大象传媒

If it hadn't been for the intervention of a local film historian who rescued 800 reels of film from a shop basement in Blackburn, just before they were dumped on a skip, we would have been deprived of the most wonderful insight into the life of the Edwardians.

Filmed between 1900 and 1913 by Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon, the films were handed over to the British Film Institute for painstaking restoration which took four years to complete.

These two enterprising men roamed the country filming the everyday lives of people at work and play: we watch them spill out of the mills in their thousands, promenade in their Sunday best in the park, relax at the seaside and attend football matches - not least we see the first ever footage of Manchester United.

This first programme contains footage of work, trams, shipyards and preparations for war in South Africa.