British Pathé Picks: 14th – 31st January 2013

Here’s our selection of British Pathé footage that relates to anniversaries coming up in the next two weeks. Click the links below to take a look! You can also keep Continue reading →

British Pathé Spreads Its Wings

This quick message is to tell you about our brand new Social Media pages. Don’t worry, we’re not neglecting the old ones. In fact, we’ve recently updated our WordPress blog Continue reading →

Royal Baby Names: Take the Poll

There’s nothing like a royal pregnancy announcement to get the media’s mouths watering. So we thought we would join in the speculation and fun of guessing the future King or Continue reading →

Pathé’s Hidden Treasures

“That’s all very well, but what has the Pathé archive got for ME?” It can be tempting to think of the British Pathé archive as being only of interest to those with a passion Continue reading →

The Girls With Cotton Tails

The 1960s saw Hugh Hefner opening up his Playboy Clubs across the world. Those hostess showgirls wedged in to satin corsets and sprinkled with  bunny ears and bow ties are Continue reading →

Bunny Girls: British Pathé Go Inside The Playboy Paradise (Never To Return)

Reblogged from The British Pathé Archive Blog: Playboy Magazine and the notorious Bunny Girls charmed their way into Metro yesterday with the announcement of a new Mayfair Playboy club opening in Continue reading →

The Cats of Downing Street

Or should we say Meow-ning Street? Today British Pathe paid a visit to 10 Downing Street! (apparently nothing to do with David Cameron’s recent history quiz on Letterman?!) We’re proud to have a wealth of footage Continue reading →

Balloon Boy Found!

A friend of the archive sent in a link to a Herald Tribune interview with 82-year-old Bill Crawford, discussing his fame as a balloon stunt child star. Crawford used to Continue reading →

Extreme Bodies – Gigantism!

Most of us are lucky enough to go about our daily lives fairly inconspicuously but there are some men and women who literally stand out from the crowd. Super sized humans have always Continue reading →

Christmas Stuffing: British Turkeys Through History. (No, Really.)

Will you be having turkey this Christmas day? A lot of people have beef or even fish don’t they, or if you’re a vegetarian, a nice nut roast perhaps. When Continue reading →

British Pathé’s Robot George enjoys his 15 minutes of Fame

The British Pathé archive acts as a resting place to several robots of yesteryear, some scarier than others, but today it was our beloved Robot George (born in 1950, Saffron Walden, Continue reading →

Kitchen Hats: Where No Gaga Has Gone Before

Why? The latest evidence of our long-term suspicion that Lady Gaga is inspired almost exclusively by the British Pathé film archive comes in the form of Kitchen Hats, a 1959 Continue reading →

Twist And Shout: The Launch of ‘Twister’ in 1966. Where? Butlins Of Course!

   We all know Twister! The embarrassing MB game that always ends up with a pile of panting bodies with minor injuries. I used to fear the moment when a Continue reading →

Before Barbie – The Days when Dolls had Eye Lashes

In the 1960s before the complete world domination of Barbie, and before the invention of those insipid ‘Bratz’, Britain had a glorious dolls industry of its own. The video above is a preview Continue reading →

Ejector Seats for Dummies: British Pathe were there when everything sprang into action

Tinker, tailor, soldier, ejector seat guinea pig. It’s the sort of job a Briton just wouldn’t do these days, let alone in beautiful Buckinghamshire. But here they are, in broad Continue reading →

It wouldn’t be National Kissing Day without the Snogometer

Today is National Kissing Day, and so the internet is full of stories from womens magazines and cosmetics brands on the subject of kissing. Do women in Britain enjoy less Continue reading →

Ray Alan dead: 79-year-old ventriloquist Ray Alan dies in his Surrey home.

The popular British ventriloquist Ray Alan, most famous for his exceedingly posh and slightly peverse puppet Lord Charles, has died aged 79. Ray Alan and his puppet Lord Charles used Continue reading →

Archive Androids: The History of Robots

We’ve taken a science fiction theme today and have been watching old videos in the British Pathe archive of robots and early computer technology. From roboticised shop mannequins to lipstick Continue reading →

Boundless Energy: British Pathé Go Beating The Bounds

It’s Ascension day today, and do you know what that means? That’s right – it’s time to beat the bounds. ‘Beating The Bounds’ is a 2000-year-old tradition in which villagers Continue reading →

Large Girls Club!

Today we’re intrigued by this late 1950s colour video called ‘Large Girls Club’. Set against the aristocratic backdrop of the Duke of Bedford’s home Woburn Abbey, a rather grand woman Continue reading →

The Church On Tour: First Stop – Butlins!

One of the less explained pieces in the British Pathé film archive, these muted out takes of a 1961 clergy conference by the seaside are a bit of an art-house Continue reading →

The Orange Prize

It’s 1967, and British Pathé are at the world orange peeling championships. Peeling the orange to emulate the crown jewels is optional, but the peel must be cut off in Continue reading →

No two hands are alike!

Today we were quite amused by this astrologer and palmist Gabriel Dee back in 1931. Gabriel explains the nation’s tragic fate according to their palms with absolutely no hint of Continue reading →

Halloween Come Early: Jaunting Easter Hat Parade

A fan of British Pathé, Sam in Leamington Spa, emailed asking if we have any footage of tarantulas. We may well do, although tarantulas wouldn’t have been jotted down in Continue reading →

1950s Customs Training: Fancy a custard cream?

This 1958 clip of a customs school gives a glorious insight into the very gentle affair of detecting drugs trafficking in the 1950s. The dozen or so students are taught Continue reading →

Trapeze Wedding: Couple head for the clouds

The sun’s out in London today and so we felt like finding something sunny and funny. We’re loving this footage of a trapeze wedding in the sky from the summer of 1959. Continue reading →