Marlow Film Studios special edition of The Business Show on Marlow FM 10th March 2022

The Enterprise Doctor Business Show

13-03-2022 • 40 mins

The Business Show on Marlow FM on 10th March 2022 was a departure from the usual format – rather than discussing business news stories, there was just one story to discuss – the proposed construction and operation of Marlow Film Studios.  You can read all about that, and sign up for ongoing news, at https://www.marlow.film/.

My two guests were eminently qualified to talk on the subject.  The first was the founder and CEO of the studio, Robert Laycock, and he was joined by Ellie Evans, Senior Partner at Volterra, economic consultants to the studio.  You can see more about Volterra and their work at https://volterra.co.uk/ and you can connect with Robert and Ellie at https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-laycock-72818a1bb/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellie-evans-4aa03820/respectively.

All four pieces of music on today’s show are from films – surprising?  Not!

I found https://www.vulture.com/article/best-movie-songs-ranked.html and started the show with the number two iconic soundtrack song - Aerosmith, with “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” from the film Armageddon – you can hear it now at https://youtu.be/JkK8g6FMEXE .

I spoke first to Robert, and asked how one becomes the CEO of a film studio, what he likes about it most, and what he likes about it least!

Ellie then talked about the economic consultancy that is Volterra, which demonstrates the economic, social, health and regeneration impact of major developments, including Crossrail, HS1, HS2 and now Marlow Film Studios.  We do also cover off why a new film studio should be in the UK, and specifically in the West London film cluster.

“Nobody Does it Better” by Carly Simon was Robert’s choice of music, as this month marks 60 years since the first production on Dr No.  And of course, in terms of Bond and of British film making, nobody does it better.  You can hear the track at https://youtu.be/SaV-6qerkqI.

Robert then talks about the philosophy of the studio – what will make it so good that productions will want to be based there?

Ellie’s music choice, because it’s her favourite song, was Dolly Parton with “9 to 5” which you can hear at https://youtu.be/UbxUSsFXYo4.

Ellie and I then start the conversation, which later involves Robert too, about the impact on businesses in the area.  Positive?  Negative?  Depends on the type of business??  And what about the long term impact?  Have a listen to this interesting interaction!

I finished the show with the number one iconic film song – Celine Dion with “My Heart Will Go On” which you can hear at https://youtu.be/3gK_2XdjOdY joining a mere 168m views there.

You can connect with me at https://www.linkedin.com/in/enterprisedoctor/ and join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/enterprisedoctorbusinessshow/.  My website is at https://enterprisedoctor.co.uk/.

Clips of all episodes are at https://www.youtube.com/user/EnterpriseDoctor/ - please subscribe there, and within your podcast app!

Copyright Marlow FM Ltd 2022.  Reproduced here by kind permission of Marlow FM Ltd.