Spanish public broadcaster RTVE has released a video trailer for the second season of documentary series Los archivos secretos del NO-DO on La 1.
The upcoming batch of episodes will premiere in prime time in the coming weeks, presenting restored historical film footage long suppressed by state censors.
Drawn from the vaults of the National Film Library, the documentary show examines material that authorities of Francisco Franco's regime selected to encrypt or discard from cinema screens. The production team scrutinized more than 6,000 film rolls that remained hidden from the public for decades.
Unseen footage of the 1981 coup attempt
The primary focus of the initial promotional campaign is newly restored footage connected to the coup d'état of 23 February 1981. The trailer features sequences of Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero's assault on the Congress of Deputies, captured with a level of visual clarity never before broadcast on television.
Historical specialists convened by the production to analyze news censorship expressed astonishment at the sharpness of the newly recovered images.
The collection of declassified documents also includes scenes of daily and public life that directly contradicted official state ideology during the dictatorship. Among the recovered clips are raised-fist political demonstrations, early urban influences of the hippie aesthetic, and footage detailing the creation of primitive wax figures of King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía.
Production team and archival analysis
Production company Minoría Absoluta is leading format execution for the second season. Executive director Francesc Escribano heads the creative team alongside director Eulàlia Gómez Duran and scriptwriter Manel Lucas. Actor Iván Labanda returns to provide voiceover narration for the series.
The documentary analysis features commentary and testimonies from journalist Nativel Preciado, actor Carlos Bardem, and former regional president Miguel Ángel Revilla, alongside academic experts.
NO-DO, short for Noticiarios y Documentales, was the mandatory official newsreel system produced in Spain under General Francisco Franco from 1942 until the late 1970s. Spain's National Film Library, or Filmoteca Nacional, preserves the state audiovisual archives, while public network RTVE operates flagship station La 1. The 1981 coup attempt, known in Spain as 23-F, involved armed Civil Guard officers storming parliament in Madrid during a vote for a new prime minister.
RTVE said the new season aims to build on its historical outreach by contrasting official state propaganda with unfiltered fragments of reality preserved inside archived film canisters.
