The Great British Home Movie

The BBC's Home Movie Roadshow - running from 6 August to 3 September 2010 on BBC2 - has re-ignited interest in the collections of home movies held by Britain's film archives and sent people scouring the countless boxes stored in attics across the UK.

These films are a vital part of the nation's film heritage and provide some of the most tangible and engaging records available to us of life in the 20th century. Importantly, the best home movies can tell far bigger and more valuable stories than the filmmakers originally intended. Here are the accidental histories that the professionals missed or the personal stories that might have national resonance.

The BFI National Archive - whose head curator Robin Baker appears in the BBC series - focuses its collecting of amateur films in several key areas. The home movies of figures from the film industry can provide us with a compelling insight into the life and work of stars and directors and include the collections of David Lean, Michael Powell, John Schlesinger, Anna Neagle, John Gielgud, Laurence Olivier and Peter Sellers.

We also collect home movies that demonstrate creative skill, emerging technologies and films that show events of national and international importance. These range from the Wetton family's adventures at 1951's Festival of Britain to George Sherriff's remarkable 16mm Kodachrome footage of life in Tibet in the 1940s. Others may have more everyday subjects, but are no less valuable for what they reveal about a changing Britain. Home movies can offer us invaluable new perspectives on lost worlds and are every bit as important as their professional counterparts.

The Home Movie Roadshow
BBC2, Fridays from 6 August to 3 September 2010, 9pm