All collections

Amy Johnson: Queen of the Skies
Marking 80 years since her record-breaking solo flight to Australia, we salute Britain's legendary aviatrix.

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.

Black Britain
100 years of black British stories, histories and representation on film and TV.

Bogarde on the Box
Sample the small-screen work of one of Britain's greatest film stars, Dirk Bogarde.

Bombs at Teatime
Tea drinking, rationing and the Blitz... Welcome to the 1940s.

The Book Group: The Buddha of Suburbia
Hanif Kureishi's semi-autobiographical exploration of race and sexuality on the fringes of 70s London.

The Book Group: A Christmas Carol
Looks back on some of the many films and TV programmes inspired by Charles Dickens' timeless tale.

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: The Magic Toyshop
Discover the 80s TV adaptation of Angela Carter's enchanting novel - 40 years since it was first published.

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: Wuthering Heights
The essential guide to British literary favourites as seen on screen. This first edition features Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.

Boom Britain: We Can Work It Out
Innovative and rarely screened industrial films, complementing Boom Britain.

The Box of Delights
Take a look at our special collection for younger audiences (and nostalgic grown-ups).

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.

Cape to Cairo: Moving Images of Colonial Africa
This Mediatheque collection examines the relationship between Britain and its African colonies and the complex, often troubling, representation of this in film and television.

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.

Featured Attractions
100 of the best and the rarest feature films from the many thousands preserved in the BFI National Archive.

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...

A Ghost Story for Christmas
A terrifying Yuletide treat from the archive.

The Great British Home Movie
Unique perspectives on Britain's social history, opening windows on distant cultures. The Great British Home Movie celebrates the non-professional filmmakers whose work - or play - is fascinating and valuable precisely because they were amateurs.

Hard Times: Dickens on Screen Part 1
We celebrate the bicentenary of a true giant of English literature.

Hard Times: Dickens on Screen Part 2
The second instalment celebrating Charles Dickens' bicentenary, featuring television adaptations of his work.

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.

In Praise of Rattigan
A retrospective of television adaptations of Terence Rattigan's work, many of which have not been shown since their first broadcast.

Into the White: 100 Years of Polar Exploration on Screen
From documentaries and newsreels to dramatisations of the 'heroic age' of popular imagination.

The Joy of Sex Education
Sex ed through the ages.

Ken Loach: A Retrospective
We mark celebrated filmmaker Ken Loach’s 75th birthday with an expansive retrospective of his hard-hitting work in film and television since the 1960s.

Ken Russell on TV
Our celebration of Ken Russell brings together a rich selection of television titles spanning five decades.

The Kids Are Alright
A celebration of long lost teatimes, Sunday afternoons and Saturday mornings - the best of British children's television from the 1950s to the 1990s.

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.

March Hares & Easter Bunnies
We pay homage to Lewis Carroll's fantastical creations the March Hare and the White Rabbit and their more benign bunny brethren.

The Miniature Film Festival
After the BFI London Film Festival, we'll be laying on a small but perfectly formed festival of our own.

Missing Believed Wiped: The Library of Congress Discoveries
This incredible find encompasses a remarkable range of literary adaptations and original plays, unseen since their first broadcast.

North by North East
Revisiting over a century of history and culture, industry and politics, the collection takes an extraordinary journey from the Victorian era to the 21st Century.

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.

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.

Reality Bites
100 years of the British documentary.

Santa's Grotto
The joys - and miseries - of the festive season.

Save Our Souls: Disaster at Sea
This collection explores film and TV responses to the event and to the fate of British liners.

The Search for Shangri La
Life in Tibet prior to the Chinese occupation.

The Shaping of Alfred Hitchcock
The five surviving films from the very beginning of Alfred Hitchcock's career.

Silent Britain
Journey back to a time before 'talkies'.

Soap Bubbles
Immerse yourself in Soap Bubbles and enter the lives of some of British television's most memorable and iconic characters.

Sport at Heart
A new Mediatheque collection documenting a century of sport and exercise around the UK.

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.

This Working Life: Tales from the Shipyard
A major celebration of our shipbuilding heritage on screen.

Through the Dragon's Eye: Wales on Screen
A multi-faceted look at a beautiful and proudly historic nation.

Toyland Tales and Happy Endings: The Legacy of Enid Blyton
Loved by millions of children worldwide yet still a controversial figure, the Mediatheque delves into the life and work of the bestselling author.

The Truth About Love
The Mediatheque gets amorous.

Welcome to the Dream Palace: British Cinema of the 1930s
Head back to a decade of escapism with our crash course in 30s British features. This Dream Palace houses everything from musicals to comedies, science fiction to horror - and even a Western.