Hello again. That is another month gone in a flash. We all say the same thing, even if like me you lead a very quiet life doing almost nothing each week. I have dined out for the first time with friends since Christmas and it felt a bit strange. However, I discovered sea bass fillets on a bed of spinach with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce for under a fiver. Thankyou my fellow taxpayers and what a good idea.

I cannot let August pass without mentioning that the Oscar-winning star Sir Sean Connery reached his 90th birthday on the 25th of the month. To me he will always be the only James Bond, a role he portrayed seven times over three decades. However, he escaped the dreaded typecasting pitfall and made many other movies; one favourite of mine was The Untouchables.

I had the pleasure to meet Sean over 30 years ago when he was making Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade at Elstree Studios, but he was no stranger to the studio. Back in 1954 he started off his film career as an extra in a movie called Lilacs In The Spring, starring the unlikely pairing of Anna Neagle and Errol Flynn.

By the late 1950s he was himself starring opposite Lana Turner just down the road at MGM in Another Time Another Place. The gangster boyfriend of Lana turned up on set and became a pest, so the studio used its influence to have him sent back to America. He was later stabbed to death in the presence of Lana at her house. Her daughter was charged with the crime.

Sean made two other films at Elstree Studios. Murder On The Orient Express was a star-studded affair in 1974 and Never Say Never Again marked his last appearance as 007 in 1983. He chose to retire in 2003 and I am told he lives an enjoyable life, so I wish him happy birthday.

Almost his age is Sir Michael Caine at 87. I first met him on the set of The Fourth Protocol at Elstree in 1987 and have bumped into him a couple of times since at memorial services, the last being for Sir Roger Moore. By a strange twist of fate they were casting a small role at MGM in Borehamwood for a forgotten movie called How To Murder A Rich Uncle in the early 1950s. Two unknowns were up for the part and Michael won it. The other was Sean and ironically the producer years later cast him as Bond and the rest is history. Not a lot of people know that .

I did offer Sir Michael the chance to be the recipient of one of our plaques that line the Borehamwood High Street but he declined, citing the true fact that he has hardly worked at Elstree.

Until next time, stay safe for our next ramble down Memory Lane.

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