Ian Searcey

The charming ITN archive catalogue card for this item on Easter weddings from 1 April 1961 is titled: “Was it to get a rebate?”

How has Valentine’s day evolved over the years? Channel 4 News Researcher Ian Searcey delves into the ITN archives to find two news reports from 14 February 1959 and 1986.

As the London Underground marks its 150th birthday, Channel 4 News digs out three films from the ITN archive featuring some royal tube rides (oh, and commuters complaining about overcrowding).

As many of us pledge to make 2013 a year of change, Channel 4 News Picture Researcher Ian Searcey delves into the ITN archives to find out what new year resolutions we were making in the 1950s.

Fifty years ago, the Beatles released their first single, Love Me Do. As Channel 4 News archivist Ian Searcey explains, an ITN interview from the time captures the band in bemused mood.

In 1979 ITN went to Crystal Palace to meet blind sprinter Graham Salmon, who was pioneering a revolutionary bleeper that ensured he did not stray out of his running track.

In 1988 ITN reported from the Sobel Centre in north London – at the time one of the few sports centres in the UK offering facilities for people with disabilities.

The decision of the University of Illinois to pull out of staging the 1984 Paralympics meant Stoke Mandeville had just four months to prepare for the arrival of 1,500 athletes from around the world.

The popularity of the London Marathon, first run in 1981, meant disabled sportspeople were soon lobbying for inclusion in the event, and in 1983 the capital staged the first-ever Wheelchair Marathon.

As English footballers returned from an unofficial tour of apartheid South Africa, disabled protesters were demonstrating against the arrival of the South African team for the Stoke Mandeville Games.

In March 1981, ITN went to meet paraplegics Elizabeth and Peter Fordred as they prepared to sail the world – in a boat they had built themselves in landlocked Zimbabwe.

The Fifth International Paralympics were held at Stoke Mandeville in 1956. ITN filmed the opening ceremony – but with no sound. Instead, the presenter read from a script as the images played.

For some, the commercialism of the 1996 Atlanta Games undermined the Olympic ideal. For others, it merely confirmed that sponsorship was a necessary part of any major sporting event.

Romania was the only eastern blog country not to follow the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. ITN’s Paul Davies travelled to Bucharest to watch athletes as they trained.

The rivalry between Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett defined British athletics in the late 1970s. ITN followed the athletes at Bislett in Oslo, their final meeting before the 1980 Moscow Olympics.