BBC documentary about the true story of Britains early film industry from 1859 to 1929. A journey through the first three decades of British cinema, a pleasurable but known period of film history. In this pioneering BBC 4 documentary, Matthew Sweet takes us on a journey through the history of the first years of British cinema when the cinema was silent! Of the thousands of films made in Britain before the emergence of sound in 1929, only a few hundred survive most of them preserved in the BFI archive. Ealing, Pinewood, Shepperton have all become household names, but who would have thought that cinema in Britain was born in such places as Hove and Walton-on-Thames, where a one man operation coul dchurn out over one hudred films a year, that audiences would flock to see? Britain too had its fair share of glamorous starlets, and luminous leading men who lit up the screens. This series introduces us to these early pioneers, the visionary filmmakers and the unsung stars of Britain\'s own Hollywood. No. Discs  1 DVD Cert  E Running Time  1 hr 30 With Subtitles