Explore 130 years of screen stories

Watch thousands of free films, TV shows and videos, curated from archives across the UK.

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Beautiful, bittersweet tale of love, longing and Elvis.  Xiao Mei leaves China for marriage in Britain. But her true desire is to find her family.

Red

Part experimental cinema, part advert for the parcel post service, always joyful.

A Colour Box

Lindsay Anderson's ground-breaking short film about a Margate amusement park, which helped to launch a new documentary movement.

O Dreamland

A passionate poem about language and cultural identity from Scots poet Len Pennie

I’m No Havin Children

Snowdrift at Bleath Gill

The stirring story of poet Ellis Evans-Hedd Wyn, the Welsh poet posthumously awarded the Eisteddfod chair at Birkenhead in 1917 after failing to return from 1st World War trenches.

Hedd Wyn

One of a series of animated films designed to provide instructions on how to survive a nuclear attack.

Protect and Survive

The flagship of the GPO Film Unit's output and a cornerstone of British documentary, featuring music by Benjamin Britten and the verse of W.H. Auden.

Night Mail

The Week Elvis Died

Iconic images by photo-pioneer Eadweard Muybridge come to life in this striking video collage.

Muybridge Revisited

Return to the Edge of the World

Female punks have fun boozing, smoking and talking in this fascinating film by London lifestyle chronicler Captain Zip.

Squatparty

Ridley Scott's first film features his younger brother, the late Tony Scott, as a schoolboy playing truant for the day to meander around Hartlepool on his bicycle, lost in his own thoughts.

Boy and Bicycle

An early classic of Black British cinema about the intriguing social dynamics that arise as a ten shilling note is passed around the black community.

Ten Bob in Winter

Terrifying public information film presenting the horrific consequences of playing in or near rivers, ponds and other water hazards.

The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water

Home safety is child's play if you have the feline guardian angel of the 70s on hand

Matches

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Thousands more digitised videos and television programmes from the BFI National Archive and partner UK region's and nation's film archives are available to browse and enjoy, research or study – with some familiar and memorable, others rare and unseen for decades.

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