London Line Colour Series 2 - No. 71 - Burns Night

Billingham's community 'Forum' leads the way in a colourful Burns night special promoting Britain overseas.

It's hard to tell what audiences would have made of this rather bizarre 60s edition of London Line, a TV magazine programme made for overseas audiences. Wrapped around an absorbing report on Billingham's recently built arts, sports and community hub, 'The Forum', is the kind of tribute to Robbie Burns - the national poet of Scotland - that will curl a Scotsman's toes.

London Line was a long-running news magazine programme produced by the government's Central Office of Information for broadcast overseas. This particular edition of the programme, filmed in January 1969, was intended for US audiences. This government film is a public record, preserved and presented by the BFI National Archive on behalf of The National Archives, home to more than 1,000 years of British history.