Here and There

1903 saw the launch of "First Garden City Ltd." and the purchase of development land near Hitchin. 50 years on, in Coronation year, Letchworth was worthy of another celebration.

An insider's guide to 1950s Harlow made for US audiences, with architect Frederick Gibberd interviewed from the top of the Lawn tower block.

"The most exciting thing going on in Europe, if not the world": welcome to Milton Keynes circa 1973.

Stevenage is town planning utopia, for it boasts at least 50 - yes 50! - underpasses. Like a pro, the reporter’s enthusiasm enlivens the dry subject matter. Journeying is but a joy!

Picturesque tour of Welwyn, England's second Garden City. A rural-urban idyll of spacious residential areas and green community spaces. A marvel of town planning design!

Charley says (no, not that one) that Britain’s new towns are great

Women cricketers are just as tough as the men, and no, despite rumours, they don’t wear coconut shells to protect themselves during matchplay!

Splendid colour film of historic Hemel Hempstead ten years after its launch as one of Britain's burgeoning New Towns.

Follow working narrow boats as they make their 60-hour trip from London to Birmingham along Britain's longest industrial waterway.

A sales-pitch portrait of the Hertfordshire town of Hemel Hempstead, still settling into its New Town status as "the modern town in the countryside".

Hertfordshire blazes a trail in providing for travellers.

Meanderers on sunny days! Capturing scenery 'round and about' Herts and Beds during the summer of 1959; the first of two amateur films with pleasing hand-created title cards.

The director of a documentary about British funk pioneers Cymande joins the band at BFI Southbank to talk about the film.

Plotting world domination, Devil Doctor Fu-Manchu steals plans for a new aero-torpedo in this earliest surviving thrill-a-minute serial instalment.

Filmmakers Jane Giles and Ali Catterall discuss their documentary Scala!!!, revisiting the legendary and inspirational cinema venue and some of the most notorious films that screened there.

Long thought lost, this Powell-directed promotional short for a veteran’s charity was only rediscovered in 2003.

A poignant, stirring letter from a recently deceased pilot to his mother is read by John Gielgud.

Former Bristol Poet Laureate, Miles Chambers reads a poem specially commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the NHS.