I am not certain of the number of people attending the sell out tour; it could have been in the region of 200.

We all started to file into the mansion at 1 p.m. to receive our identification badges then into the Gatsby Suite which overlooks the famous Pinewood gardens.

We were greeted with a welcoming drink and left to mingle. At the far end of the room were the celebrities signing pictures and books etc.

The following celebrities attended:

Michael Billington Sergei Barsov in The Spy Who Loved Me. Michael also tested for the role of Bond several times.
Alan Hume Cinematrographer on The Spy Who Loved Me, View To A Kill, Octopussy and For Your Eyes Only.
John Grover Supervising Editor on The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker and Octopussy. Editor on The Living Daylights and Licence To Kill.
Alec Mills Camera operator on The Spy Who Loved Me, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Moonraker For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy. Cinematographer on Licence To Kill and The Living Daylights.
Blanche Ravalec Jaw's girlfriend Dolly in Moonraker.

At 2.00 PM a short video presentation was shown in a side room. The film was introduced onscreen by Sir Roger Moore himself. Roger wished us all a very pleasant day and said “please be nice to my very good friend Richard Kiel because it's cold up there” referring to the fact that Richard Kiel is seven foot two inches tall.

The film was very interesting with particular emphasis on James Bond film clips which had been filmed at Pinewood Studios, and which we were soon to actually visit. After the film we began the studio tour, hosted by Dave Worrall (author of The Essential Bond and Gareth Owen author of The Pinewood Story.

We proceeded to have our Pinewood tour of the mansion itself which has been used in numerous famous films and television programmes as depicted by the photographs everywhere especially in the main photographic corridor upstairs.

Awards for films which were made at Pinewood Studios

We then went out to the main building to a corridor called the Hall of Fame which celebrates the many stars that have been filmed at Pinewood Studios over the years. At the end of the corridor there is a sixty year old light box high on a wall numbered one to six that used to show in the past which studios were in use by a light bulb which signified each studio.

We then went to another complex called Covered Way which connects the sound stages out side where we saw Goldfinger Avenue (where the famous Aston Martin / Goldfinger Factory chase was filmed), the back lot (where sets such as the giant volcano in You Only Live Twice was constructed, the Golden Gate Bridge from A View To A Kill, Fort Knox from Goldfinger and other sets such as Gotham City for Batman, Metropolis for Superman etc), the 007 stage, the paddock tank used for the films For Your Eyes Only and The Living Daylights. We eventually came to the largest one of all the 007 stage which had been officially opened in 1976 and was used for the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me.

Unfortunately we were told that in 1984 during the afternoon while filming Ridley Scott's Legend , a fire had destroyed a large percentage of the stage which had to be rebuilt for A View To A Kill and later renamed 'The Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage' in recognition of the man who made it possible and for his contributions to British cinema and the continued success of Pinewood Studios.

Next we visited the film set of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which had just been completed the previous week starring Johnny Depp

The light was starting to fade but we were given the opportunity for a quick tour of the Pinewood gardens. We approached a small cave which quite frankly I did not think looked particularly special but apparently along with some burning coals it was used in a scene from The World Is Not Enough.

The Pinewood gardens

We then moved onto a small ornate bridge used in the film From Russia with Love and also in my favourite programme The Persuaders.

On the far side of the bridge ( black arrow below ) Gareth Owen ( Roger's PA )had arranged for a slab of slate in memory of Desmond Llewelyn 1914-1999 who played the wonderful character Q with his gadgets in James Bond films.

Below the same ornate bridge in 1970 as seen in The Persuaders episode - A Death in The Family. Admiral Horatio Sinclair Hawking played by Roger Moore is crossing it.

We now headed back to the famous mansion house for sandwiches buns and coffee and tea.

As you can see it was getting dark and the lights are on in the extension to the main house. The extension was made for a film twenty odd years ago of fibre glass for a film of which I have forgotten the name (if any one knows let me know). This was not built in the shot below from the Persuaders from 1970.

The Pinewood Mansion used in The Persuaders episode - A Death in The Family.

Our last but not least interesting part of the day was to watch another film presentation again introduced onscreen by Sir Roger Moore himself of Richard Kiel's numerous film parts with many famous actors like Clint Eastwood etc. This film show finished with Richard as Jaws in Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. Jaws who has been voted the most famous “baddy” in James Bond films in recent polls.

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