NHS on Film

Beautiful NHS fundraiser, setting Michael Rosen’s poem to powerful archive images.

Looking after the mental health of workers post-World War II – filmed in astonishing full colour.

A sense of 1980s stylistic sheen filters through this sci-fi-tinged anti-smoking advert.

Kathleen Byron - of Black Narcissus fame - stars in one of the most ambitious recruitment films ever made.

The Community Health Council of Wales blows its own trumpet in myriad ways, including animation, to draw attention to their NHS advisory service.

A powerful public information filler promoting CALM – a charity dedicated to preventing male suicide.

Imelda Staunton and Hugh Laurie as you've not quite seen them before: in a comedy training video for Britain’s National Blood Service.

Reporter Michèle Brown visits London's Western Hospital, where a computer is on the medical staff to help doctors with routine doctor\patient consultations.

Trips to the dentist are reimagined as Hellraiser-style horrors in this film aimed at helping dentists allay their patients’ fears.

An innovative drama-doc, one of the first to deal seriously with clinical depression

Long before the ‘Charley Says’ campaign of the 1970s and ‘80s, another cartoon Charley was used to demystify the newly created NHS.

Eye-opening drama-doc, originally used in psychiatric nursing training.

A portrayal of the NHS which shows off the “marvellous” system to audiences around the world.

Rock'n'roll doctor Sam Hutt opens up on a twin career as popstar and healer in an intriguing, never-broadcast TV interview.

Eleanor Roosevelt and Michael Redgrave narrate this optimistic post-war film on the rehabilitation of disabled people with polio.

An interesting documentary on psychiatric provision, set at a Plymouth day hospital and originally produced for nursing recruitment.

The dark clouds of war part to reveal a silver lining for Scottish health.

Do wheelchairs liberate or constrain? The early years of Stoke Mandeville hospital and the Paralympics.

Nurses needed: this early 21st century recruitment video makes fascinating viewing today.

Chilling anti-smoking public information film focusing on the danger that passive smoking poses to children.

Patients at Epsom’s Manor Hospital learn new skills: an important record of changing attitudes about learning difficulty

The working day is all go for a rural GP – from morning surgery to numerous home visits to patients.

A fanfare to the new National Health Service

Local authorities trial the Thatcher government’s new ‘care in the community’ initiative.

What the Devil made you start smoking?

Documentary warning children about the drawbacks of cigarettes – not least their addictiveness.

The anti-smoking campaign starts here, with the first ever anti-tobacco film – and very impressive it is too.

Glenda Jackson makes a song and a dance about giving blood – in a wise-cracking double act with Ernie Wise.

An urgently filmed appeal for organ donation.

Brief TV filler aiming to boost blood donations, particularly among working men.

How an outbreak of streptococcal infection spreads – droplet by droplet – and how it can be prevented.

Dark shadows in miners' lungs and lives, as the threat of pneumoconiosis is made worse by changes to the benefits that compensate for its effects.

Looking at the problem of miners who’ve developed pneumoconiosis, or dust disease

Doctors undertake forensic-style detective work to identify the origins of outbreaks, in the fascinating film from the early days of the NHS.

A lo-fi health advice video from the depths of the '80s offering a window into a land before lycra.

A longer version of the famously icky anti-smoking promo in which cigarettes ooze fat.

"Won’t somebody please think of the patients?" A free-ranging interview on health services with the founder of the Patients Association.

The titular G.P. makes the case for an unrestrained American-style health service, as opposed to Britain’s supposedly bureaucratic system, in this interview with Barbara Kelly.

Bernard Braden interviews the head of a pharmaceutical company about a product which it's claimed can restore "youthful vigour".

A well-to-do woman is unable to answer her child’s cries due to a coughing fit, in this exaggerated anti-smoking advert.

A businessman smoker is forced to rethink his habit.

Anti-smoking advert in which a young man’s attempts at suavity are interrupted by a hacking cough.

Government-sponsored documentary exploring the challenges and triumphs of organ donation.

The latest developments in healthcare on show at Walton-on-Thames community health centre

St Mary's Road in Peckham, London, is the location for a bold social experiment.

A brief plea for the public not to waste doctors’ time requesting medicines easily obtainable from chemists.

Behind the scenes at the new Witney Health Centre where GPs, midwives, district nurses and social workers work efficiently under one roof.

The filmic memoirs in Cambridgeshire of heart surgeon Christopher Parish and his family, beginning with Christmas traditions, and including a royal visit. The year is 1962.

There will be blood: a public information film that engages the mind and tugs the heart.

Portentous imagery and John Hurt’s grave voiceover define this key film from a £5 million campaign to combat the AIDS epidemic.

Simple and devastatingly effective, a key advert from the UK's first major AIDS awareness campaign.

Career opportunities in the 1960s National Health Services

An unusual, experimental documentary filmed over Christmas at South Ockenden Psychiatric Hospital, Essex.

An indefatigable district nurse crisscrosses her rural patch to tend to the sick at home and on the farm.

“Proper food and rest and plenty of fresh air” – and several months in a secluded sanatorium are the secret to curing TB.

“It takes courage for patients to complain” – and this training video considers three scenarios.

Martin Gorham presents a video update to his staff, outlining some of his department's past achievements and upcoming challenges.

Gripping glimpses of modern nursing - on the frontline at Guy’s Hospital.

The social and political revolutions of 1968 seem a long way from the musings of a moderate Tory on the NHS and government .

British healthcare leads the world: promoting British values overseas through the NHS.

Third and final part of a series made to explain to new members and present staff the administration of the Northamptonshire Health District.

The newly established health authority explains to its members the effects of a recent restructure.

Second part of a series made to explain to new members and present staff the finances of the Northamptonshire Health District. 

The President of the Pharmaceutical Society discusses the controversy around re-introduced NHS prescription charges.

A child's life is save through a blood transfusion and this incident demonstrate s the need for blood donors.

“No fuss, no bother” – everything runs smoothly in an Oxford hospital thanks to the work of volunteer reserve nurses.

Never a dull moment for a rural district nurse in the early days of the NHS.

Straight-talking anti-smoking promo, which introduces us to Janice, a 51-year-old woman who uses a ventilator to breathe.

This 1993 profile of local dentist, Brian Harvey, shows how he splits his time between a local practice and an advisory role - while leaving ample time to socialise at the local rotary club.

A GP in rural Somerset and one in Kentish Town, London, reflect on “what is a General Practitioner in the 1980s?”

Britain’s first Polio epidemic in 1947 demanded a coordinated response, and this film was a key part of readying postwar doctors for a new fight

One of the most gruesomely memorable of all British anti-smoking promos depicts fat oozing out of nonchalant smokers' cigarettes.

A new start for Britain: this film tells us what to expect from a great new public service.

An in-house training film designed to explain the NHS' 1973 reorganisation to its staff.

Who will be the 'one'? This medical drama-doc, exploring mental health and illness, is stylish, nail-biting stuff.