The BBC takes a tour of James Bond`s home, Pinewood Studios

Located on the border of Berkshire, Pinewood Studios has been the setting for a dazzling array of films over the years from the Carry on Films to James Bond. BBC Radio Berkshre's Maggie Philbin paid a visit to the iconic studios.

Click here to view Pinewood Studios tour pictures (at bbc.co.uk)

BBC Radio Berkshire's Maggie Philbin is always out and about on the breakfast show, and was lucky enough to be granted a rare tour of the world-famous Pinewood Studios, located on the border of Berkshire near Slough.

She began her tour of Pinewood studios looking at Heatherden Hall and the surrounding gardens which were used to film scenes from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Bond film Who Dares Wins.

Andrew Smith, Group Director of corporate affairs for The Pinewood Studios Group, said: "Heatherden Hall has been used for a variety of films. These gardens are in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the scene in which Truly Scrumptious drives into the lake and falls in love with Dick Van Dyke.

"The gardens have been used in the opening scene of Dr No, when they're trying to kill Bond, and that building there was the Iranian Embassy in Who Dares Wins.

"Originally this building was a private residence, then a country club, then Charles Boot, the tycoon, purchased it and because of the number of trees here, he thought it had a touch of Hollywood about it, and named it Pinewood.

It's played its part during the war, the government requisitioned the studios, the Royal Mint was here, some stages were used for grain storage.

"A V2 rocket landed here and the army and RAF photography units were based here during the war.

"But we're trying not to reflect on our halcyon years, but plan for the future."

Part of Pinewood's plans for the future include utilizing a new vast underwater stage, which has been built to replace the stages destroyed by fire, which were used in the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me and the Venice underwater scenes in Casino Royale.

Another new direction for the studios is in filming TV shows such as The Weakest Link and Wogan's Perfect Recall.

Maggie sneaked into Anne Robinson's dressing room, and had to restrain herself from rifling through the hundreds of costumes in the wardrobe - all black.

Simon Honey, Group Head of Television Operations at Pinewood, said: "For the past few weeks we've had Sir Terry Wogan filming here. He's been here recording Terry's perfect recall.

"We've got the audience arriving as we speak. We're recording three shows today. It's fantastic. TV shows have been here for about eight years now, I've been doing shows like the Weakest Link, My Family and Lily Allen's quiz show.

"One of the great things about coming to Pinewood, is that people might walk outside for a break and you might see Daniel Craig or Angelina Jolie, that's the magic of Pinewood.

"All the staff that work at Pinewood come from TV and film background."

Maggie said she had enjoyed hearing stories about Pinewood's history throughout the day.

She said: "What I like are the moments where life gets in the way, I was just hearing how one time in Pinewood a lion escaped and ended up in a carpenter's shed, and about strange insects piggybacking on the back of lorries, or scorpions running about in the hallways."

Maggie ended her tour of Pinewood in a post-production studios chatting to Glen Freemantle, the sound designer responsible for the final mixing of Slumdog Millionaire, who has been nominated for an Oscar.

He told Maggie about the challenges of creating the right sound for the acclaimed Danny Boyle move. "The reality of making movies is that it's made like a patchwork quilt, and things are filmed days, weeks, months apart. They may look right but not sound right.

"For example a will be car going past in one shot but not in the next frame or the footsteps of the people walking behind someone will suddenly disappear.

"You need those sounds there to make what you see on the screen be alive, give it a sense of reality. If it doesn't sound right that reality disappears.

Talking about Slumdog Millionaire, he said: "The whole film was shot in India, so the quality was very raw at first.

It was basically a mess. We had to strip down the film and rebuild it.

"What Danny Boyle wanted was the energy and excitement of India so have to do it in lots and lots of layers, every single bit was built so you can have that rush of energy, I don't know if you've been to Mumbai but it's mad out there.

"All the sounds are from India, we didn't really use any traditional library sounds. We recorded hours of stuff, we shot a load of crowds and people shouting and stuff."

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