BEHIND THE SCENES: FUN ON THE 'STAR WARS STAGE'!

Image: Mark Sennet via the Star Wars Archives website.

Forty-three years ago this Summer, the legendary and expansive Star Wars Stage was built exclusively for use with The Empire Strikes Back at Elstree Studios, and proved an enormous asset not only for the all-important first Star Wars sequel (for sequences set on Hoth and later Dagobah), but for all other future blockbuster films made there (including the Indiana Jones trilogy), right up until its eventual and sad demise by the nineties - the space now enjoyed by a Tesco's shopping centre!

Enjoy this great image selection of Empire's main cast (and crew) taken on set during filming of critical Rebel Base hangar scenes for the movie in 1979...

Underneath the Falcon.

Mark Hamill in a Snowspeeder.

Threepio hides out by an X-wing engine pod!

He loves her. She knows!

Fisher always enjoyed frolicking with Anthony Daniels in his Threepio costume.

The various UK and US art department talents pose for a group shot by a transport vehicle.