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The Birth of the News

Episode number: 1

Overview: For more than half a century, the film and newsreel company British Pathé documented almost every aspect of everyday life in Britain and around the world.

The Voice of Pathé

Episode number: 2

Overview: The company's output really came into its own during the Second World War, when the distinctively clipped and relentlessly chipper commentaries by its announcer Bob Danvers-Walker provided stirring encouragement during the Blitz - and offered authoritative advice on how housewives struggling to feed their families on the ration could overcome privation and to 'make do and mend'.

Entertaining Britain

Episode number: 3

Overview: While the company was famous for its pioneering news reports, it also produced immensely popular 'cinemagazines', which entertained cinemagoers for decades.

Around the World

Episode number: 4

Overview: In the age before mass tourism made international travel affordable and accessible to most of us, their sumptuous travelogues and anthropological documentaries offered British cinemagoers a rare opportunity to glimpse faraway worlds.