The Elstree Project

03/10/2026

On 3 October 1991, one of British television’s most famous programmes began a new chapter when Top of the Pops broadcast for the first time from Studio C at BBC Elstree Centre - beginning a ten-year association with Borehamwood.

At BBC Television Centre, Top of the Pops had no permanent home. Its set had to be built, taken down and stored every week, with each 30-minute programme requiring around two and a half days of studio time.

When EastEnders moved out of Studio C at BBC Elstree Centre in 1991, it left behind a studio 605 square meters in area and 10 metres high - giving Top of the Pops the opportunity to create a permanent home of its own.

The new set contained four separate performance stages, designed to give each act its own distinctive setting. Behind the scenes, things were even more complicated: Studio C was linked by around 150 metres of cabling to the production, vision and sound control rooms in Studio A, across the roadway.

The move coincided with the programme’s famous, or perhaps infamous, “Year Zero” revamp. Out went the familiar Radio 1 DJs and much of the established look. In came a new generation of presenters, including Tony Dortie and Mark Franklin, a new title sequence featuring the distinctive “weathervane” logo, and a new theme tune, "Now Get Out of That".

There was another big change: performers were now expected to sing live vocals over pre-recorded backing tracks. That meant significant changes behind the scenes too, with new monitoring and sound equipment installed for the performers.

The first Borehamwood edition featured quite a line-up:
Erasure: Love to Hate You
Voice of the Beehive: I Think I Love You
Kenny Thomas: Best of You
Belinda Carlisle: Live Your Life Be Free
Julian Lennon: Saltwater
Status Quo: Can’t Give You More

There were also appearances on video from DJ Carl Cox, Monty Python(!) and Stevie Wonder, while Bryan Adams’ “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” remained firmly at #1 (where it had been forever at that point!).

Not every part of the new format survived. The first programme’s strangely silent Top 10 countdown - with no presenter reading out the chart - was quickly changed, while the compulsory live-vocal policy produced some wonderfully unpredictable television.

Just a few weeks later, Nirvana came to Borehamwood, where Kurt Cobain famously performed Smells Like Teen Spirit in a deliberately exaggerated deep voice while the band made very little attempt to disguise the fact that they were miming their instruments!

The programme continued to change throughout its decade at Elstree. The mid-1990s brought the “Golden Mic” era of guest presenters, while the later years saw Jamie Theakston, Zoe Ball and Jayne Middlemiss become familiar faces of the show.

Whatever viewers thought of the 1991 revamp, 3 October marked the beginning of an extraordinary decade in which some of the biggest names in popular music came to Borehamwood every week - and Studio C became one of the most recognisable music studios on British television.

Did you watch Top of the Pops during its Elstree years? Or were you ever lucky enough to be in the Studio C audience - and which performance do you remember most?

12/09/2026

Does anyone remember ever seeing the BBC ceremonial flag flying in front of Neptune House, in 1984, just after the BBC bought the studio from Central/ATV?

It's based on the design from the shield on the BBC coat of arms, and similar flags used to fly at Broadcasting House in London.

11/09/2026

I’m not generally one for talking about Christmas in September — frankly, anything before Guy Fawkes Night is pushing it — but today I’ll make an exception.

On this day in 1977, Bing Crosby and David Bowie recorded their classic “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” duet on Studio D at ATV Elstree Studios.

It was made for Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas, a 1970s television special in which Bing and his family spend Christmas in an English country house, joined by the likes of Stanley Baxter, Ron Moody and Twiggy. Bowie turns up because he supposedly lives down the road and wants to use the piano... of course!

Bowie had been invited specifically to duet with Crosby, but wasn’t keen when presented with The Little Drummer Boy, so Ian Fraser, Larry Grossman and Buz Kohan quickly wrote Peace on Earth as a counterpoint for him — virtually on the studio floor and in about an hour.

What I particularly like is Crosby’s daughter Mary’s recollection of the two men sitting down at the piano to rehearse. Bowie was apparently a little nervous at first, but as they played together, Crosby realised what an extraordinary musician Bowie was — and Bowie realised the same about Crosby. She remembered seeing them both visibly relax. Then, as she put it, “magic was made.”.

Crosby died just five weeks later, before the special was broadcast. The duet was eventually released as a single in 1982, reaching No. 3 in the UK and becoming a Christmas classic.

A rather lovely little bit of Christmas magic, made in Borehamwood.

Right. Christmas can go back in its box until November. 🎄

10/09/2026

On this day in 2013, work began to clear “The Mound” at Elstree Studios.

For nearly 30 years, almost four acres at the rear of the studios had been unusable after contaminated material — including cement-based asbestos — had been deposited there. Hertsmere Borough Council approved a £4.5 million remediation project, and on 10 September 2013 then Studio Managing Director Roger Morris and Elstree Studios Chairman Morris Bright marked the beginning of the clearance works.

By the time the work was completed, some 33,700 cubic metres of material had been removed and the land had been returned to use as a major backlot.

What happened there afterwards demonstrates just how important that decision was. From 2015, the newly cleared backlot became home to the extensive exterior sets for The Crown, including 10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace, which remained at Elstree throughout the series. More recently, it was transformed again for Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, with production designer Fiona Crombie constructing a remarkable recreation of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre from reclaimed oak on the same piece of ground.

A patch of the studio that had lain unusable for decades became one of Elstree’s most valuable filmmaking spaces — and another chapter in the continuing story of the studios.

05/09/2026

Happy 50th birthday to The Muppet Show!

On 5 September 1976, the first episode of The Muppet Show was broadcast on ITV — beginning five series of glorious mayhem that would make Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo and friends famous around the world. And it all happened in Borehamwood.

The series was made for ATV at its Elstree studios, with the Muppet Theatre occupying Studio D, thanks to Lew Grade's support for Jim Henson's vision. Henson and his troupe of Muppeteers were predominantly American, while the programme was made with a largely British television crew. Louise Gold, who joined during the second series, became the only regular British performer among the Muppeteers.

To mark the anniversary, Paul Harrison, Jeremy H***e and I all spoke to Jenny Priestley at TVBEurope about how the programme was made — from the cameras and production routines to some of the stories behind one of television’s most enduring successes. I've included a link to the article in the comments.

Over the years, The Elstree Project has been fortunate to record the memories of several people who worked on The Muppet Show, including Martin G. Baker, Louise Gold, Dave Goelz and Mick Brady, helping to preserve the story of how this extraordinary programme was created here in Borehamwood.

Earlier this year Disney brought The Muppet Show back for a one-off special which deliberately recreated much of the format and spirit of the original series. It attracted strong viewing figures and multiple Emmy nominations — although, so far, there has been no announcement of further episodes. Perhaps next time they should bring the Muppets back home to Borehamwood…?

Happy 50th anniversary to The Muppet Show! A global icon, made in Borehamwood.

16/08/2026

The project has made the BBC News website with our virtual tour!

So long as people are still interested in the studio history in Borehamwood, we want to keep documenting it. Thank you to everyone who has liked, shared, commented, interacted, and given feedback on the work done by The Elstree Project.

Fans of Holby City, Top of the Pops and Grange Hill can look around their now-demolished studios.

14/08/2026

Yesterday, 13 August, marked the birthday of Alfred Hitchcock, born in Leytonstone in 1899.

Hitchcock would become one of the most famous directors in cinema history, with many of his later and more well-known films made in Hollywood. But there is a remarkable fact about his career which deserves to be better known:

Hitchcock directed more films at the studios on Shenley Road in Borehamwood than at any other studio complex at which he worked.

Between The Ring in 1927 and Number Seventeen in 1932, Hitchcock directed eleven feature films at the British International Pictures studios. He returned to the same studio — by then the Associated British Picture Corporation — for Jamaica Inn in 1939 and Stage Fright in 1950.

That makes 13 complete Hitchcock feature films directed at Shenley Road.

In addition, in 1930 he directed several sequences for the extraordinary all-star revue Elstree Calling, and the same year made the now-lost ten-minute short An Elastic Affair at the studio.

Further towards the A1, also in Borehamwood, Hitchcock directed Under Capricorn (1949) at the rival MGM British Studios on Elstree Way; bringing his total to 15 films in Borehamwood.

One of the most fascinating of his Elstree films is Mary (1931), the German-language version of Murder!. Rather than dubbing the English film, Hitchcock directed an entirely separate version on the same sets with a largely German-speaking cast.

Hitchcock had picked up some German, but his command of the language was limited. He could give direction to the actors, but did not fully understand all the dialogue and idiom — an extraordinary situation for a director as famously precise and controlling as Hitchcock.

So although Hollywood would eventually make Hitchcock an international icon, no studio complex saw him direct more films than those in Borehamwood.

11/08/2026

Three interviews from The Elstree Project archive feature in the new series of TCM’s acclaimed podcast The Plot Thickens, focusing this season on the life and work of Stanley Kubrick.

The production includes oral history interviews recorded with members of Kubrick’s family and with his publicist, Julian Senior, contributed from The Elstree Project archive.

Produced with the backing of Warner Bros. and The Criterion Collection, the series gives these first-hand accounts a new audience and is a great example of how oral history material can continue to be used and rediscovered long after the original interviews were recorded.

You can see the trailer for the new series here, in advance of the launch in September:

Hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, this season of The Plot Thickenstraces Ku...

10/08/2026

The BBC Elstree Centre Virtual Tour is now live!

Explore more than 400 panoramic 360° images of the former Fairbanks Building and Neptune House, recorded in summer 2025 shortly before their demolition.

From studio stages, galleries and dressing rooms to production offices, technical areas, the canteen and surviving Holby City sets, the tour creates a permanent digital record of spaces associated with decades of British television — including The Muppet Show, Top of the Pops, Grange Hill, Sapphire & Steel, ’Allo ’Allo! and many more.

Recorded and built by The Elstree Project with grateful thanks to Oxygen Studios for granting us full access, and supported by an AHRC Impact Acceleration Account grant through the University of Hertfordshire. It's still a work in progress, but we hope you all can enjoy it!

Link in the comments.

30/07/2026

Will you endorse our campaign for a Special BAFTA for Elstree and Borehamwood?

Earlier this year, we launched a campaign asking BAFTA to recognise the extraordinary contribution made by generations of filmmakers, craftspeople and studio workers across Elstree and Borehamwood.

As the centenary of Elstree Studios approaches in December 2026, we believe this is the right moment for BAFTA to recognise Britain’s only true studio town — Borehamwood and Elstree have been home to eight studio sites and more than a century of film and television production. This is unique in the UK.

We are now seeking endorsements from members of the film and television community who have worked at the studios, with the aim of presenting BAFTA with a formal letter of support.

Whether you worked at one of the studios, made a production here, performed on its stages, or have another professional connection to Elstree and Borehamwood, we would be very pleased to hear from you.

This is not about recognising one company or individual. It is about celebrating the thousands of people whose skills, creativity and hard work have made Elstree and Borehamwood such an important part of British screen history.

To endorse the campaign, please comment below or send The Elstree Project a private message with your name, role and connection to the studios.

Please also share this post with colleagues who may wish to add their support.