A little of the history, but we hope not enough to bore. The company was first established by Peter Kay in 1986 and became pre-eminent in the production of stylish, top quality soft-core big boob and two girl videos. Many of these films, particularly those featuring stars such as Stacy Owen, Pat Wynn, Debbie Ashby, Solonge Hop, became collector’s pieces.

These videos were the first UK productions to have actual scripts, real actors, and music specially composed and recorded. Though flights of fantasy and certainly lightweight they have become classics of the genre and are still sought after. Around this time Strand produced a large number of videos for the UK based Private sex shop organization, these were mass produced, shot on low budgets and made loads of money for someone! Not Peter Kay.

Moving on, Strand started producing in Spain, well the weather is better and Kay had moved there, eager to escape the persecution which had followed him for a number of years. As one of the first UK producers of hardcore porn pictures for Burt Milton’s Private and the Danish company Colour Climax and along the way, introducing a youthful Lindsey Honey (Ben Dover, as is) to the business, he was harassed and imprisoned. Having his front door broken down at break of dawn and his wife and child thrown from their beds by ignorant plods ceased to be an attraction and he decided he could live without it. Hello Spain!

In the free atmosphere and the beautiful surroundings of Spain Strand started to produce programs for the German based company, Moser Media Group. These notably were the Hard Cut and Eroticon series. Kay worked closely with the German porn producer Hans Moser, generally acknowledged to be, along with Burt Milton at Private, the hardest taskmaster and the most exacting, quality conscious producer in the business. At this time Kay discovered the talented black actress Charmain Sinclair, she made her debut staring as Private Detective Samantha Spade in some of Kay’s most stylish UK strength productions. Her hardcore career started in Spain with the notorious Dick Nasty and beautiful Sharon Kane but luckily she progressed to better things appearing in three editions of Hard Cut. She is now one of the most respected talents on the UK adult TV circuit

The first Hard Cut was produced on low band U-Matic equipment but non-the-less impressed the irascible Moser sufficiently for him to commission a series. The filming of these programs took place mostly in Spain but they did occasionally work in Holland and the UK. During the productions most of the top UK and European stars were eager to perform and Kay soon discovered his own ‘Porno Queen’ in the guise of Misty McCain. She became one of the most elegant, accomplished and enthusiastic performers in the business, working with among many others; Rocco Sifriedy, Christoph Clarke, and alongside Sarah Young, Moser’s dream girl, soon to be wife. It was at this time that Kay adopted the name Remington Steel as his production name and has used it to this day.

Following this period Strand turned their attentions to the American and wider European market and at the same time found a new young super star in the improbably named Katy Tease. The most unlikely of people to enter the porn business she nevertheless approached her duties with commendable gusto working with, amongst others, Frank Gun, Sylvia Saint, Super Dick, Lee Nover, and some of the most beautiful Eastern European stars to enter the business, most of these during a memorable filming stint in Prague.

Kay decided at this time that it might be good to work once again with the Private Organization. Now run by Burt Milton Jnr. the son of the founder, they were producing some of the highest quality programs in Europe. Kay presented to Milton two differing but non-the less for Private, revolutionary series. The Peep Show Special & Housewives Choice programs were Private’s first venture into the ‘gonzo’ market place. Kay made over 20 programs for Private.

Kay had seen that the market was no longer geared towards the stylish erotic images he favoured, distributors were not prepared to pay the money and the advance of the home video camera had brought about a revolution. Now everyone’s wife could be a porno star. It seemed that every street in the country was packed with heaving bodies, breathless moans and groans and the wiring of video cameras. Still needing to earn a crust, Kay jumped on the bandwagon, abandoned the name Strand and started producing, under various names, his ‘pro-am’ housewife and amateur series, in three years making over 60 titles.

The story has come full circle. Still making the pro-am series, “I have to live and eat”, he has now reawaken the ghost of Strand Productions. Strand ‘Princesses of Porn’ and ‘The UK Wives’ series are his latest offerings to a public in need of serious erotic stimulation. With a number of other series in the planning stages he seems to be getting busier than ever but has determined that he will once again produce the high quality, erotica that we have come to expect from him. No longer working with a large crew, modern technology helps to keep things light and portable, shoots only lasting in most cases a matter of hours; you would think that it was time to relax. Not so! A relatively new venture onto the Internet has so far spawned EIGHT top class web sites all thanks says Kay “ to the best web designer around. He gets right to the nitty gritty and has shown that sites do not have to be complicated, baffling or darn right unfriendly to work. He has thought about our customers and given them good quality entertaining sites with top value members’ areas. Without him the internet to me would still be a thing Ena Sharples wore on her hair.” now producing well rated programs for top broadcasters such as Playboy TV he is back doing what he likes best, working with the top people, turning out the very best porn around.

Said Kay, “ If, when I have shot and edited the program I want to look at it at home, and feel good about showing to people whose opinion I respect, then I feel easy in my mind about releasing it to the public. I just want people to give eroticism another chance”.

Taken from ‘The Reluctant Pornographer’ by Nicolas Greengrass