Can you believe this year has almost gone? And how did that happen? I have been retired for 10 years and do very little nowadays so I had assumed the pace of time would slow down but whadda mistakea to maka, as the Italian officer in Allo! Allo! used to say.

This week as we walk together down Memory Lane I take us back to 1964, when some of us were somewhat younger and others not even born. Do you recall that awful winter of 1963/4 when we had snow for three months and supplies ran scarce? Could you imagine the under 40s coping today, unlike us tough pre and post war citizens? Could you imagine the chaos that would ensue if cyberspace stopped for, say, a weekend? You would actually have to speak to other people and if necessary use smoke signals.

Like Snow White, I have drifted - so we are now back at Elstree Studios in 1964. Three television series were in production. The Avengers was of course an international success and we can return to that another time. I do recommend you either tuning into the Talking Pictures television channel or buy the DVD to watch Gideons Way, which has hardly dated due to the great use of locations rather than being studio bound, and had that lovely actor John Gregson in the title role. We lost him too early when he suffered a fatal heart attack while out walking on a family holiday. I never met John but have met Giles Watling, who played his son in the series, and knew Jack Watling, who kindly attended some of my get togethers.

The Human Jungle was another great series shot at Elstree starring Herbert Lom and had a lovely haunting theme tune. Herbert was a guest of mine at one of my events and invited me to his home country's Embassy to watch him being given an award by his nation of birth.

Films were also shot at Elstree this year and included Fanatic, which starred a young Donald Sutherland and Hollywood icon Tallulah Bankhead. Alas, this was her last film and she was also an alcoholic, so pretended to drink tea on set when it was actually whisky. The irony is that on the screen they used to substitute tea in a glass and pretend the character was drinking Scotch.

She was Hammer's most expensive film to date at a cost of £323,000, which seems peanuts today. Locations were shot in Israel and the movie starred Ursula Andress in the starring role, with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in support. The film went over budget due to various problems so some planned scenes were cut and it was decided to dub other actors' voices on Ursula and character actor Andre Morell. It was still a big success.

Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb was another Hammer film shot at Elstree that year. Dickie Owen played the Mummy and was the husband of one of my teachers. You see I could never get away from showbiz. He was also in Zulu fighting off the natives with his crutch as he was already injured. One of my favourite films, even if it is not PC these days As Clark Gable said in Gone With The Wind, frankly my dear I don't give a damn. Thank you for your company and take care of yourself until next time.