Welcome to the Queen

Beautiful documentary record of the royal visit to Teesside in 1956, shot in gorgeous Kodachrome.

This deliriously beautiful colour documentary was made to commemorate a royal visit to Teesside in 1956, when thousands of folk from towns and villages along the river - from Teesport to Stockton-on-Tees - turned out to greet the Queen. There’s precious little archive film of Stockton, so these gorgeous, glowing Kodachrome scenes of the town decked out in Union flags are all the more irresistible.

The film was shot by the Billingham Film Unit (chemical giant ICI’s in-house filmmaking section), and is a great example of the many local documentaries they produced, alongside more traditional 'industrial process' and training films, which capture the unfolding delights and dramas of life on Teesside.