Great Year At Elstree Studios

This weekend saw Elstree Studios host the beginning of the latest Celebrity Big Brother with more than 1,000 people queuing to be part of the audience and also the beginning of the last series of Dancing on Ice, again with a large studio audience.
Whilst in the studio next door, the BBC's flagship show Strictly Come Dancing was de-rigging after a highly successful run at Elstree. The Voice, another major spectacular, will be at Elstree after Dancing on Ice.
In addition to the television work, 11 feature films have been made at Elstree Studios over the last year including The World's End starring Simon Pegg and Paddington Bear starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.
Work is half way through on clearing the four-acre site at the rear of the studios to allow for the construction of more facilities which may include more stages. Now BBC Studios and Post have also based themselves at Elstree Studios since the closure of the Television Centre they have been generating work for Elstree Studios refurbished stages 8 and 9 with shows such as Pointless and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
BBC Studios and Post have installed three state of the art TV galleries at Elstree Studios and the gallery they have built for the Lucas stages has already been used for Strictly Come Dancing (BBC) and Your Face Sounds Familiar (Endemol/ITV). Big Brother, with their 24/7 multi camera set up in the Big Brother house, use the technical services of outside broadcast company Visions. The Big Brother House is built on top of the original Elstree Studios water tank used for The Dam Busters, Moby Dick and Raiders of The Lost Ark. The house was recently used by the National Trust as a centre of interest for National Trust members.
This next year looks to be another very busy year for Elstree Studios with a variety of feature films, television drama and top television entertainment shows already booked.
Roger Morris, Managing Director, believes that Elstree is justifiably called London's No.1 Film and TV Studio and hopes that the added facilities that are intending to be built at Elstree Studios will help with satisfying the demand the industry is currently facing.
www.elstreestudios.co.uk
(CD)