Northern Region Film and Television Archive

We hold major collections of film and television from a number of sources, as well as a number of smaller collections and deposits from individuals. Among the key holdings in our collection are:

The BBC News Collection. This is a complete run of over three decades of filmed news reports (1957-91 approx.) from Look North, the BBC’s flagship regional current affairs programme.

The Tyne Tees Collection. This consists of a major proportion of Tyne Tees’ drama and documentary output from the 1970s and 80s, including the complete master elements from its flagship popular music series The Tube.

The Border TV Collection. This collection consists of drama and non-fiction productions made by Border Television from the 1960s to the 1980s.

The Turners’ Collection. Turners’ Film Unit was a production company based in Newcastle, which operated between 1946 and 1995. It produced a variety of promotional films, advertisements, educational and training films and industrial documentaries.

The Trade Films Collection. Trade Films was a company based in Gateshead which specialised in political documentaries and TV productions, and in particular films about mining in the north-east and the trade union movement.

The TWAS Collection. We look after a collection of films from a variety of sources on behalf of Tyne and Wear Archives Service (TWAS) relating to life and work in Newcastle and Tyne and Wear, and in particular the shipbuilding industry.

Industrial, Educational and Training Films. These include films which promote the work of major companies (e.g. the Vickers shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness, or the Dorman-Long steelworks on Teesside), sectors of industry (examples include glass manufacture in Sunderland and the region's railway heritage), to promote individual products or to train employees in specific industrial processes.

The Amateur Film Collection. The NRFTA is actively developing a growing collection of ‘home movies’ and videos from families and individuals throughout the region.

Collection details

Film and Media, Industry, Social History

Getting there

The NRFTA is a ten minute walk from from both Middlesbrough train and bus stations and is situated in the Constantine Building in Teesside University, Middlesbrough. Access to our facilities is via main reception in Middlesbrough Tower.