Gaumont-British Instructional

A dramatization to promote the Territorial Army.

Story of how two youngsters round up crooks planning to blow up the British fleet off Gibraltar.

A party of children take an eye-opening tour of John Brown's Shipyard in Clydebank.

A look at the Lake District and its famous poet.

In Australia, five children pursue horse thieves through the mountains.

Time-travel to a 1940s classroom with this exemplary educational film.

A retired Major's efforts to hone his golf skills are thwarted by the diminutive but defiant common daisy.

In this dramatized warning to young women of the risks of venereal disease, Betty, a shop girl, pays a severe price for just one 'slip'.

Story of young boy and girl who help aircraft designer to outwit gang of spies trying to steal secret plans.

A film based on a story by Leo Tolstoy about a cabinet maker, his wife and an angel punished by God.

Go with the flow: to gentle but spellbinding effect this innovative natural history film glimpses marine life astride rising tides at Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae. Urchins, lugworm, weaver-fish and crabs are the shy-but-elegant stars coaxed onto the screen (with the assistance of Millport’s local research station) for this archetypal edition of Gaumont-British Instructional’s 1930s cinema series Secrets of Life.

Poetic tribute to Mrs Turner's vegetable growing prowess, plus the delights of "wartime steaks".

Documentary highlighting how land has been reclaimed for agriculture in Scotland.

History - and natural history - filmed on location in Selborne, East Hampshire. This unusual edition of the long-running series Secrets of Life tells the story of the village's famous son, Rev Gilbert White, whose 1789 book The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne is a classic of natural history. The film follows in his footsteps, with camera rather than quill in hand, focusing on nature but also taking in views of the village and its human inhabitants. The ingenious close coverage of bird, reptile and other wildlife was the stock-in-trade of the filmmakers at Gaumont-British Instructional, producers of the series. Under the direction of the redoubtable Mary Field, the behind-screen talent here includes legendary 'cine-biologists' Percy Smith and Oliver Pike. A tribute by one generation of pioneering naturalists to another, it's a quietly moving film in spite of its clipped English reserve - or perhaps partly because of it.

Adventures on a fishing boat as told by two young boys who experience what it takes to be a fisherman at sea.

Part of the archive's Junior Biology series, this study of maize is aided by diagrammatic, time-lapse, and microscopic footage.

"If they were as rare as orchids we would probably rave about them" opens this film in the Secrets of Nature series, directed by the prolific Mary Field. The mesmerising time-lapse photography is offset by a jokey commentary voiced by EVH Emmett, then best known as the voice of the Gaumont newsreel. The flippant tone is exemplified by his comment on the range of responses to dandelions: "Some gardeners tear up the lawn and lay crazy paving, some tear up a high cliff and jump off".

A teaching film about the human skeleton with animated medical illustrations as well as an actual skeleton with commentary. A man, naked to the waist, also demonstrates the relevant anatomy. X-ray cineradiography illustrates the movement of the arm.

Part two of two teaching films about human anatomy which is devoted to the action of the skeletal muscles in producing movement of the bones at the joints of the human skeleton. It uses live action and animated medical illustrations as well as an actual skeleton with commentary. A man, naked to the waist, also demonstrates the relevant physical processes such as respiration.

A Secrets of Life short.