Well it is time once again to pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and join me as we march off down Memory Lane going back 40 years.

I cannot believe it is that long ago when I was invited to visit Elstree Studios and see the filming of a new science fiction film called Star Wars. Where have those decades gone?

I had no idea I was witnessing the birth of a cinema legend and a franchise that would still be rolling today. In fact I told George Lucas that I imagined the film would flop at the box office as science fiction movies had been dead since 2001: A Space Odyssey, a decade earlier. Well, I am a pensioner in Borehamwood and George is a billionaire in Hollywood so boy, did I get that wrong.

George struggled to get the movie made as 20th Century Fox had little faith in it and allocated a moderate budget and many of the crew thought it was not going to be a success. I last met George at Elstree, with Steven Speilberg, on the set of Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade about 12 years later and we discussed the campaign to save the Studio. Personally, I think LucasFilm should have bought the complex then to use as their European base and to rent out to their Hollywood contacts but alas they would not agree.

I also met the supporting cast and we bumped into each on later occasions. The last time we were all together was in the 1990s in a galaxy far far away called Watford. We were attending a Star Wars convention and I had lunch with Don Henderson, Kenny Baker, Peter Mayhew, Jeremy Bulloch and Dave Prowse. Oddly enough, none of the other diners seemed to notice them. Sadly Don died a long time ago and now I hear the lovely Kenny passed away last week. He was a nice guy who before getting inside R2D2 was performing in a variety act. I recall in that heatwave summer of 1976 he suffered gallantly in that metal can. He told me "obviously I was chosen for my height because due to legal reasons they were unable to use a child for those long hours."

I keep in touch with Jeremy and Dave, who still go round the world making a nice living signing autographs at conventions, despite the fact that they only appeared on screen hidden behind their costumes. Actually both are also Elstree veterans as Jeremy was one of Cliff Richard's gang in Summer Holiday and Dave played the Frankenstein monster in a couple of Hammer horrors made here. Both are really nice gentlemen and I regret we don't meet more often as the clock is always ticking.

I regret I did not get them all to sign some Star Wars memorabilia as I understand it would do well on auction sites these days. I also knew Peter Cushing, whom I first interviewed at Shepperton back in 1973, and once met Alec Guinness. However, they are stories to bore you with on another day.

If you fancy a real life walk then why not join us on September 3 at 1pm, starting from the Toby Carvery in Studio Way, Borehamwood. It is being organised by the Facebook page MGM British Studios Memories. We will walk around what was once the 120-acre MGM site where they filmed Ivanhoe, The Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare, not to mention television series such as The Prisoner and UFO. They will share photos of what once was there and just enjoy film memories. Be there or be square as we used to say.