Strand Film Company

'A clerk embezzles money to pay for a girl's singing lessons in Rome.' (British Film Institute)

Two case studies highlighting the work of the National Council of Social Service: the conversion of a barn into a village hall in South Cerney, Gloucestershire, and the building of an occupational centre in the depressed mining village of Pentre in the Rhondda Valley, Wales.

Women from a variety of professions sign up to join a volunteer group looking after barrage balloons. Working through all weathers and all hours, after an eleven-week initial training period, they are committed to their work as well as their leisure-time activities.

A playful and affectionate look at London Zoo and the people and animals who make up its daily life.

A short documentary to demonstrate what can be done with Technicolor film and to show various other colourful products.

An uncredited Anthony Asquith is one of the directors of this WWII film (a joint UK/US production) which aims to explain British culture and character to the newly arrived American soldier. Starting with the ubiquitous pub visit, the film breezes through geography lessons, food and entertainment on the Home Front.

A romantic tour of Britain set to Dylan Thomas's poetry.

A real Buckinghamshire schoolteacher - the kindly Mrs James - is the star of this persuasive WWII propaganda film. Shot on location in Ashley Green, it shows how evacuees from surrounding towns adapt to village life and wartime conditions. With its images of happy, healthy children, the film was clearly designed to give reassurance to city-dwelling mothers separated from their offspring.

The famous detective and his trusty side-kick, Tinker, are called in by the War Office to find some important papers that were stolen from a man killed during an air raid.

Detective Sexton Blake takes on Nazi spies while solving a series of crimes.

Sheffield stands in as 'Smokedale', an industrial Everytown, in this stirring call for "new schools, new hospitals, new roads, new life", after WWII.

Unemployed miners in South Wales are helped to form a Subsistence Production Society to farm and produce goods co-operatively.

British documentary on how the community of Ulster got converted to war times.

A short documentary about the work of the National Trust in Great Britain

A tour from London to south coast holiday towns, from Bournemouth to Margate via Brighton and Folkestone.

Tomorrow is Theirs examines provisions for secondary school education during the war, arguing for the importance of maintaining excellent, thorough schooling in spite of wartime obstacles.

Made in 1941, this stirring Ministry of Information dramatisation tells the story of a Crusader tank crew trapped behind enemy lines in the Desert. With no intercom, a wounded crewman and little fuel, they must fight their way through an Italian column to freedom.

How Somerton, Oxfordshire benefits from membership of the Village Produce Association during WWII.

A 1936 documentary film about the London to Portsmouth railway. A lesser known contemporary of Night Mail, also featuring the music of Benjamin Britten and poetry of W.H. Auden.

A 1935 black and white film advertising London and exolting it's most popular tourist attractions.