1) Metro-land(1973): In this iconic one-off documentary Sir John Betjeman came to observe the Croxley Revels, "a tradition that stretches back to 1952". Actually if you watch carefully he's never in shot, he merely provided a voiceover afterwards, but my home village has never been more memorably represented on screen.
2) Doctor Who(1976): The Timelord was forever dropping into Springwell Quarry down the canal in Rickmansworth pretending it was an alien planet, but there is apparently one occurrence of Croxley in the long-running series. It comes when an ambulance rounds a roundabout in The Hand of Fear, Sarah Jane Smith's final story, just after she's been buried by a rockblast in a Gloucestershire quarry (episode 1, 7m 20s). It's only a very short scene, barely two and a half neenaws, but the roundabout in question is at Cassio Bridge as the blurry roadsigns confirm. Technically the ambulance stays within the borough of Watford at all times but the background is the A412 exit into Croxley proper, and I would have been so thrilled had I realised my walk to school had appeared in my favourite TV show.
3) The Professionals(1978): In the sixth episode of this blockbuster ITV action drama, Where the Jungle Ends, Bodie and Doyle are hunting mercenaries who've robbed a bank and escaped by parachuting out of a private plane. The bank heist was apparently filmed in Slough, while the denouement at a plutonium processing plant involves a very lowly looking building in Harefield. Croxley appears briefly in the aftermath of the parachute jump, specifically Croxley Hall Woods, though you'd never know because the clearing they landed in isn't in any way identifiable. The guest stars in this episode were a middle-aged-looking Geoffrey Palmer and a young-looking David Suchet, neither of whom graced Croxley with their presence.
4) Training Dogs The Woodhouse Way(1980): Croxley's global TV smash came when the BBC turned up to film Barbara Woodhouse's unique approach to canine behaviour. Her unintentional catchphrases of "walkies" and "sit" caught the imagination of the nation, not just here but across the USA, and even made it into a James Bond film. And it was all filmed at her stables at the top of The Green, all ten endlessly repeated episodes, as unfortunate local residents felt the lash of Barbara's tongue when their attempts to issue commands fell below expectations. When it was repeated on BBC4 recently the announcer had to warn that her dog training methods are "not intended as current", attitudes to the use of choke chains having moved on somewhat. I was looking more at the participants to see if I recognised any of them, and also marvelling at the haircuts which are also very much no longer recommended.
5) Mastermind(1980): This was the year that cabbie Fred Housego lifted the Mastermind trophy, a final watched by 18 million viewers and which elevated him to star status. On the day of transmission my brother was out delivering Christmas cards down Durrants Drive when he spotted Fred sitting in his cab holding the crystal bowl and beaming for the benefit of the press, so we knew he'd won hours before the rest of the country. Obviously Croxley doesn't appear in the final, but Nationwide sent a reporter to interview Fred before his win and this shows him driving his cab down Baldwins Lane and sitting in his frighteningly brown living room surrounded by books.
6) Grange Hill(1994): The filming of this long-running school classic took place in many locations, and in Series 17 I was thrilled to see several outdoor scenes taking place in Croxley Green. First there were Arnie and Sam getting into mild trouble investigating animal sellers at the bottom of Mill Lane down by the canal, very close to where I took my first ever steps. And then, blimey, the romantic involvement between Mr Robson and the new American teacher took place on the pavement within sight of the house where I grew up, and I still have that endlessly rewound scene on VHS somewhere.
7) Saxondale(2006): Steve Coogan's BBC2 comedy about a divorced pest controller was notionally set in Stevenage but one scene needed the characters to attend a 'muscle car meet' and this was filmed outside the Coach and Horses on The Green. On this occasion the lead character's car, a 1973 Mach 1 Mustang, was joined by a 1967 Dodge Charger, a 1969 Plymouth Sport Satellite and a 1973 Road Runner, and Coogan was apparently in his element.
8) Doctor Foster(2015): This was the TV potboiler of the year in which Gemma Foster (played by Suranne Jones) suspected her husband Simon was having an affair and emotionally unravelled. In the show they lived in Parminster, a town which filming revealed to be Hitchin (although the doctor's surgery was in Chesham). As for the Fosters' lovely home, site of the dinner party which became a national watercooler moment, that was in Croxley at 1 Green Lane just round the corner from The Artichoke (where additional scenes were also filmed).
9) Mum (2016): Stefan Golaszewski's slowburn sitcom about a widow and her oblivious family was supposedly set in Chingford, but the exterior shots that bookend every episode were filmed somewhere in Croxley. I've never quite been able to confirm where but they look very Lancing Way, maybe Winchester or Malvern but definitely not Sherborne. I get a quiver of semi-detached nostalgia every time the titles roll.
10) Pennyworth(2019): Some American cable channel you can't get over here made a DC action series called Pennyworth about the origin of Batman's butler, most of which was filmed at Leavesden Studios. Paloma Faith was a recurring sadist in series 1, and in one episode she turns up at a house on Lancing Way alongside actress Polly Walker. I suspect more Britons saw this reported in the local paper than watched it on the telly, and I'm not sure TV drama crews have been back to Croxley since.
