HISTORIC footage finally discovered after it vanished 52 years ago is set for its television premiere.

The work of Blackburn-based Sagar Jones Mitchell and James Kenyon - two pioneers of film who covered momentous events such as Queen Victoria's funeral - is to be shown on BBC2 100 years after it was filmed.

The show's producers said they have now put the finishing touches to the programme - which is set to feature some of the most remarkable footage ever broadcast.

Executive producer, Simon Ford, said: "It's the best archive footage of turn-of-the-century Britain ever found."

It will form a flagship three-part series called The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon. A screening date has yet to be fixed, although it is expected to be shown either late this year or early 2005. A book is also set for release to accompany the series.

The documentaries, about life in the Edwardian period, will show ordinary people going about their everyday business.

From 1900 to 1913, Mitchell and Kenyon toured the country recording events that marked the era, such as the earliest footage of Manchester United, troops leaving for the Boer War and Liverpool migrants set for America.

Another sequence shows the last soldier to receive a Victoria Cross from Queen Victoria and William 'Fatty' Foulkes, a 22-stone Sheffield United and England goalkeeper believed to be the inspiration behind the terrace chant "Who Ate All The Pies?"

The British Film Institute restored the footage after it was found by Peter Worden, who runs an Optometrist's in James Street, Blackburn, in two urns in the basement of what was Mitchell's shop, 40 Northgate.

In 1994, the store changed from Mercer's Toy Store to Ethel Austin and the 800 rolls of highly-combustible nitrate film were discovered in sealed barrels.