TMBP Extra: Twickenham to close

Interrupting the 1969 timeline for some news from 2012.

Twickenham film studios to close (guardian.co.uk)

Twickenham Film Studios, which have been used for films as diverse as Roman Polanski’s Repulsion, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and current Oscars hopeful My Week with Marilyn, are to be closed just one year ahead of the facility’s centennial anniversary.

Administrator Gerald Krasner said the business was losing money and would be wound down between now and June, with half of its 17 employees having already left. It was unlikely to be maintained as a film studio by new owners, he said. “We are selling it on,” Mr Krasner told the BBC News website. “Everyone will then be paid in full.”

Twickenham opened in 1913 as St Margaret’s Studios and was given its current moniker in 1929 by one of its most famous owners, British film magnate Julius Hagen. Built on the site of a former ice rink, it was the largest studio in the country during the era and is still considered one of the UK’s pre-eminent film-making facilities alongside Pinewood and Shepperton studios.

The Beatles’ “Revolution” promo, filmed Sept. 1968

It’s also, of course, where the Beatles filmed parts of A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, the “Hey Jude” and “Revolution” promos and the first half of Let it Be.

It’s back to the timeline next time around, when we pick up where we left off on Jan. 3, 1969.