Latest in Michael Grade

Mohammed Fayed, the controversial ex-owner of Harrods department store in London, has emerged as a surprise contender to buy Britain’s premier movie studio Pinewood Shepperton, best known as the production base for the James Bond franchise. Fayed  says that he is considering making an all-cash offer for the studio…

Talk about life imitating art. Julian Fellowes, Oscar-winning screenwriter and creator of ITV snob drama Downton Abbey, which PBS will show in January, has been made a Tory peer. Fellowes, who’s complained that the problem with success is that it’s very time-consuming, will now have even less time to pen the 2nd…

Stage Entertainment, the London-based theatre chain, was also bidding but has now dropped out, I'm told. Grade has teamed up with theatrical agent Michael Linnit and private investors to acquire the New London, Her Majesty's, Cambridge and Palace theatres. Of the four, the New London needs the most renovation…

First half operating profits after exceptional items have also fallen 3% to £3.2 million. Total revenue fell 6.4% in the first 6 months to £19 million. Film production revenue fell by 8.5% to £10.8 million, while TV shooting income fell 7.3% to £5.1 million. Martin Scorsese's Hugo Cabret was the biggest production to…

James Lee, former chairman of Scottish film agency Scottish Screen, has written to UK culture secretary Jeremy Hunt proposing all £15 million of lottery funding be injected into a single distribution label. BBC Films and Film4 would be obliged to release all their films through this "British National Distribution…

The publicly-quoted studio facility faces a renewed attack by shareholder Crystal Amber on Wednesday, when it announces its half-year results. Pinewood is expected to announce operating profits have fallen from last year's £3.3 million ($5 million). Crystal Amber thinks that all the value of the company is locked up…

The former ITV chairman has survived a shareholder rebellion at this morning's annual general meeting of the company that owns Pinewood and Shepperton film studios. Crystal Amber, an activist investment fund with 18% of the shares in Pinewood Shepperton has attacked Grade's "poor stewardship" as chairman of the…