THE studio where the 1952 swashbuckler The Crimson Pirate was recorded was yesterday rescued from the clutches of administrators by James Bond’s film studio.

Teddington Studios, which now focuses on television productions such as The Office, was bought for £2.7 million by Pinewood Shepperton, after a loss of key production contracts left it close to bankruptcy. Pinewood, the home of Bond and more recently Batman Begins, bought Teddington to reduce its dependence on film. Last month Pinewood issued a profits warning amid uncertainty about the future of government tax breaks for the film industry.

Once the British home of Warner Brothers, Teddington became a television centre in the 1970s as the UK film industry faltered. Thames Television filmed programmes such as The Benny Hill Show and Rumpole during that period.

Thames sold out in 1997, five years after losing its ITV franchise, and the studios became open to all, but business was tough. Last year Teddington made an operating loss of £9,000 on sales of £8.3 million.

Trading deteriorated further after Teddington lost several key contracts, including Kilroy, which disappeared after presenter Robert Kilroy-Silk was sacked by the BBC for comments he made about Arab regimes. Today with Des and Mel also abandoned Teddington in the wake of the merger that created ITV, which saw production shift to Granada’s studios in central London amid cost-cutting at the new commercial broadcaster.

Ivan Dunleavy, Pinewood’s chief executive, said: “We have an awful lot of film stages and a desire to grow our TV revenues."

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