BBC is making thousands of classic clips from its archive available through a new website.
More than 1,700 newly published videos are being made released that the BBC says paint a rich social history of Britain in the television era.
The new Archive site will help people navigate an ever-increasing portion of the more than 10 million hours of content that currently sit in the BBC’s archive. It will be curated by the same team that runs the BBC Archive social media accounts.
The social media outlets have been responsible for building close to three million views for a woman from the East End of London talking about her memories of television programmes.
There’s also the 1974 report on Deke Duncan’s garden shed radio station, which thanks to its revival by BBC Archive, led to him getting his big break on the BBC 44 years later.
And Blue Peter presenter John Noakes on a terrifying ascent of Nelson’s column in 1977.
Peter Rippon, BBC Archive executive editor, says: “The site is the beginning of a journey into the BBC’s most cherished asset. Social history, and what it reveals about who we are, is proving especially popular, so we’ve created collections of hundreds of items that give a glimpse of what the archive contains. We are planning to open up the archive much more as the BBC prepares to mark its Centenary in 2022.”
The site’s launch coincides with the 50th anniversary of news magazine Nationwide (pictured) that mixed current affairs with some of the more quirkier stories from across the UK.
