The Oscar-winning Raiders of the Lost Ark directed by Stephen Spielberg and produced by George Lucas was based at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood in Hertfordshire where the set for the Well of Souls was constructed, along with those for Marion’s (Karen Allen) bar and the temple interiors in the opening sequence. The Well of Souls set required 7,000 snakes but fortunately only one crew member was bitten – by a python rather than a cobra so not fatally. The opening sequence which featured tarantulas has Satipo (Alfred Molina) with a number of the creatures on him. Regrettably they would not ‘play to the camera’ and move. It turns out they were male so the introduction of a female tarantula was made and suddenly they were in motion! Having developed the character and owing to the fact that Spielberg had expressed an interest in directing a James Bond film, Lucas approached him with the Indiana Jones character - Spielberg loved him and called it ‘James Bond without the hardware’. The story has archaeologist and adventurer, Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), hired by the US government to find the Ark of the Covenant before it falls into Nazi hands. Harrison Ford was not originally cast in the role as Lucas was concerned about casting Ford after he had appeared in the Star Wars movies Lucas had produced; the preference was Tom Selleck who turned it down due to other commitments. Ford was therefore offered the part. However, the film was rejected by every major studio in Hollywood as they felt it was too over the top; Paramount eventually agreed to put up the finance which had a $20 million budget. When it was released Raiders of the Lost Ark proved to be the highest grossing film of the year (£384 million world-wide) and remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time. Nominated for nine academy awards, the film was so well received with critics and audiences alike that it let to three additional feature films and a television series. A number of private locations were used near Elstree Studios with other locations in Tunisia and the US being used.

Release / Airing: 30/07/1981