British and Dominions Imperial Studios

Elstree Studios on Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire is a British film and television production centre operated by Elstree Film Studios Limited. One of several facilities historically referred to as Elstree Studios, the Shenley Road studios originally opened in 1925. The studio complex has passed through many owners during its lifetime, and is now owned by Hertsmere Borough Council. Known as the studios used for filming Alfred Hitchcock's Blackmail (1929)—the first British talkie, Star Wars (1977), The Shining (1980) and Indiana Jones (its largest stage is known as the George Lucas Soundstage), the studios are used both for film and television productions. With the BBC Elstree Centre nearby, a number of the stages are leased to BBC Studioworks, and are used for recording television productions such as Strictly Come Dancing.

Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack was a special series of Celebrity Big Brother, a spin-off series of the British reality television programme Big Brother. It was broadcast on E4 from 3–28 January 2008. A number of closely associated programmes also aired on the same channel. Dermot O'Leary – who had hosted Big Brother's Little Brother since 2001 – was the main host of Celebrity Hijack, and it was his final series of Big Brother. The series was announced on 8 October 2007 by Channel 4 and that it would be replacing Celebrity Big Brother in January 2008, due to the widely publicised racism controversy in Celebrity Big Brother 5. In 2009, Celebrity Big Brother returned to Channel 4 and no further series of Celebrity Hijack were produced. The premise of the series saw one celebrity a day taking control, with the help of Big Brother; organising their own tasks, making their own rules and talking to the housemates in the Diary Room. They were in charge of a set of housemates, ranging in age from 18- to 21-years-old and all having a special talent. The housemates competed to be the last to leave the house for a £50,000 prize. The series ended on 28 January with John Loughton being voted as the winner.

Big Brother 2003, also known as Big Brother 4, was the fourth series of the British reality television series Big Brother. The show followed thirteen contestants, known as housemates, who were isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House. Each week, one or more of the housemates were evicted by a public vote. The last remaining housemate, Cameron Stout, was declared the winner, winning a cash prize of £70,000. As with the previous three series, Big Brother 4 lasted 64 days. It launched on Channel 4 on 23 May 2003 and ended on 25 July 2003. Davina McCall returned as presenter for her fourth consecutive year. Twelve housemates entered on launch night, with one additional housemate being introduced in the sixth week. The series was watched by an average of 4.6 million viewers, the fourth highest viewed series of the show to date (joint with Big Brother 6). Big Brother 4 has since been regarded as one of the most "boring" series of the British edition of the show. It did, however, become memorable for a bomb scare that led to the temporary evacuation of the House, and for being the first UK series of Big Brother to feature a double eviction, foreign housemate exchange and a return of a previously evicted housemate.

Teen Big Brother: The Experiment also known as Teen Big Brother is a United Kingdom reality television spin off of the show Big Brother where a group of teenagers lived in the Big Brother House for ten days. It was pre-recorded on 30 July - 8 August 2003 shortly after the fourth series of Big Brother ended and was aired on Channel 4 over five nights on 13–17 October 2003. The programme consisted of five episodes, each approximately 60 minutes long including adverts, with Elaine Hackett serving as executive producer for Endemol UK Productions. Channel 4 announced the series on 22 May 2003 for the broadcaster's educational division 4Learning with the aim of transmitting the series in late 2003 or early 2004. The series was controversial as some felt the broadcaster was exploiting the teenagers while the program featured the first sexual act between two contestants in the history of the British adaptation of Big Brother. The series followed a similar format to its parent show where the contestants, known as Housemates, lived inside a specialty built compound known as the Big Brother House at Elstree Studios. The Housemates were constantly filmed during their time in the House and were not permitted to speak with those filming them. Due to the pre-recorded nature of the programme the viewing public was unable to vote during evictions and decide the winner instead the Housemates did all the voting during their time in the House. The Housemates competed to win a trip around the world worth £30,000 which was won by Paul Brennan after he was crowned the winner with a majority vote from his Housemates. Brennan chose to share his prize with Caroline Cloke, the runner-up.

Big Brother 2014, also known as Big Brother 15 and Big Brother: Power Trip, was the fifteenth series of the British reality television series Big Brother, hosted by Emma Willis and narrated by Marcus Bentley. It began on 5 June 2014 on Channel 5 and lasted for 72 days ending on 15 August 2014, making it the longest series to air on Channel 5. It was the fourth regular series and the tenth series of Big Brother overall to air on the channel. The series was officially confirmed on 3 April 2012 when Channel 5 renewed the show until 2014. It was therefore the final regular series to be included under the then contract. The series was controversially won by Helen Wood who won the £100,000 prize fund beating bookies' favourite Ashleigh Coyle by a margin of 4,631 votes. Wood became the first woman to win the competition since the show's inception on Channel 5. It was then revealed that just 1.2% of the vote, separated Helen and Ashleigh, making it one of the closest results in Big Brother history. This was the first, and currently only, series of Big Brother UK where both the runner-up and the winner were women. Wood would later return the following year in Big Brother 16 as part of a secret twist that saw her and two other "legendary" former Housemates, Brian Belo and Nikki Grahame, re-enter the House as part of "Time Warp" week. In addition, Mark Byron and Matthew Davies also made an appearance in a shopping task.

Big Brother 2004, also known as Big Brother 5, was the fifth series of the British reality television series Big Brother. The show followed thirteen contestants, known as housemates, who were isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House. Each week, one or more of the housemates were eliminated from the competition and left the House. The last remaining housemate, Nádia Almada, was declared the winner, winning a cash prize of £63,500. The series launched on Channel 4 on 28 May 2004 and ended on 6 August 2004. It lasted 71 days - the longest series of Big Brother at the time and the eighth longest series to date. Davina McCall returned as presenter for her fifth consecutive year. Twelve housemates entered on launch night, with one additional housemate being introduced in the fifth week. Following the negative reception of the "boring" previous series, several changes were made to the format. Big Brother became "evil", resulting in a higher-pressure environment for the housemates, more difficult tasks, fewer luxuries and more twists. Big Brother 5 ultimately became most memorable, and the subject of viewer complaints and press attention, for a physical altercation between housemates in the early hours of Day 20, which later became referred to by fans and in the press as "Fight Night". The series was watched by an average of 5.1 million viewers, the second highest viewed series of the show to date (after Big Brother 3).

Celebrity Big Brother 2007, also known as Celebrity Big Brother 5, was the fifth series of the British reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. The show followed a total of fourteen celebrity contestants, known as housemates, who were isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House. Each week, one or more of the housemates were eliminated from the competition by public vote and left the House. The last remaining housemate, Shilpa Shetty, was declared the winner. The series launched on Channel 4 on 3 January 2007 and ended on 28 January 2007. Davina McCall returned as presenter, having presented both the regular edition and the celebrity edition of Big Brother since they first began. Eleven housemates entered on launch night, with an additional three being introduced two days later. The series was watched by an average of 4.6 million viewers, the third highest viewed series of the show to date. As with the previous regular series, it was broadcast in 16:9 aspect ratio, as opposed to 4:3 – the first series of Celebrity Big Brother to do so. The series saw the return of Jade Goody, who had become a media celebrity after appearing on the third regular series of Big Brother in 2002, arriving with her boyfriend and her mother – marking the first time in any series of Big Brother UK where family members entered together. During its original broadcast, Celebrity Big Brother 5 became the subject of an internationally publicised racism controversy. It attracted the largest number of complaints to the UK media regulator Ofcom about a Big Brother series and, as of 2018, the second highest number of complaints about any British television broadcast of all time (after Jerry Springer: The Opera). Viewer complaints and press attention concerned housemate Shilpa Shetty, and alleged that she was the subject of racist bullying from some of her fellow housemates, in particular Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara. As a result, a protest took place in India; tensions increased between the UK and Indian governments; and a diplomatic incident occurred. Following the broadcast of the series, Ofcom concluded that Celebrity Big Brother 5 had breached the Broadcasting Code, and statutory sanctions were placed on Channel 4.

Big Brother 2002, also known as Big Brother 3, was the third series of the British reality television series Big Brother. The show followed fourteen contestants, known as housemates, who were isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House. Each week, one or more of the housemates were evicted by a public vote. The last remaining housemate, Kate Lawler, was declared the winner, winning a cash prize of £70,000. As with the previous two series, Big Brother 3 lasted 64 days. It launched on Channel 4 on 24 May 2002 and ended on 26 July 2002. Davina McCall returned as presenter for her third consecutive year. Twelve housemates entered on launch night, with two additional housemates being introduced in later weeks. The series was watched by an average of 5.8 million viewers, making it the highest viewed series of the show to date. Its finale peaked at 10 million viewers - making it both the 2nd most watched episode of Big Brother UK and the tenth most watched broadcast by Channel 4 to date.

Big Brother 2007, also known as Big Brother 8, was the eighth series of the British reality television series Big Brother. The show followed twenty-three contestants, known as housemates, who were isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time in a custom built House. Each week, one or more of the housemates were eliminated from the competition and left the House. The last remaining housemate, Brian Belo, was declared the winner, winning a cash prize of £100,000 (the second housemate to do so after Liam McGough was awarded the same amount in the third week). The series launched on Channel 4 on 30 May 2007 and ended on 31 August 2007, lasting 94 days - the longest British edition of Big Brother to date. Davina McCall returned as presenter for her eighth consecutive year. Eleven housemates entered on launch night, with an additional seven men being introduced by the time of the fourth week. The series was watched by an average of 3.9 million viewers, the lowest viewed series of the show at the time. The first series of Big Brother to air since the highly controversial fifth celebrity series, Big Brother 8 was the subject of viewer complaints and press attention, mainly regarding the ejection of a housemate for the use of a racial slur.

Big Brother 2013, also known as Big Brother 14 and Big Brother: Secrets and Lies, was the fourteenth series of the British reality television series Big Brother. It launched on 13 June 2013 on Channel 5 and 5*, and lasted for 68 days, ending on 19 August 2013. It was part of a new two-year contract with Endemol, which secured the show until 2014. It was the third regular series to air on Channel 5 and the seventh series of Big Brother to air on the channel since they acquired the show. The series was won by 23-year-old Sam Evans from Llanelli. He won the full £100,000 prize fund, making him the first winner since 2010 to do so.Eight housemates entered on launch night, including a set of twins becoming one housemate; with another six, including a mother and daughter, entering the house the following night. Unbeknownst to the housemates, an actor controlled by the viewers, Michael Dylan - otherwise known as "The People's Puppet" - entered the house on launch night, and this was revealed to them upon his departure on Day 9. On Day 33, after a confrontation between housemates Daley Ojuederie and Hazel O'Sullivan, Daley became the first housemate to be ejected from the Big Brother House since Big Brother moved to Channel 5. For the first time in regular Big Brother history, no new housemates entered the house following the two launch nights. The fourteenth series saw the return of viewers voting to evict, rather than voting to save alike the two previous series. This way of voting had not been used since Ultimate Big Brother.This was the first series of Big Brother to be presented by Big Brother's Bit on the Side co-host Emma Willis and the first presenter change since Brian Dowling took over from Davina McCall in 2011. Willis continued to host Bit on the Side along with Rylan Clark and AJ Odudu, who replaced Jamie East and Alice Levine. This is the most watched Channel 5 series of Big Brother UK averaging 1.9 million.

Celebrity Big Brother 2005, also known as Celebrity Big Brother 3, was the third series of the British reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. It launched on 6 January 2005 and ended on 23 January 2005, airing on Channel 4. Davina McCall returned as host of the main show. The series continued with Big Brother 5's 'evil' theme. It was won by dancer Mark "Bez" Berry. This was the first series of Celebrity Big Brother to air since 2002, as Teen Big Brother: The Experiment and Big Brother Panto were broadcast in its place in 2003 and 2004, respectively. This was also the first series where the celebrities were being paid for their appearance rather than doing it for charity like the previous two series, however a percentage of phone vote funds went towards helping victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. John McCririck, who was the second housemate to be evicted, represented this series in Ultimate Big Brother in 2010, where he was the first to be evicted.

Celebrity Big Brother 2012, also known as Celebrity Big Brother 9, was the ninth series of the British reality television series Celebrity Big Brother. It began on 5 January 2012 and ended on 27 January 2012. It was the second Celebrity series to air on Channel 5 as part of the channel's then two-year contract with the show and the ninth series of the show to air overall. The series was sponsored by Plusnet. This was the first of two series of Celebrity Big Brother to air in 2012.The series was won by actress and television presenter Denise Welch.Nicola McLean returned to the house for Celebrity Big Brother 19 as an All-Star, representing this series. She left the house in fifth place.