Pinewood Studios continued to be based at the studios since then. J. Arthur Rank (by now Lord Rank) retired as chairman in 1962 and was succeeded by John Davis, who had begun to move the Rank Organisation away from mass film production and towards more profitable and less risky businesses like bingo and holidays. The 1970s were an uncertain period for Pinewood and the film industry in general, with the studios being used more for television programmes, including ITC Entertainment's "UFO" (1970), "The Persuaders!" (1971), starring Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, and "" (1975–77). Throughout the lean years of the 1970s the
Lime Grove Studios success in the United States (where it was distributed by Universal Pictures). The studios prospered under Gaumont-British, and in 1941 were bought by the Rank Organisation. By then Rank had a substantial interest in Gainsborough Pictures, and "The Wicked Lady" (1945), among other Gainsborough melodramas, was shot at Lime Grove. In 1949 the BBC bought Lime Grove Studios as a "temporary measure"—because they were to build Television Centre at nearby White City—and began converting them from film to television use, reopening them on 21 May 1950. Lime Grove would be used for many BBC Television programmes over the next forty-two