Okay, just to clarify, when Big Brother moved to Elstree Studios back in 2002 a decision was made to build the house on top of the surviving studio water tank. All subsequent Big Brother houses have continued to be built or adapted on this tank.

A large trench was also dug between the house and Stage 1 in The George Lucas Stage during this building process back in 2002. This was in order to house some of the various cables and wires required for this long-running reality television series.

The exterior water tank in question (see in the picture on the right) once had a large tower errected beside it where various backdrops (such as a skyline) could be hung or painted.

The tank, which originally was one of two exterior water tanks (the other used to be situated where Tesco's service bay is now located), has been used for many film & TV productions over the years. These include the films: Moby Dick and The Dam Busters; and television productions including: The Avengers, The Saint, The Champions & Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).

Behind the water tank is a large area of grassland (the studio backlot) which is where the fireworks are launched from to congratulate the winner on the finale night of each Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother. This is the exact land where the large exterior set for the Overlook Hotel was built and situated back in the late Seventies for the Stanley Kubrick film, The Shining.

The backlot area has been used for many other productions over the years including the television productions: The Avengers, The Saint, The Champions and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). Indeed, the latter production filmed many of the scenes there that involved Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope) standing near his grave.

Incidentally, The George Lucas Stage, which houses Stage 1 (used for Big Brother and Big Brother's Little Brother) & Stage 2 at the studios, now stands on land where once the famous Town Set was once situated. This set was originally built for the Cliff Richard film, The Young ones. It was subsequently re-used for many film & TV productions.

Also, the area of the car park situated near to the BBBM (Big Brother’s Big Mouth) studio (Workshop 1) once played host to various nautical-related sets (scenes based at a harbour etc.) for action TV series such as The Saint and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). So this arguably makes it one of the most historic car parks in film & TV history!

You can find out more about Elstree Studios by visiting my unofficial website (Elstree Calling) dedicated to the studios. A link is displayed on the right.