Auxiliary Fire Service Practice, Ilford (1942)

Woking gears up for war in this remarkable film about the Home Guard and its contribution to the town.

Surrounded by water and manned to defend the coastline, sea forts were remote outposts of Britain’s home front.

‘ACK ACK’ is a profile of the soldiers who manned anti-aircraft positions on the home front during the Second World War.

Ordinary men from all trades and professions lead double lives to hone their soldiering skills in Britain during the Second World War.

Leatherhead applauds and thanks its Civil Defence Service volunteers for their sterling efforts, in this fascinating film made during the last months of the Second World War.

Dad's Army, Clandon-style, are at it again in this fascinating film about life in Surrey's Home Guard.

Ilford's past, present and a 'Kodachromed' future are all here in this epic amateur portrait of the town, made in the mid-50s.

Extraordinary shorts and exhausted runners feature in this short newsreel showing highlights of a 40-mile relay race round Ilford.

Ilford's Fairlop Plain provides the battlefield for ploughing matches between local hands and Essex outsiders.

You'd never know there was a war on in sleepy Cobham until you see the soldiers - otherwise life goes on at a slow pace in this beautifully bucolic corner of Kent.

Ilford parades, Post Office Tower views as well as weddings, birthdays and Christmas all feature on this fantastic home movie from Redbridge in 1966.

Beatles puppets, West End windows and an Ilford family Christmas all feature in this eclectic home move from Redbridge in 1965.

The director of a documentary about British funk pioneers Cymande joins the band at BFI Southbank to talk about the film.

Plotting world domination, Devil Doctor Fu-Manchu steals plans for a new aero-torpedo in this earliest surviving thrill-a-minute serial instalment.

Filmmakers Jane Giles and Ali Catterall discuss their documentary Scala!!!, revisiting the legendary and inspirational cinema venue and some of the most notorious films that screened there.

Long thought lost, this Powell-directed promotional short for a veteran’s charity was only rediscovered in 2003.

A poignant, stirring letter from a recently deceased pilot to his mother is read by John Gielgud.

Former Bristol Poet Laureate, Miles Chambers reads a poem specially commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the NHS.