Are the Ealing comedies making a comeback

A.� The studios are to have a �50 million facelift in an effort to rekindle the 'magical days' of British cinema. The studios traditionally made films featuring lovable rogues and gentle eccentrics in mild revolt against authority.

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Q.� Which Ealing films are best loved

A.� The studios sealed their place in UK cinema history with classics such as Passport to Pimlico (1948), Whisky Galore (1949), The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Ladykillers (1955), The Titfield Thunderbolt (1952) and Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949). Their casts included film and theatre legends including Sir Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Margaret Rutherford, Alastair Sim, Joyce Grenfell, Sid James and Stanley Holloway.

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Q.� Will any of these films be remade

A.� There is talk of remaking some of the old favourites once work on state-of-the-art production facitlies has been completed. Hollywood has expressed keen interest in some of the films and has taken up rights on a number of comedies, including Kind Hearts and Coronets. The 1951 classic The Lavender Hill Mob, which starred Sir Alec Guinness, could also get a Hollywood makeover. The 1951 film was produced by Michael Balcon who asked the Bank of England for help in a plot to steal �1 million in gold.

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Q.� What is the history of the studios

A.� Basil Dean's Associated Talking Pictures built the studios in west London 70 years ago - the first in Europe to be designed for sound - for �140,000. Success came early with the film Looking on the Bright Side which starred Gracie Fields. The studios went on to make some George Formby films and the classics Scott of the Antarctic and The Cruel Sea. The last film to go under the Ealing label was Aldo Ray's The Siege of Pinchgut in 1959. Work has now started on the first picture under the 'Ealing Studios present' banner; a revival of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Dame Judi Dench and Colin Firth.

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Q.� Who owns Ealing Studios now

A.� A production company called Fragile Films joined the Manhattan Loft Company and San Francisco's Idea Factory, to develop the site after actor Sir John Mills started a campaign called Forever Ealing.

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By Katharine MacColl