BFI Replay offers free access to 60 years of television history

A huge online archive offering free access nationwide to 60 years of UK screen history is now available in libraries across Manchester.

BFI Replay boasts six decades of rich TV history, including curated collections of soap operas, classic kids' shows, and regional productions.

The project results from one of the UK’s largest mass digitisation programmes, drawing from at-risk videotape collections belonging to the BFI National Archive and regional partners, including the North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University.

In short, some 100,000 items that would otherwise be lost forever have been digitised across a range of tape formats spanning the 60-year history of video.

Arike Oke, BFI Executive Director of Knowledge and Collections explained: "We see BFI Replay as a living digital archive that will grow and evolve as newly digitised content continues to be added.

"The content uncovers stories from across the UK, its history and its people. It's a fascinating glimpse at the film, television and video our parents and carers, grandparents and communities enjoyed over the past 60 years."

Thousands of these newly digitised moving image stories are now exclusively available to view on BFI Replay in public lending libraries, thanks to National Lottery funding and the support of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

They include historically significant material from ITV and Channel 4. Some stories are familiar and memorable while others are forgotten gems, rare and unseen for decades.

It all reveals a nationwide picture of public life in the video era and what we thought the future might hold.

Content highlights include a focus on TV soaps, with much-loved shows like Coronation Street, Brookside, Emmerdale and Crossroads,