by PAUL WELSH

Mick Jagger is certainly keeping an eye on his investment in the new feature film Enigma, shooting out of Elstree Film and Television Studios.

He visited the film unit on location in Trafalgar Square and was recently seen on a location at the Great Central Railway's Quorn Station in Leicestershire. Apparently he bought the film rights to the novel back in 1995.

It is good to hear that cinema attendances in the first quarter of this year were up by 17.7 per cent over the previous quarter to nearly 36 million. No doubt they were hit by people watching Euro 2000 and going on holiday, but it is still encouraging.

About three years ago I asked Bill Owen and Paul Nicholls to unveil a cinema commemorative plaque celebrating the site of the BBC Elstree Centre, where a film studio was opened in 1914.

Sadly Bill died recently, but Paul seems to have enjoyed a successful acting career since leaving EastEnders. He recently commented: 'I found working on EastEnders a great opportunity, but I think I left at the right time.

'I miss the regular pattern of work and knowing everyone, but I did not enjoy the huge celebrity status that comes with appearing in a top-rated series.'

I shall be seeing Paul acting in a new fringe play opening in a pub theatre in London, which is often a good training ground for later appearances in the West End.

I walked to the Hawksmoor Centre Bar for a few drinks and to watch the opening game of Euro 2000. It was my misfortune that Sean decided to make one of his nowadays rare appearances at the same venue. Although noticeably overweight, he can still walk fast and I was forced to walk the two miles home at about 120 paces a minute.

Apparently he had a midnight pizza awaiting him. The fact that I kept up without trouble is a testimony to those step aerobics sessions on a Tuesday evening!

Thankyou to everyone who comes up to me at various occasions to say they make a point of reading this column each week and even enjoy it. Writing is a lonely occupation with usually little or no feedback, so such remarks are appreciated. I spend hours, alright minutes, researching and writing these words, come hell or high water, 52 weeks-a-year ,, but as yet no Pulitzer Prize!

It is sad to read how frail the legendary Bob Hope has become and to see photographs of him as a shadow of his former self.

I had the pleasure to meet Bob at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel back in 1993. He arrived to do a press conference and happily chatted to the group I was with. We then had a group photograph taken and I saw him again doing a one man show at the Albert Hall the following year, at the age of 90.

Elstree Film and Television Studios continues to perform extremely well and is proving a financial success. Hertsmere Council recently reported that, in addition to the rent of £229,000, the studio generated additional income of over £600,000. This is enabling further investment in creating a new stage within part of the large carpenters shop and further structural repairs this year.

Character actor Martin Benson appeared as a 'heavy' in many British films and television series in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as big-budgeted films such as Goldfinger and The King and I.

However, few movie buffs know he was also the story editor on the many television films Douglas Fairbanks Jr produced at what is now the BBC Elstree Centre in the early 1950s.

'It was not realised at the time, but Douglas used several American writers who had been blacklisted by Hollywood in the McCarthy withchunts to give them work,' recalled Martin.