This Is Britain

Dates

1946 - 1951

Category

Cinemagazine - Government

History

This Is Britain was a black and white cinemagazine initially produced by the Ministry of Information for the Board of Trade, and then from 1 April 1946 by its successor the Central Office of Information (COI). Fifty-one issues were produced over six years. Merlin Films produced the first thirty-six and the remainder by the Crown Film Unit until the series was cut in 1951. Each issue lasted around twelve minutes and consisted of around three stories ranging from kitchen bath units to sorting London’s mail. Primarily designed to promote Britain’s exports overseas each issue generally focused on developments broadly within industry and manufacture, with the odd story dedicated to leisure-orientated topics. The last nine issues adopted a completely different format initially focusing on one theme with separate associated stories, such as HEALTH, issue no. 43 (1950) and then developing the more fluid approach of SENSE OF TASTE, issue no. 48 (1950).

Provenance

The data for this series has been compiled from existing production files (INF 6) and COI monthly divisional reports (INF 8) held at The National Archives, COI index cards and COI catalogues held at BFI Archive Footage Sales and the BFI National Archive.

Films in this series can be obtained from:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries: nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk For commercial/footage reuse enquiries: footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

View all series held by British Film Institute (BFI)