Film archives: free-to-view archive footage service

The BFI Replay service will allow the public to take a trip down memory lane

Hours of archive footage dating back to the 1960s are now available to view at all of Cambridgeshire's libraries.

The British Film Institute (BFI) Replay service is a free-to-access collection of thousands of digitised videos from their national archive.

The footage, collected and curated by archivists, depicts an era of rapid social, industrial, political and technological change.

This service will allow the public to take a trip down memory lane.

BFI Replay also includes video from the UK Regions and Nations Film Archives and television programmes from the BBC and ITV.

The digitised archive includes familiar and memorable footage as well as rare and unseen videos

The archive presents historical events, such as the 1984-85 miners' strike and the AIDS epidemic, as well as classic TV from Coronation Street to The Book Tower.

Public information films, adverts and interviews with filmmakers from the past 60 years are also available to view.

A trial of the partnership began at Central Library in Cambridge at the start of March with the full roll-out to the rest of the county from 30 March.

Suffolk libraries are also showing the films.

Tom Sanderson, from Cambridgeshire County Council, said: "We all love a bit of nostalgia, so it is brilliant that our libraries will now be able to offer easy access to thousands of videos which document how Britain has changed over the decades."

The web application is accessible from any public computer found in libraries registered with the BFI, or on a personal digital device while logged on to the library Wi-Fi.

BFI Replay is available at libraries within the following areas:

• Cambridgeshire

• Manchester

• Glasgow (The Mitchell Library)

• Wakefield

• Suffolk

• Hampshire County Council

• Gwynedd

• Swansea

• Newham

• Stockton-on-Tees

• Belfast

• Coventry

• Bradford

• Warwickshire

Joining soon:

• London Borough of Tower Hamlets