Could be Pine Wood, could be Boreham Wood!

[45doyle]

Kingsbury Motors were based at Kingsbury Road, North West London back then and run by Tony Johnson and Freddie Wilmington.

[Anthony McKay]

I'm currently populating my Pinewood pages with frame grabs of studio buildings featured on screen. I'd appreciate any suggestions - I've already grabbed the obvious U.F.O. shots.



PS. I'm not bothered too much about the Mansion and the gardens at present.

[Cooper S]

name='Anthony McKay']I'm currently populating my Pinewood pages with frame grabs of studio buildings featured on screen. I'd appreciate any suggestions - I've already grabbed the obvious U.F.O. shots.



PS. I'm not bothered too much about the Mansion and the gardens at present.

Some sequences from the New Avengers ? E.G. - freeing Purdey from the cell in Dirtier by the Dozen ?



Regarding the Fear Merchants location - back projection shows the Rolls heading from Uxbridge to Iver, and there are certainly some light industrial units in the canal area around Uxbridge that could fit the bill.

[Anthony McKay]

name='Cooper S']Some sequences from the New Avengers ? E.G. - freeing Purdey from the cell in Dirtier by the Dozen ?

Thanks Cooper, thats given me some nice shots of the film vaults and the casting rooms.

[Mikey]

Bob



I take it that you mean the A4006 Kingsbury Road?



If so then, I can now confirm that I have had a look along the length of this (long) road and have been unable to find any premises that look like the screengrabs that Tony put up.



This then brings me back to Pinewood Studios. The screengrabs scream Pinewood to me, but as Tony points out, we still need some proof. Preferably the same area in another production made at the studio.



Tony



Have you given Shirley’s World and From A Bird’s Eye View consideration as a possible source of information? Both series had their interiors shot at Pinewood, although Shirley’s World did have a lot of location filming.



This is of course in addition to the other film series shot at the studio, Man In A Suitcase, Strange Report, some episodes of Gerry Anderson’s UFO and The New Avengers. Other shows done at the studio were Interpol Calling in the late fifties and the obscure Court Martial and this Anglo-American co-production did use the front of Heatherden Hall and the extensive gardens.

[Cooper S]

Another appearance of what looks like the same crew van in the Norman Wisdom film Press For Time shot in mid-66, courtesy of Stephen Pickard's Kinematograph Weekly 1966 thread -

Not that it helps much !

EDIT : Unless - Press For Time seems to have been shot at Beaconsfield - possibly worth a look ?

[Cooper S]

Just checked Google Earth, and the north side of Beaconsfield Studios does seem to feature a service road which looks like a match for the area in the screen grabs. The 70s building no longer exists, having been replaced by a larger block, and there are one or two other changes, but otherwise there are some pretty clear similarities.

[CliveT]

Hi S Cooper
I think you're correct with Beaconsfield-especially the first couple f photos with the cars. On the shot facing the Bentley looking towards the mid Right Hand side of the photo appears to be a house over the studio fence-yellowish roof? Looking at Google Earth I think this is the roof of the Veterinary Clinic-probably impossible to see now due to the long stretch of tall trees now on that boundary. CliveT

[Toscana]

Goldfinger uses a lot of Pinewood in the car chase as does Who Dares Wins. Hitchcock used the studio coverway as the hospital Jon Finch escapes from in Frenzy. The backgate is the army camp in The League Of Gentlemen.

[Anthony McKay]

I've had a look at images of the Beaconsfield complex past and present and nothing I can see ties up - have we got anything at all that matches the Avengers shoot??

[Cooper S]

Hi Tony

Looking at Google Earth, the area of the studios to the north that borders the Veterinary clinic features a service road that matches the shots where the Bentley is parked very closely. The one storey building which the Mini is next to still appears to be there, but a new structure opposite has now narrowed the service road to the width of one vehicle. There is also a tree at the Eastern end which does not appear to have been there in the 60s. The back of the studio block looks like a positive match for the building to the right of the Bentley in the shot where the Rolls is seen driving away. The 70s style building behind the Bentley now seems to have been replaced with a new block. The one shot I haven't been able to match though is the one featuring the red and white van. Would love to see any other shots of the studios from this period that you might have to compare with - the only other one I've seen is from the 20s/30s.

Hope this helps !

Sam

[Anthony McKay]

[Anthony McKay]

[Cooper S]

Thanks for those shots Tony.

It all still seems to fit, with shot four looking as if it was filmed along the Southern perimeter road. The main question is what happened to the brick building behind the Bentley in shot two. I'm just wondering if this might have been a set built for use in Press for Time. I've only managed to find one scene on Youtube, but it features the demolition of a similar (but not identical) building. Anyone have the film to compare any shots with ?

Also, Julian Wintle had used Beaconsfield extensively in the past, and could easily have suggested it as a quiet controllable location for a scene set in a factory which required high speed driving.

[Cooper S]

And another thing....

The area where the new white building stands, which seems to be an empty space in the 2003 shot, looks like the site of the town street set featured in The Fast Lady, which would lend support to the idea that the mysterious missing building (which looks both new, and empty) could have been a temporary backlot structure.

[Anthony McKay]

I'm just bringing the photos over for comparison.

I'm still not 'getting it' any chance offew more pointers?

[Cooper S]

OK - One more try.

Taking the last image in post 33, and with North at the top -

Shots 1, 2, 5 and 6:

The Bentley is parked at the North-West corner of the original studio block, pointing East. Behind it to the West is the the area where the new white building stands, but which was previously the backlot (Or in Beaconsfield's case the frontlot, as the main entrance to the studio from the road is on this side). This is where the new looking brick building in shots 2 and 6 once stood. To the Bentley's left, also pointing East is the Rolls-Royce, parked in front of the low row of buildings which are now painted white. The Rolls drives off to the East, with buildings to the right of car in the distance still in evidence to the East of the original main studio building.

Shot 4:

This is filmed looking East on the service road to the South of the original studio block, the Southern edge of which is visible in the distance. The large brick building opposite the crew van is the rectangular structure to the West of the original studio block.

Bear in mind some of the shots are filmed with a wide angle lens making the area seem bigger than it actually is.

If this doesn't help, I'll email a diagram !!

[Cooper S]

If it helps at all, there is a 1920s shot of Beaconsfield on this page of a period magazine courtesy of Stephen Pickard -

[Cooper S]

I've now managed to go over to Beaconsfield and have a look at the studio area from the ground, and although there are very distinct likenesses, particularly to the north of the studio, unfortunately it doesn't quite match up. I've also seen some footage on Dennis Lowe's excellent website of the studio in the 70s, and there is no evidence of the brick building that I thought might have stood where the Oswald Morris building is now. So back to square one I'm afraid !

[Anthony McKay]

Thanks - at least we know the game is still afoot.