I must admit enjoying the raft of television documentaries about the moon landing anniversary, but cannot believe it was really 50 years ago. I remember staying up all night watching it but I am even more amazed that they achieved it with so little technology compared with today. I know there are doubters who say it was all faked. I can dispel one urban myth that NASA employed Stanley Kubrick to film the fake at MGM in Borehamwood due to his success with 2001. On the other hand it could have been me stepping onto the lunar surface at MGM and Neil Armstrong just doing the voiceover. You will have to wait for my autobiography .

Back in the autumn of 1957 going to the moon was science fiction but Borehamwood had its fair share of star visitors. Four studios were in operation and all were busy .

The National Studios is today known as the BBC Elstree Centre and was ATV but up until 1960 was still making movies. In this particular autumn it was a low budget film for the British market named The Duke Wore Jeans, starring Tommy Steele, who is still going strong. It was produced by Peter Rogers and directed by Gerald Thomas, a team that shortly would embark on the Carry On series.

At MGM two Hollywood legends were working, but on separate films. Victor Mature was starring in No Time To Die. Alas, I think it did at the box office. Victor was better known for his muscles than his thespian skills but was not averse to sending himself up. He once said: "I applied to join an elite Los Angeles golf club but they said we do not allow actors as members. I replied 'I am not an actor - have you not seen my films?'"

The other movie shooting was Another Time, Another Place with Lana Turner and a newcomer named Sean Connery.

Meanwhile, down the road, Elstree Studios was awash with stars. William Holden, Trevor Howard and Sophia Loren were making The Key, a romantic triangle seafaring story.

On other stages, Cary Grant was romancing Ingrid Bergman in Indiscreet. Cary made the decision to retire from the screen in the mid 1960s, saying it was becoming silly that his romantic co-stars were becoming young enough to be his daughter. Only a few stars have retired early, such as Greta Garbo, William Powell and James Cagney, such is the lure of the greasepaint.

The third picture shooting at Elstree was Ice Cold In Alex, starring John Mills, Sylvia Syms and Anthony Quayle, all of whom I have enjoyed meeting. The cast and crew were apparently glad to be back in Borehamwood as the weather conditions on location in Libra had been bad. The film also boasted great character actors such as Harry Andrews. He was tall man and he told me once he made a film with Alan Ladd and in their walking scene together he had to walk in a trench and be filmed from the chest up so as to disguise how short Alan, the star, was in comparison.

Finally I must not forget the only studio actually located in the village of Elstree called The Danzigers Brothers New Elstree Studio. I wrote about them the other week and a kind gentleman wrote recalling his memories as a young actor there. The film shooting was called Virgin Island, starring two up and coming Americans. I refer to Sidney Poitier, future Oscar winner and John Cassavetes, who would return a decade later to appear at MGM in The Dirty Dozen.

Those were the days my friends and we thought they would never end. Wait a minute am a poet and don't know it? Well it is time to refresh my glass, so until next week, as Shaw Taylor used to say, "keep them peeled." That is one for my more mature readers.