The British Film Institute (BFI) is offering visitors to its soon-to-open Southbank centre in London a chance to view rare films and TV shows using a digital jukebox.

In partnership with HP, it has created the Mediatheque, to allow visitors access to archive footage from the last 100 years, ranging from the 1966 World Cup to the Queen’s coronation. Thankfully, there are other things which have not been done to death on TV already, including Audrey Hepburn's first screen test.

Visitors will be able to access the content through 17 PCs. There will be around 300 items on offer from the outset but thanks to a two-year deal with HP, the BFI is planning to expand this to thousands.

Amanda Nevill, Director of the BFI says:

“One of Britain's richest cultural treasures is its film heritage and together the BFI and HP are making sure it can be enjoyed and appreciated by a broader, more diverse audience. With the opening of BFI Southbank imminent, we look forward to throwing open the doors to visitors from all over the UK, from around the world and from the local community and welcoming them to a day-long destination where, thanks to HP's technology, they can experience the wonders of the archive and enjoy and explore film in new ways.”

This is good news for movie buffs since most movies are stored on nitrate film stock or acetate, neither of which is all that reliable for preserving things over the long term. The BFI maintains one of the largest archives in the world, with more than 50,000 fiction films, over 100,000 non-fiction titles and around 625,000 television programmes. BFI Southbank opens on March 124 and you can find some more information here.

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