbird - The Creative District Improvement Company (TCDIC) - is interested in taking over the running of this project. They were one of the original bidders and stated that their bid of £179m was still on the table. This is the company that is now running Twickenham and Littlewoods Studios and is planning new studios in Ashford, Kent.
Pat Hayes, the director of Be First, is reported as saying that a decision on whether to appoint a management company or run the studios themselves would be taken early in 2020 after submitting planning permission for the revised scheme. As of April 2020 no news on this decision had been released.
This scheme in Dagenham is not to be confused with the one in Purfleet. That proposal also has some film stages but from the beginning has included a number of fully equipped TV studios. It can be found therefore on the 'Independent TV Studios' page.
Sky Studios, Elstree
from 2022
(revised March 2020)
In December 2019, Sky made the surprising announcement that they were planning to build a huge new studio centre in Borehamwood. The site is at the eastern end of Elstree Way, between Rowley Lane and the A1, a few dozen metres from where the old MGM British studios were located. Some of the land is currently a lorry park.
The proposed site (indicated above) is 32 acres and will contain 12 sound stages - one at 30,000 sq ft, two at 25,000 sq ft and nine at 20,000 sq ft. There will also be 2 large support buildings containing workshops, stores, production offices, wardrobe facilities etc. and parking for 1,200 cars. The land is owned by Legal and General, who will also part-fund the project.
It has become possible for Sky to make this investment because they are now owned by media giant Comcast, who also plan to use the facilities to make features and international TV dramas for NBC Universal. Other companies will be able to hire the facilities too. Sky currently spends £7bn per year on production in Europe (including football rights) and they plan to invest £3bn in new production at the site over 5 years.
It is not clear from the plans whether any of the stages would be suitable for multicamera TV entertainment shows with a studio audience. When a stage is used for this type of show it requires audience handling facilities and sufficient fire exits. My guess is that this is unlikely to be the case. These stages are purely intended for high end TV drama and feature films.
Planning permission is expected to be granted early in 2020.
Blackhall Studios, Reading
from 2022
(Revised March 2020)
Should this studio be included in 'London's Film Studios' or the 'Rest of the UK?' Well, I have included Arborfield Studios here, which are just down the road, and arguably the reason these studios are to be located here is because of their proximity to Heathrow and the M4. Also, they are only 35 mins from Pinewood, 40 mins from Shepperton and 50 mins from Leavesden (all on a good day!). The point being that the crews working in these new studios will be the same freelancers who will be working in all those other major London studios too.
In March 2018 Thames Valley Science Park opened on land just south of the M4 at Shinfield, near Reading. It is owned and managed by the University of Reading. The initial buildings cost £35m and were part funded by the EU. Soon after opening, the Gateway building hosted about 20 bioscience and technology-led companies providing laboratory and office space. The second building houses a £30m cancer treatment research centre and a third building opened in 2019. This first phase now provides a world-leading productive environment for tech companies, able to exchange ideas and collaborate on projects. More than 80 Health & Life Sciences and Innovation & Technology businesses were based here early in 2020.
Another exciting part of this development is a £27m research and storage facility for the British Museum, which is due to open in 2023.
In 2017, outline planning permission was granted by Wokingham Borough Council for phase 2 of the Science Park, which was to consist of about 15 buildings to be constructed over a decade and a half. So it came as quite a surprise when American movie studio Blackhall announced in February 2020 that they had been negotiating with the University of Reading to build a large film studio and 'creative hub' on the remaining land here.
The illustrations in the press release indicate about 20 stages plus all the usual support facilities and will reportedly cost £150m to construct. (For comparison, at the beginning of 2020 Pinewood had 24 stages, Leavesden 16, Shepperton 14 and the proposed Sky Elstree studios will have 12 stages.)
Blackhall is the company responsible for films like Godzilla: King of Monsters, Venom and Jumanji: The Next Level and their US studios are where the prequel to The Shining - Dr Sleep was filmed. They are based in Atlanta, Georgia and are said to specialise in movies that use the latest technology. They claim that these studios will be the most high tech in the UK. The company said they planned to make between 5 and 7 features here per year. According to the press - Ryan Millsap, chairman of Blackhall, said that their US based clients such as Disney, Universal and Sony were all asking them to expand into the UK to meet their desire to create productions here.
As an aside - Universal are owned by Comcast, who are building their own new studios in Borehamwood to be named 'Sky Studios Elstree' and Disney now have access to all the stages at Pinewood for their productions so it is interesting that both companies have also asked for these studios to be constructed by Blackhall. They must be planning an extraordinary amount of work here.
Planning permission has yet to be sought from Wokingham Borough Council but if passed, construction will commence in Spring 2021 and the studios will hopefully open the following year. The films produced here are expected to bring £500m to the UK economy each year. It is claimed that the studios will provide 1,500 jobs which may be true but of course most of these will be experienced freelancers who will also be working in other studios and on location all over the UK. However, the extra work will provide plenty of opportunity for training and giving relative newcomers to the industry much needed experience, which is clearly a very good thing.
Once again, thanks to excellent tax arrangements and the talent of UK actors and crews coupled with the demands of the streaming companies like Netflix, Apple, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime, these new studios indicate how important the UK film and TV industry is to the UK economy.
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An apology - firstly for all those errors which are almost certainly still sprinkled throughout the above. I shall do my best to put them right when I discover them or when somebody contacts me with the facts! Secondly - I am very aware that I have almost completely ignored sound in all my comments about studio equipment. It's not that I'm not interested, rather that I am far better informed about cameras and lighting and frankly there is very little information out there about which sound mixer was installed in what studio and when. That's my excuse anyway |