Actor Richard Todd has passed away

In my opinion, Todd's place in the history of film & television in Borehamwood is both important and assured.

After a spell in repertory theatre, Richard passed a screen test and was contracted to ABPC (Associated British Pictures Corporation), now Elstree Studios, in the late Forties.

Todd's roles at Elstree Studios included an appearance in the classic Alfred Hitchcock film, Stage Fright. The film, which was made in 1950, starred the legendary Marlene Dietrich.

However, for me, Richard's finest hour on screen was playing Wing Commander Guy Gibson alongside Michael Redgrave and Ursula Jeans in the 1954 film, The Dam Busters, which was directed by Michael Anderson.

Set during the Second World War and with its memorable and stirring film score, The Dam Busters was partly-filmed at Shenley Road-based ABPC (Elstree Studios) and based on the true story of the RAF's 617 Squadron attack on the Ruhr dams in Germany.

Such is the appeal of the original film version of The Dam Busters that a host of special new cinema screenings were arranged in the UK during 2007.

The Dam Busters, incidentally, used the one surviving exterior water tank at Elstree Studios for certain scenes. This tank currently has the Big Brother house located on top.

In more recent years, Todd kept in touch with Borehamwood by appearing in the continuing medical drama Holby City, which is made at BBC Elstree.

In more recent time the twice-married actor, who was awarded the OBE in 1993, lived near Grantham in Lincolnshire. He spent his retirement from the stage and screen appearing as a speaker at charity functions as well as supporting Age Concern and the Royal British Legion.

A talented actor and a real-life war hero (Richard was one of the first British officers to land in Normandy in advance of the main D-Day landings), Richard Todd, OBE, will be greatly-missed.

RIP, Richard Todd, OBE.