This week our walk down Nostalgia Lane will take us back to what was filming at Elstree Studios in 1955 so here we go. I hope you have brought sandwiches and a hip flask .

I think the most interesting was the film version of 1984, based on the famous novel. Peter Cushing enjoyed big success on BBC television in the role of Winston Smith a short while earlier but the producers wanted a box office name as Peter was still unknown on the big screen. They chose a Hollywood actor who had just won an Oscar for his supporting role in The Barefoot Contessa. Edmond O'Brien was already an established star but some say the Oscar came his way because he agreed without fuss to take below title billing on The Barefoot Contessa, as his co-star Humphrey Bogart insisted on sole above title credit. To us normal folk such matters seem petty but in showbiz billing order is still a matter of prestige even today.

Edmond was a very good actor and for 1984 he starred opposite Michael Redgrave, who we probably best remember today for his role in The Dam Busters and being father to equally famous children. In private life he also had affairs with men, and Noel Coward once made a cutting remark in the 1950s, a less enlightened time when such matters could ruin a career. Noel was being driven around Leicester Square and saw the billing outside the Odeon publicising a war film starring Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde called The Sea Shall Not Have Them. Coward turned to his companion and quipped: "I don't know why, everyone else has!"

1984 also boasted a raft of those wonderful character actors who populated movies in the 1950s. They included Donald Pleasance, Mervyn Johns, Patrick Allen, David Kossoff and the wonderful Michael Ripper, who seemed to appear in every Hammer horror film. In later years I had the pleasure to meet them all. They are sadly all gone now and with them the great age of cinematic character actors.

Edmond went on to enjoy many good roles and starred in such 1960s films as The Fantastic Voyage and The Wild Bunch. Sadly, a weak heart meant he was replaced as the journalist in Lawrence Of Arabia. He suffered a tragic end, as for many years he suffered from Alzheimers. He spent his final years in an institution, sometimes confined to a straight jacket due to violent behaviour, and with no memory of his great career.

Equally sad is that Michael went on to be awarded a knighthood but spent his last years out of the limelight suffering from Parkinson's Disease.

Several other movies were shot at Elstree that year but are mostly forgotten today. Fading Hollywood icon Errol Flynn was at the Studio starring in the box office failure The King's Rhapsody, while Gordon Scott donned the loincloth to appear as that old jungle swinger in Tarzan And The Lost Safari.

The ever reliable John Mills was in a good comedy musical about a school band entitled It's Great To Be Young and even Mr Pastry was at Elstree to make a short film. Now if you can remember Mr Pastry then you are of that era that no doubt recalls Billy Bunter and Pinky and Perky, and are probably reading this with the aid of glasses. Well, don't worry as I am writing this with the aid of glasses - albeit they are filled with Russian vodka rather than a visual aid.

I have been asked to appear in a special episode of the hit BBC series Antiques Roadshow as it is celebrating its 40th anniversary the show is doing a showbiz-oriented episode from the set of Albert Square at BBC Elstree in the summer. I heard you! No, I am not an exhibit as my doctor suggested to me when I told him last week.

I am also on a working party to hopefully plan some nostalgic public events at Elstree Studios this year as we continue to celebrate our 90th anniversary, so there is life in this old dog yet. If you have access to the internet, why not join the Elstree Screen Heritage and Elstree Studios' Facebook pages to keep up to date or just to share memories of yesteryear. Until next week, keep breathing as I find it helps.