At leb.org.uk are a growing list of documentaries about housing and the welfare state [29th Nov 2025]
Watch old films here
Cathy Come Home – 1966 – Ken Loach – Landmark housing drama – Cathy
My review here -> Cathy Come Home opinion piece
Dan Cruickshank:At Home with the British
The Cottage / The Terrace / The Flat
Five writers look at our surroundings 1979
A series of five films broadcast in the week beginning Monday 19th February 1979
City of Towers – Christopher Booker
Three streets in the country – Michael Frayn / Dennis Marks
New Town, Home Town – Colin Ward
Architecture for Everyman – Patrick Nuttgens
The Country and the City – Youtube –
Raymond Williams
with thanks to Alan Powers of the University of Greenwich for confirming the titles and the order.
The Home Front: Housing the People, 1850-1990 – BBC 1989 and book – Patrick Nuttgens
Building Sights – Personal reflections on the best 20th Century architecture in Britain. GB, BBC Tx BBC2 1988-1996
High Rise Dreams – 2004 – BBC4 – Notes
Homes for Heroes – 2005 – BBC4 – Post war architecture clips
Utopia London – 2008 – London and Modernism and the LCC – my own review
Review here – https://www.bdonline.co.uk/culture/utopia-london/5009468.article
Homes for Workers 1939 – BFI
Recommended to me by Andrew Drury of HATC
A journey in the footsteps of the architecture writer Ian Nairn – Jonathan Glancey
From Leeds into Scotland – Ian Nairn
The New Jerusalem
Narrated by Robert Lindsay and well researched this quartet form a fascinating glimpse into 40 years of the Welfare State (made 1995) and a timely reminder of what we are about to lose with the dismemberment of the NHS.
Flight from Utopia Pt1 – Patrick Nuttgens – forty years of northern townscape – 1984
A wonderful series about the Northern cities and their recent history with numerous shots of Park Hill and Hyde Park (as was) in Sheffield along with Gleadless Valley. A must for anyone with an interest in Sheffield.
Flight from Utopia Pt2 – Patrick Nuttgens
The Sixties – Getaway People – 1982 – Ch4 – narrated by James Bolam.
A long searching look at the icons of the 1960s including system built housing which fared less well including the Leaky Road flats in Leeds aka Hunslett.
T. Dan Smith – BBC North East – 1986
The Making of Modern London – Housing – Gentrification of Barnsbury and Canonbury in Islington covered.
The Making of Modern London – Office life – London Wall and office life in the 1960s and 1970s.
A Vision of Britain – Prince Charles 1988 – Dir Nick Rossiter
The Great British Housing Disaster – 1984
Thamesmead 1970 – thanks to Darryl of the 853 blog
The London Nobody Knows – James Mason
Buildings That Shaped Britain – Modernism – Simon Thurley
Wonderful resource! I’ll be sharing this with my MSc Advanced Architectural Studies students.
An extraordinary collection. I am particularly grateful for Booker’s “City of Towers” a programme that drastically changed my views on post war architecture when it was first broadcast and which I have longed to see again. Thank you.