All collections
60 Minute Guided Tour
Pushed for time? The 60 Minute Guided Tour is the perfect place to start browsing the Mediatheque's collections.
Anarchy in the UK
From Johnny Rotten to Gizzard Puke - a 30th anniversary celebration of punk: the players, the fans and the satirists.
Beautiful South: Lambeth & Southwark on screen
As part of the Mayor’s Story of London project we explore two vibrant boroughs on BFI Southbank's own doorstep.
Beautiful Things
Queer lives in Britain. Join the Mediatheque on its odyssey to a time and place before Graham Norton...
Before Midnight - a Portrait of India on Film, 1899-1947
Home movies, documentaries, dramas and comedies exploring how life was (and sometimes wasn't) lived in British India.
The Birth of Channel Four
Back to the day it all started - Tuesday 2nd November 1982.
Black Britain
100 years of black British stories, histories and representation on film and TV.
Bombs at Teatime
Tea drinking, rationing and the Blitz... Welcome to the 1940s.
The Book Group – Cranford
To mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Elizabeth Gaskell’s final Cranford-set work, we focus on one of her most beloved novels.
The Book Group - Dracula
Big-screen myths and Victorian paranoia: dig deeper into Bram Stoker's 1897 chiller.
The Book Group - Nineteen Eighty-Four
Big Brother is watching you...
The Book Group - Rebecca
"Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again..." Daphne du Maurier's masterpiece on the small screen.
The Book Group - Sword of Honour
Coinciding with the release of a major new film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, this edition of The Book Group looks at Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy.
The Book Group - The Magic Toyshop
The essential guide to British literary favourites as seen on screen. This first edition features Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.
The Book Group - Wuthering Heights
Discover the 80s TV adaptation of Angela Carter's enchanting novel - 40 years since it was first published.
The Book Group - The Buddha of Suburbia
Hanif Kureishi's semi-autobiographical exploration of race and sexuality on the fringes of 70s London.
Brit Chic
Celebrate 60 years of cutting-edge couture with a trip down the catwalks of post-war British fashion.
British Islands
Voyage through decades of artists' film with the Mediatheque's meditation on who we are and where we live.
Building the South Bank
Explore the architectural legacy of the 1951 Festival of Britain.
Cinema of Tomorrow: BFI Production 1952-2000
Celebrating the BFI at 75, a collection charting the organisation’s remarkable legacy of innovation in British cinema.
Double the Trouble, Twice the Fun
Sex and disability: a reminder that Valentine's Day is not just for the able-bodied.
Eastward Ho!
A portrait of Cambridge and the East of England on screen.
Essentially British
What is being British all about? Stiff upper lips? Saucy seaside postcard humour? Morris dancing? Find out in this collection of over 100 films and TV programmes that take us from Glasgow to Stonehenge, hockey sticks to the hijab.
Exodus: Remembering Slavery
Marking the 200th anniversary of the Anti Slave Trade Act, this collection explores one of the most shameful episodes in Britain's past - its role in the Atlantic slave trade.
Frost/Mediatheque
Archive highlights from the TV career of David Frost, specially selected to mark the release of 'Frost/Nixon'.
Funny Girls
Pay tribute to Britain's favourite female comedians and comic actresses.
The Gentle Sex
Watch out! It's Britain's answer to the femme fatale...
Heartlands: A Portrait of Derby and the East Midlands
Explore the landscapes, meet the locals and discover the rich heritage of the East Midlands in this landmark 100-title collection.
Hope and Glory
A 150th anniversary celebration of the life and work of the great English composer, Sir Edward Elgar.
Housewives' Choice
British women on the 'home' front.
The Joy of Sex Education
Sex ed through the ages.
London Calling
From Alf Garnett to London Zoo, this is an unrivalled guide to the capital for Londoners and visitors alike. Here are the icons, the hidden corners, the familiar neighbourhoods, enabling you to explore the city past and present.
Nostalgia for the Bad Times
Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry's selection of films from the BFI National Archive, accompanying his exhibition Unpopular Culture, available in the Mediatheque.
Of Dreams and Cities
To celebrate the RIBA's 175th year and BFI Southbank's Architecture in Film season, this collection brings together a special selection of archive rarities, offering a uniquely British perspective on our built environment.
On Your Bike!
As London welcomes the Tour de France, the Mediatheque celebrates Britain's love affair with the bicycle.
Otterly Marvellous
A guide to everyone's favourite fun-loving, fish-eating fur-ball - the otter!
Out of the Archive - 'Heart of an Empire'
Technical archivist Catherine Pyle describes the challenges she faced in piecing together the multiple versions of this 1930s documentary, re-edited no less than four times in a turbulent era.
Out of the Archive - Making Sense of a Spectacle
Archivists examine the edited original film negative of Mitchell and Kenyon 484: Crewe Hospital Procession and Pageant (1907).
Out of the Archive - 'The Informer': Restoring an Early British Sound Film
Exploring the challenges faced by film and TV archivists.
Oy Britannia
In association with the UK Jewish Film Festival, this new collection uncovers insights, injustices and hidden histories across a century of Jewish representation on British screens.
Pandora's Box
The Mediatheque’s regular dip into the world of the odd, the esoteric, the delightful and the downright dangerous.
Play for Today
The Mediatheque’s growing retrospective of the landmark BBC drama slot - the true National Theatre of the 1970s.
The Promised Land
A survey of domestic architecture in Britain since the 1930s, shaped by turbulent times and interpreted by our filmmakers.
Raphael - Changing Lives in the Himalayan Foothills
The work of the charity dedicated to improving the lives of some of India's most disadvantaged people. Includes a rarely seen documentary made by David Lean.
Reality Bites
100 years of the British documentary.
Santa's Grotto
The joys - and miseries - of the festive season.
Silent Britain
Journey back to a time before 'talkies'.
The Search for Shangri La
Life in Tibet prior to the Chinese occupation.
The Summer of Love
Forty years on it's time to kick off your Birkenstocks, wear flowers in your hair and remember how Britain marked the Summer of Love.
This Working Life: King Coal
The Mediatheque goes underground as part of the BFI National Archive's major project exploring a century of coal mining on screen, looking at Britain's long and illustrious mining history from multiple perspectives.
The Truth About Love
The Mediatheque gets amorous.
