Secreted away behind the buildings that face onto Ealing Green in the famously leafy west London suburb is a hidden gem. Ealing Studios became a household name during their heyday of the 1940s and 1950s thanks to the legendary comedies which made Alec Guiness a star. Now, half a century after the likes of The Lavender Hill Mob, Kind Hearts and Coronets and Passport to Pimlico, the studios are back in business. Their first movie in 43 years, The Importance of Being Earnest starring Dame Judi Dench, was released at the end of 2002 and a far-reaching deal with Miramax means that Ealing will now produce major British feature films for the global market. It recently signed a co-production alliance with John Williams of Vanguard Films - makers of 'Shrek' - to produce a series of CGI animated films. The first in this series is the $40m 'Valiant', the story of a World War II carrier pigeon. "It's a kind of Top Gun with pigeons," says the Studio's Managing Director, Sean Hinton who has been a key player in the relaunch of the studios. "Ealing Studios has always stood for films that uplift and ennoble the human spirit," he says, "It's an ethos we still hold close and is shared by all who work with us." Hinton joined the group in 2000 as the first member of the new management team and oversees and supports the development of all Ealing Studios businesses including Media and Facilties.

But Hinton's career started a long way from the glamorous world of film-making. Having trained in Baroque Flute and Conducting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, he pursued a masters degree in Ethnomusicology at Cambridge University. His research took him to the wilderness of the Altai mountains in Mongolia where he studied the people's unique singing tradition. Hinton became the first member of the Bahá'í faith ever to live in Mongolia, beginning a community which now numbers several thousand. While there, he founded a successful adventure trekking tour operator - Nomads Expeditions - which he sold in 1994 and SJH Consultancy, a business consultancy firm providing professional services to international corporate and media clients in Asia. In recognition of his six years of services to the country, he was appointed Honorary Consul-General of Mongolia - the sole representative in Australia for the Mongolian government. A five year term followed as senior Media and Entertainment Practice specialist with McKinsey & Company, a global consulting firm - leading to his ideal job, running the Ealing Studios. "This is a dream come true," says Hinton, "Here we have a chance to work in the oldest film studio in the world and reinvent it for the 21st century, while maintaining its core values."

RW