Well here we are again and I must admit I hope by the time you read this it will have cooled down a bit. It a lovely summer but a bit too hot to sit in my garden for long, so I have retreated indoors to write this column but I wish I had air conditioning. I am aware that these articles now appear in several newspapers covering a large area but I tend to forget they also appear online so can be read anywhere. For instance, I had a nice email from Larry in Los Angeles who is a distinguished musical director for stage and screen productions. He was remarking on my memories that appeared in this column a couple of weeks ago about a star-studded awards ceremony I attended in London many years ago. Can you believe it but Larry was the musical director for that memorable show, so it was great to hear from him. What a small world this is becoming and how so different when I started in the 1970s.

By the time you read this I should have been at Elstree Studios being filmed for a documentary on Peter Cushing, who I had the pleasure to know. I tend to agree to do these things as a payback for the good times I have enjoyed. There is no money in television documentaries but with a bit of luck you usually at least get a free lunch and drinks and it gets me out of my home.

I think the subject I have been filmed about most is local lad made good Simon Cowell. As you probably know, he grew up in Elstree. I think I have done four television interviews about Simon as he started his showbiz career as a runner at Elstree Studios a long time ago. Back in 2006 I organised and hosted a plaque unveiling in his honour, which can now be seen outside the studio as part of the heritage trail that starts at the railway station. He is a nice guy although I must I never watch The X Factor, which I personally think is now past its prime but others still enjoy it. One of the interviews was for American television. The production crew told me they had recently conducted an interview with a big music star, whom I will not name, who had insisted they hire a suite in a plush New York hotel and provide such things as bottles of top champagne. This was all for a 10 minute interview! They got me for a meal at the Mops and Brooms pub and a pint of Guinness. On the other hand I have not sold millions of records.

Sometimes I have been interviewed for no reason other than I happened to be there. I used to go and see West End shows and on this occasion it was a production in which a famous Hollywood leading lady flashed her boobs just for seconds before the lights were cut. It was part of the story I must add and done in the best possible taste. Naturally I booked a front row seat and had my opera glasses at the ready. Alas, at the critical moment I dropped them and saw nothing. On my way out of the theatre I was stopped by an American television crew and asked to comment on the moment. Rather than admit I missed it, I put on my best British accent and said how deplorable it was that the West End had come to this. Always give them what they want.

A lot of people freeze when a film or television camera is pointed at them but to me they are just a tool. In the 1980s when the BBC Elstree Centre opened I was several times asked to be interviewed as part of BBC training to help out. In 1988 when I was chairman of the Save Elstree Studios campaign, naturally we attracted worldwide media and I was interviewed by television crews from around the world including Iceland, Argentina, Germany, Australia, America and so on. Again, I was never paid but that never mattered and I would have given it anyway to our campaign funds. I am certainly no saint but am old school about such matters.

Sometimes I must admit I have been stretched but feel obliged to fly the flag for Elstree Studios. An American documentary maker filmed me at the Studio talking about Anna May Wong - the long forgotten star made one film at the studios in the late 1920s!

Well that is enough about me as I sense you are falling into a coma. Remind me to tell you about a short film that was made at Elstree Studios just after it opened 'starring' me, Ken Branagh, an Oscar-winning cameraman, a tennis star and a Doctor Who. Until next time, adieu.