Directed by Mark Sloper, 50 Years of Punk is a commemorative plate of a documentary that looks back at the birth of the punk phenomenon, with exhaustive archive footage and a kinetic mix of talking heads, old and new.

There is no single narrator, and I think that’s right. A mix of sound bites from every area of the UK punk scene spends the first 20 minutes crediting pirate radio, Iggy and The Stooges and the Ramones before heading up the King’s Road to let Malcolm and Vivienne have first dibs on giving it a name and a look.

The old footage of The Clash, X-Ray Spex and all the others is the real treat to be had here. If you’re an ageing punk yourself, there isn’t much you won’t have already seen or heard ad infinitum, since the 30th, 40th and many other anniversary documentaries have all fishing in the same pond. The welcome thing on this occasion is the thoughtful mix of voices. Members of Adam & The Ants are given as much credence and airtime as The Damned or The Slits – they’re an equitable bunch of punks, and that is the movie’s strength.

Nobody is given too long to prattle on in 50 Years of Punk. Each point is backed up by three or four similar perspectives. Yet there are too many looky-likey locked shots of the same location across the interviews, which, over the full runtime, makes you feel it might have been put together after hours at one particular gallery show. But there are also filing cabinets in the background when they switch locations for a modern-day interview with someone who was actually there.

So, the sheer amount of vintage imagery from 50 years ago could perhaps have benefited from stronger new graphics over the top, but that’s a minor gripe. This far out from the origins of the genre, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, seen it all before” is perhaps the most punk thing a documentary on the topic could deliver. This is “the good old days” for those who came up during the Winter of Discontent.

50 Years of Punk hits UK cinemas on 18 September, from Screenbound Pictures