Veteran broadcaster Luke Casey launches work on new regional TV and film archive

One of the best known faces on North East television, veteran broadcaster Luke Casey, will officially launch the start of work on an exciting project to create a purpose-built regional film and television archive at the University of Teesside on Wednesday 27 February at 11.30am.

The £800,000 development funded by the Government’s Single Regeneration Budget will bring together TV and film footage spanning more than 80 years.

The Northern Region Film and Television Archive will be based in a new extension next to the University’s main entrance, King Edward’s Square, Middlesbrough. (Follow signs for the University of Teesside to junction of Albert Road and Borough Road, Middlesbrough - Parking available near the front entrance in King Edward’s Square).

The archive building will have special temperature and humidity control to protect the older reels of film and will include a 20-seater screening room for use by academic researchers and members of the public interested in regional history. Much of the material, including news and current affairs programmes from the late 1950s to the 1980s produced by the BBC and Tyne Tees Television, is already stored for safe keeping at the University. Other material is currently based at Newcastle.

Su Reid, Director of the School of Arts & Media at the University, said: “This is a tremendously exciting project and we are delighted that Luke Casey, who appears on many of the archived news reports, has agreed to officially launch the start of work on the project.”

Luke has been a broadcast journalist for more than 35 years. He will take the controls of a mechanical digger at 11.30am on Wednesday 27 February on the site.

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