I am very pleased to announce that Cambridgeshire Community Archives Network (CCAN) and Cambridgeshire Association for Local History (CALH) are working in partnership with BBC learning to provide opportunies to experience archive film and running activies based around that. The first of our linked activities will take place at the Cambridgeshire History Fair on Saturday 17th September on Cherry Hinton Recreation Ground, where amoungst all the exciting stalls and re-enactors you will find the CALH marquee which will be showing archive film and holding memory collection and sharing. This is a FREE event, so why not come and see us!

Several of the CCAN groups are also holding film events with memory collection and refreshments, you can download the flyer above to find out more and visit an event near you.

This are lots of local events that are designed to complement the new BBC Two series Reel History of Britain, which starts on Monday, September 5th on BBC2 at 1830 each week night for four weeks.  More information can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yw2wc and the first four episodes are listed below:Date:

Programme title

Description:

Mon 5th September

1/20: Britain’s Wartime Evacuees

In Torquay, Melvyn looks back to the 1940’s and wartime evacuation.

Tue 6th September

2/20: Britain’s First Teenagers

Melvyn Bragg looks back at when Britain broke free of the burdens of WWII.

Wed 7th September

3/20: Soldier, Soldier

In Preston, Melvyn Bragg looks back to the First World War.

Thurs 8th September

4/20: Britain’s Black Diamonds

Melvyn Bragg is at the Big Pit Museum to view BFI films about coal mining in the 1930s.

 

The Reel History of Britain is a new, exciting 20 part series, in which Melvyn Bragg retells the fascinating stories of life in Britain from 1900 – 1970 through the archive collections of the British Film Institute and other National and Regional Film Archives.   Travelling across the UK, Melvyn meets the members of the public who appeared in the historic films featured in the series, and brings them face-to-face with their relatives with the help of a 1967 custom built vintage mobile cinema.  

Melvyn Bragg said: “At the turn of the last century one invention changed the way we recall our history forever – the motion camera. Thanks to Britain’s pioneering film-makers, we can still glimpse a world long gone.”

The BBC is also touring with it’s The Reel History of Britain Experience giving people the chance to learn more about their local history through film. The tour, which will visit Glasgow, Grimsby, Peterborough and Leicester, is free to attend, suitable for all ages and there is no need to book in advance.