We are surrounded by types, the words on signs, buses, shops and documents which guide us through our lives. Two types in particular are regarded as the faces of Britain - Johnston and Gill Sans. Their story is told by typeface expert Mark Ovenden.
Mark Ovenden
as Himself
Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.
A sociological portrait of the United Kingdom after the historic Brexit vote of 2016. A funny, sometimes terrifying and non-judgemental look at the new populist politics sweeping western democracies.
The full bizarre, tragic but celebratory story of Syd Barrett, the co-founder of Pink Floyd.
An in-depth portrait of British composer, pianist and singer Elton John, pop star and myth of modern culture.
A strange story from Somerset, England about a filmmaking farmer and the inspiring legacy of his long-lost home movies.
Now a successful filmmaker, Lorna Tucker was once a teenage runaway sleeping rough on the streets of London. For this frank, forceful and inspiring documentary, she returns to her former haunts and speaks to current and former homeless people about why, twenty-five years later, record numbers of people are still reduced to living on Britain's streets.
A documentary and propaganda film which shows the British Army's preparations for, and the early stages of, the battle of the Somme.
David Jones investigates how 1960s council housing came to be built so poorly that thousands later needed to be demolished.
The Queen And The Crown a tribute: A feature length tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the UK’s longest reigning monarch, from her birth in London on April 21st 1926 to the nationwide outpouring of gratitude and thanks to Her Majesty in June 2022 marking the Platinum Jubilee, and then the sorrow just weeks later and her historic and epic funeral. Following the course of her life as the shock of the abdication in 1936 catapulted her father unexpectedly onto the throne, suddenly making the young princess heir to the crown, we see the way she pledged to give herself entirely to serving the nation.
Winston Churchill, one of the most revered men of the twentieth century. Adolf Hitler, one of the most hated leaders in contemporary history. Between 1940 and 1945, these two enormously contradictory personalities faced each other in both politics and war. A clash of giants whose story begins in the trenches of the World War I and ends with the debacle of the World War II.
Helen Castor presents an in depth and insightful series covering England's early Queens, from the High Middle Ages with Eleanor and get daughter-in-law Eleanor of Aquitane, through the Late Middle Ages with Isabella of France and Margaret of Anjou and finishing with Lady Jane Grey, Mary I and Elizabeth I.
With exclusive access to a major new excavation, Alice Roberts discovers what King Arthur's Britain was like, including surprisingly modern connections we all share with our past.
A look at Britain's beloved canal network via a fact-filled cruise along the first superhighways of the Industrial Revolution. In the age before mechanisation, a frenzy of canal-building saw a new army of workers carve out the British landscape, digging out hundreds of miles of waterways using picks, shovels and muscle.
One of the last punchcutters makes a new letter by hand - an artist at work.
Laura Kuenssberg tells the inside story of how David Cameron's referendum plan backfired, and Vote Leave won. How will this political revolution reshape Britain's politics?
25 Million Pounds details the collapse of Barings Bank in the mid 1990s primarily by a broker called Nick Leeson, who lost £827 million ($1.3 billion) by speculating on futures contracts. The film contextualises the downfall as the history of Barings Bank was one of the oldest and most prestigious merchant banks in Britain, run by the same family for decades with extensive ties to Britain's elites. But in the late 19th century Barings almost went bankrupt after investing heavily in South American bonds, including backing the construction of a sewer system in Buenos Aires. The bank was saved by The Bank of England, but Edward Baring, the head of the bank, was financially ruined and never recovered.
James Baldwin and Dick Gregory discuss the Civil Rights Movement in 1960s Great Britain.
