This week I look at a film shot at Elstree Studios and on locations over a period of seven weeks in 1976. That would seem a short time today but was not uncommon, which is strange considering the technology advances over the past few decades.

The film was called Aces High and told the story of a British flying squadron in the First World War. The death rate among the young pilots in real life was appalling but not unsurprising when you see how flimsy the aircraft were and that they were not issued parachutes, as that might encourage them to abandon their aircraft in a bad situation.

The film business was in a shaky state back in the 1970s. Elstree Studios was just about hanging on and a producer could easily recruit veteran stars for little money as guest stars to make the picture more classy. This particular film used Trevor Howard, Ray Milland, Richard Johnson and John Gielgud in scenes that would have taken only a couple of days to shoot.

The three young lead roles were played by Malcolm McDowell, Peter Firth and the late Simon Ward. Over the years I had the pleasure to meet them all, although I never visited the set of Aces High.

The first I met was Simon Ward when I interviewed him at the old ATV Studios in Borehamwood, where he was starring in a television drama, the name of which I forget. He was easy to interview but I think a bit cursed in that he had shot to stardom playing the young Churchill some years earlier in the movie Winston. Casting directors, producers and the public sometimes in effect can limit an actor's career by type casting. I think this still happens, especially with television. Think of those actors who become household names and sometimes award winners in soap operas but seem to vanish once they leave.

The second was Peter Firth in 1984 when he was starring in a film called LifeForce at Elstree Studios, which was a kind of alien attack crossed with zombies from memory. We had a great chat in the bar, which I think I recorded on cassette tape as I tended to do in those days but heaven knows where they are now. Peter has enjoyed a very successful career since his child star days in an Elstree-made 1970s television series called The Double Deckers. I must try and interview him again 36 years later now we are both a touch older.

Finally there was Malcolm McDowell, who has enjoyed a successful career for several decades on both sides of the Atlantic in movies and television. However, I suspect he knows he will always been remembered for starring in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange back in the 1970s. I find it a touch dated now but the violence and plot created a storm upon its opening. It would not cause such an outcry today, which is a reflection of how times have changed.

Many years ago I was trying to get somebody to unveil a plaque to honour Stanley Kubrick as part of a series of such plaques in the 1990s. Tom Cruise and one or two others declined . Then I got a call from Elstree Studios saying Malcolm was doing a guest star appearance in a film there and he had agreed to 'unveil' the plaque, but I had to bring it straight away as he was about to finish on the picture. Of course there could be no ceremony so we both stood on a sound stage holding the plaque, me looking dishevelled having been gardening and Malcolm dressed as a gangster. If you do not believe me, the photo is in my book Elstree Confidential, available from the Borehamwood Museum and its website or the Elstree Screen Heritage website. All proceeds go to those worthy causes.

Well that is another week of name dropping over, so until next time keep your feet firmly on the ground.

  • Paul Welsh MBE is a Borehamwood writer and historian of Elstree Studios