From EastEnders to The Muppet Show: The Elstree Centre programmes

This Is Tom Jones (ATV)

Elstree was home to many music moments and series over the years. From Dusty Springfield to Engelbert Humperdinck, The Beatles to Sammy Davis Jnr and specialist shows to boot. Jazz, Motown and musical numbers have all been played in Studio D. For the Bing Crosby festive special an entire olde England village was built on the backlot! However one of the biggest hits of the late 1960s and early 1970s was This Is Tom Jones as the Welsh vocalist recorded his music, chat and variety series here.

The show was one of the many to have ‘two crews’ originally as black and white cameras recorded the programme for ITV and colour ones recorded the show for America. This is Tom Jones was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for “Best Actor In A Television Series – Musical Or Comedy” in 1969.

Going For Gold (BBC)

It had been home to some of the biggest names in show business during its ATV years. The first show for the BBC produced in Studio D however wasn’t so glitzy. The European game show Going For Gold went into production in 1986 and ran and ran. Hosted by Henry Kelly contestants from across Europe (who could speak English) battled through rounds of questions (and some trying to understand the questions) and cryptic clues.