The telecine and restoration team at Blue post production is transferring more than a hundred hours of unseen interviews from the 1960s for a new BFI online research tool to be launched next year.

The interviews were recorded with the broadcaster Bernard Braden and include iconic people from the worlds of show business, film, politics and sport including Cilla Black, Robert Maxwell, Lulu, Enoch Powell, Quentin Crisp and Sean Connery.

Blue was asked to archive more than 350 interviews shot from 1967 to 1968 and donated to the BFI. The 16mm film and -+-inch tape are being transferred to HD.

A further 70 interviews have been transferred to digibeta for Silver River Productions' Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll: The 60s Revealed which is currently airing on Five. Blue also completed the online, grade and sound mix on the show.

BFI senior preservation manager for video and audio Charles Fairall said: "By digitising this significant collection and combining the picture and sound elements for the first time since their creation, the BFI National Archive has assured preservation at high definition quality, while making these interviews available immediately so that a wide range of people can enjoy and learn from them."

Films are being transferred at a rate of between 20 and 30 interviews a week and work should be completed in January.

Almost the entire Braden collection will be available to academics and researchers in a new online research tool to be launched by the BFI in 2009. Selected items will also be included in the BFI Mediatheque collection so they can be accessed by the public for free.

The BFI National Archive contains more than 230,000 films and more than 675,000 television programmes.