Pinewood Studios

[Stephen Pickard]

The first item is the reproduction of a brochure about Pinewood issued in 1969 concurrent with the opening of their new viewing theatre complex, Theatre 7:







This is the entrance to the Administration Block. I remember Tommy the security guard. He always gave me a salute every time I would greet him in the morning. He was also an extra occasionally. Apparently he helped instruct Richard Attenborough for his role in "Guns At Batasi":













I couldn't reproduce this painting completely. This is the left side:

[Stephen Pickard]

In this first picture of an aerial shot of the studio, if you can zoom in you can see top right of centre the Baker Street set for "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes".

On the left side near the top, left of centre, to the right of the new L & M Stages you can see some sets. I believe this is the Spanish complex that was used on "The Magnificent Two", "Finders Keepers" etc.:







Theatre 7 in it's planning stages:



Theatre 7 ready for business:





Pictured below is the paddock tank. If you look to the right, barely in frame is the section of the boat used in the deleted scene of "Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" about the naked honeymooners:







Below is a typical daily production schedule detailing was is shooting that day:

[dvdman]

hey i worked at pinewood from 79 - 81 i worked as a postroom boy delivering the post round the studio

hey stephen do you remember security man wally clarke he was a great guy

[dvdman]

hey i started a pinewood open day thread which was in 1977 which noboby replied on it theres 8 min of footage of the 2 day event still exists on super 8

[smudge]

Here's a photo prior to the building of L&M stages. Towards the top left of the backlot you can see the Fort Knox approach from GOLDFINGER, which ran into Black Park next door.



Smudge

[Bond Fan]

name='dvdman']I worked as a postroom boy delivering the post round the studio.

That's awesome!



Did you deliver mail to any of the actors/actresses in their dressing rooms/trailers or was it just delivering mail to the general departments?



Did you have any encounters with any actors?

[dvdman]

no only c reeves dressing room i was mostly deliving to production offices but managed to see roger when he was doing f.y.e only and sean when he did film Outland

[Bond Fan]

That's really cool - you were very fortunate.



When you say you saw Roger when he was doing FYEO, do you mean you saw him filming it or just simply lurking around in the studios? I saw on Saturday past (24/4/10) at The London Film Museum before he was collecting an award on behalf of Christopher Lee. Have met him before too at his autobiography signing.



What was Connery like?

[dvdman]

i was just lurking round the studio with my post but i still have the following on tapes all these years later

Clapperboard tv show - chris kelly goes down to pinewood in 1980 on the set of f.y.e.only

the royal premiere - f.y.e. only 1981

[Bond Fan]

How do we go about viewing these tapes of Pinewood?

[Stephen Pickard]

hey i worked at pinewood from 79 - 81 i worked as a postroom boy delivering the post round the studio

hey stephen do you remember security man wally clarke he was a great guy

The name is familiar, Tom is the only one I remember. When did Wally start there? I left Pinewood in '74 but returned in January '76 until May/June '77 and then returned mid '78 for the last time on "Superman".

[dvdman]

wally had been there for over 40 years he worked in the admin block just by the clock

so what did u do on supermam ? i started there in 79 just when the james bond film Moonraker had finished

[Stephen Pickard]

Here's a photo prior to the building of L&M stages. Towards the top left of the backlot you can see the Fort Knox approach from GOLDFINGER, which ran into Black Park next door.



Smudge

Thanks for that photo Smudge. The backlot area over to the right could be the campground for "Guns at Batasi".

Do you know the year this photo was taken?

[dvdman]

superman 2 were all made on l and m sound stages blimey the buildings look old today i went back there about 8 yrs ago what a change

[Stephen Pickard]

wally had been there for over 40 years he worked in the admin block just by the clock

so what did u do on supermam ? i started there in 79 just when the james bond film Moonraker had finished

On "Superman" I worked in the cutting rooms as an 'assistant plate editor'. I had to take 35mm rolls of film down to the stage. I had to sit at a steenbeck with Andre De Toth while he selected backgrounds for the flying unit.

[dvdman]

so was you employed by company called Dovemead then ? i was employed by Rank sadly they dont exist anymore.Do you remember the large coaches pinewood use to use ?

[Stephen Pickard]

so was you employed by company called Dovemead then ? i was employed by Rank sadly they dont exist anymore.Do you remember the large coaches pinewood use to use ?

I was employed by Rank between '68 and '74, after that I was free-lance and, yes, Dovemead would have been the company that hired me. I still have copies of the contracts.

The coaches were run by a company called 'Jack Crump Coaches' and they used to collect people from Uxbridge station. I remember Jack Crump and thought he looked a little like Sid James. The coaches were featured in several of the Carry On films and usually they used the same drivers that I would see every day.

[dvdman]

well jack does appear in carry on abroad as a coach driver which was shot at the top of slough hight st and sid daughter still lives in iver heath and shes in the tv buisness today

[smudge]

Thanks for that photo Smudge. The backlot area over to the right could be the campground for "Guns at Batasi".

Do you know the year this photo was taken?

I have this photo (and many more) in a box somewhere. I'll check it out. I bought a job lot of Pinewood pictures on EBay. I know that Rank ditched most (if not all) of their paper archives sometime in the 80s (into the 90s?) for space reasons.



I've never seen similar photos yet, so I wonder if they now qualify as part of my private collection rather than to a given copyright holder? I have no idea on that point and would welcome any suggestions.



It's a darned shame about the archive as I know from speaking to people at Pinewood that 'back in the day' they kept whole bundles of stuff for each film produced; copies of scripts and much more. I also believe that Rank had a significant storage facility beneath the Odeon cinema in Birmingham, which was cleared in the late 70s. If only I knew back then what I know now... LOL



Smudge

[Cooper S]

Below is a typical daily production schedule detailing was is shooting that day:

It's great to see this Stephen - do you have any more like it ? Particularly for May to September 1970 ? Gerry and Sylvia Anderson were producing UFO at Pinewood at the time, and they often ventured out into the studio to film episodes.



Actually called in to the studios myself today to visit the stills department, and treated mysef to a bacon roll from the new Carry On canteen Routemaster !