PINEWOOD’S LICENCE TO BE THRILLED

FILMING James Bond’s latest adventure Spectre ( starring Daniel Craig as 007, above) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens at Pinewood Studios helped the British film specialist report a 13.2pc jump in half year profit.

The group’s Buckinghamshire studio had a strong first half and pre-tax profits rose by 13.2pc to £4.3m.

However, revenue slipped slightly to £38.2m, from £38.5m in the same period last year.

The Pinewood group last year bought Shepperton Studios and recently raised £30m through issuing new shares so it could expand. Chief executive Ivan Dunleavy said the construction of phase one of the expansion at Pinewood is on schedule for completion in June and is within budget. It has also completed expansion at its Atlanta Studios.

The studio group said that as well as strong demand from films, the television market also remained ‘buoyant’ with ‘pay-on-demand’ such as Netflix and Amazon Prime boosting interest. These ‘high-end television productions’ were attracted to Britain by the UK High-End TV tax relief. Shares rose 5p to 427.5p.