The deal was struck after Peel Group, owned by billionaire property developer John Whittaker fought off interest by Mohammed Al-Fayed by raising its bid to £96 million.

Former ITV chairman Michael Grade is set to retain his chairman status of the studio group despite criticism from another major shareholder calling for him to quit.

Current Pinewood projects include Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows feature film in Shepperton The Rob Brydon Show at Teddington. Tickets are currently available for the 13th and 25th May recordings, more to follow in July.

Dates for recordings in May have been announced today so if you are interested in being part of the audience then you will need to apply quickly for this popular show!

It will feature some of local boy Rob’s favourite stars and musical heroes who are invited for a performance and a chat. Previous recordings have included David Walliams, Stephen Fry and Tom Jones. Some members of the audience will also get a chance to put their questions to the stars.

You can apply for tickets here. Recording dates (6:45pm):
Fri 6th May 2011
Fri 13th May 2011

Shares in Pinewood have recently jumped after a £88m takeover approach was made by an existing 30% shareholder Peel Holdings. The group unveiled strong results last month – a 31% increase in pre-tax profit in its 2010 results.

As well as in Teddington the group own studios in Buckinghamshire and Shepperton. Recently filmed titles include James Bond, Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean titles were filmed at Pinewood locations and Johnny Depp was the most recently house-hold name in Teddington – spotted in the Anglers.

As Jane pointed out in the comments for this post “The beautiful stage of Normansfield Theatre was spotted in a recent episode of Downton Abbey where it was used for the village hall in the flower show scene starring Maggie Smith et al.“

Due to the rarity of a Victorian theatre in such a good condition, Normansfield has been used several times for TV and film – you may have also spotted it during the piano recital scene from Dorian Gray with Colin Firth.

Scenes for a live-action film 3D version of the book  Horrid Henry (already currently a cartoon, play and video game) have been recently filmed during half-term on Lower Teddington Road – with child-stars and cast using the nearby school as a base in between takes.

In “Explosions: How We Shook The World”, the presenter recreated an ion chamber experiment to demonstrate the theory of atom-spitting. To complete this he needed some help and also more importantly a source of uranium and some neutrons to bombard it with – all of which the NPL and Doctor David Thomas was only too happy to provide.

The clever bods at NPL also helped the BBC in September to recreate an experiment to prove Einstein’s theory of relativity.

In Bang Goes the Theory, a team of scientists flew one of the NPL’s atomic clocks around the world to test it against a stationary one
to again prove the time dilation theory in practice for the first time since in 40 years. NPL’s atomic clocks were required because the experiment needs to measure time down to a billionth of a second. NPL’s time scientist Setnam Shemar: “This is a rare and exciting experiment – a full round-the-world trip like this hadn’t been attempted since 1971, so NPL was absolutely delighted to be a part of it.”

The successful experiment proved that clock and scientific team that accompanied it on the 50 hour trip aged an extra 230 nanoseconds! The first ever working atomic clock was developed here in Teddington in 1955 and NPL continues to be the home of the UK’s atomic time scale.

Michelin-starred chef John Burton Race was spotted on several times on the high street this summer – he was one of the judges in this years Britain’s Best Dish which was shot at Teddington Studios.

The final episode of the series saw the studio audience all deciding the winner by having the finalist’s dishes cooked for them in The Anglers beer garden.

If you fancy being a part of the audience for a show, tickets are currently available for new comedy ‘Meet The Doyles’.

Hosted by Greg Davies, this new format unscripted show will feature 12 comics who will try to out-do each other by creating ridiculous suggestions as well as having the nerve to act them out.

The line-up so far is:

• Stephen K Amos
• Russell Kane
• Phil Nicol
• Lee Kern
• Rob Deering
• Charlie Baker
• Micky Flanagan
• Katherine Ryan
• Kirstin O’Brien
• Holly Walsh

The recording will take place on Wednesday 28th July at 7.00pm (doors close 7.15pm)

Tickets are issued via e-mail and over 18s only – check out LostInTV for details on how to apply.

After Auction World set up at the studios in 2001, staff experienced many strange and unexplained events including orbs of light, whispering voices, doors jamming for minutes at a time. One particular event included all studio doors jamming shut for two minutes during a live broadcast. More anecdotal text about strange incidents experienced by audience members and workers can be found on the TV Studio History site.

Lighting fixtures and scenery occasionally fall on to the stage and unexplained cold spots turn up where no drafts are present. Staff also complain of cold rooms even when they are heated. Could any of this simply be down to the age of the classic studios? These days, studio audiences are asked politely to turn their mobile phones and other electronic devices off during shows to avoid them interfering with sound recording. Perhaps some of this high-tech equipment has captured some of these unexplained noises but I’m sure staff wouldn’t want to scare away the valuable and loyal audiences that tour the country witnessing the birth of TV shows.

Some theories are also put forward about the origin of the paranormal activity – one is that the ghosts may be connected to the three workers (including the studio manager at the time) killed during WWII when the studios were hit by a V1 flying bomb, igniting diesel tanks and starting a devastating fire.

Starring Martin Clunes as troubled sales executive Reggie Perrin, the series will return to the screens with six episodes later this year. If you want to be part of the audience then there are currently free tickets available for recordings on the following dates:

Friday 2nd April (Good Friday)
Friday 9th April
Friday 16th April
Friday 23rd April
Friday 30th April
Friday 7th May

All at 7pm, minimum age 18.

The series will be produced by Objective Productions (Peep Show, Star Stories) and co-written by Simon Nye (Men Behaving Badly) and David Nobbs (creator of the original show).

We have two tickets available for the recording on the 14th January for the first eligible person to email us at contact@teddingtontown.co.uk.

** Tickets are now spoken for **

As post seems generally a bit behind at the moment the tickets would best for someone who lives locally – they can be dropped off by hand or picked up from central Teddington.

Note: as with all recordings, the tickets do not guarantee admission and cannot be sold.

Admission is from 6pm (although queueing before might help) with the recording starting at 7:15pm. Minumum age: 16.

More details and instructions on how to apply can be found here.

Starring Adam Buxton, Iain Lee and Daisy Haggard the comedy is described as:
A sitcom about the flaky, shaky, fakey “creatives” who work in the advertising industry. Underworked and overpaid, they’re the people who spend all day trying to persuade you to buy things you don’t want with money you don’t have. They’re scum.

Visit Standing Room Only and click on “current shows” to book your free tickets on any of these dates (all Thursdays):

4th, 11th, 18th, 25th June
2nd, 9th July

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[Update 2nd July] Some additional info about the sitcom via this interview with Adam Buxton.