It was 1975 and we see a young Brendan Foster (today he's Sir Brendan, of course) pounding the streets of Gateshead.
The 27-year-old long-distance runner was in training for the Olympic Games that would take place the following summer in the Canadian city of Montreal.
He would go on to win a bronze medal in the 10,000 metres there, adding to his two Commonwealth Games gold medals clinched in 1974 and 1978.
Hebburn-born Foster - a one-time teacher at St Joseph's Comprehensive School in the town - would later, in the years following his retirement from competitive running, become a respected sports commentator for the BBC.
But his enduring legacy will be how, with single-minded determination, he sparked an explosion in the interest in athletics in the North East, and put the region on the world map by founding a landmark annual road race.
From the mid-'70s onwards, local participation in athletics at clubs like Foster's own club, Gateshead Harriers, rocketed - and that burgeoning enthusiasm for the sport would be further heightened by the Gateshead Games.
In a series of high-profile annual events at Gateshead International Stadium, huge crowds would flock to watch the world's leading athletes compete in track and field events.
And then, in 1981, the Great North Run was born. Foster's brainchild was meant to be a one-off, but after the staggering success of the first event in June that year, he declared: "It’s been a great day for the region, and a privilege to be there. We have got no choice. We’ll have to have another one next year."
Since then, the event has become an annual North East institution and one of the major dates on the region's sporting and social calendar, with a national and international audience looking on admiringly in the process.
Back in 1975, Foster remarked in our video clip, courtesy of the North East Film Archive: "People in the North East like watching sport, but they don't like taking part - so it's part of our job to wake them up, shake them up and get them going."
It's fair to say, the recently-knighted Sir Brendan succeeded spectacularly in achieving his goal.
Our Brendan Foster video clip is taken from the DVD, Newcastle on Film, which has been produced by the North East Film Archive.
Presented and narrated by ITV Tyne Tees News' Pam Royle, Newcastle on Film pays homage to life on Tyneside and features lots of brilliant archive film footage.
- The DVD is priced at £12 (including postage and packing), and all profits from the sale go back into the valuable work of the North East Film Archive. Buy it here: https://www.yfanefa.com/newcastle_on_film
- See more from the North East Film Archive at www.yfanefa.com
Check out our new Memory Lane feature: https://www.memorylane.co.uk/
