London on Film

From bright lights, showbusiness and shops to riots, sleaze and traffic jams, film-makers have long been drawn to London's West End. Using a rich mix of archive material, this film paints a colourful and surprising portrait of the city's beating heart.

The intensity of life in London's East End has attracted film-makers since the camera was first invented. The vast changes in East End life - from the docks and the rag trade to market traders, migrants and wartime upheavals - are revealed entirely through the images they captured on film.

From the start, suburban London has been captured on film. For some it is a gracious retreat while for others an unwelcome exile. This is a confusing world of tidy semis, old villages and sprawling estates, of commuters, hidden lives and conflict - revealed entirely through archive images.