Shell Film Unit

A BAFTA award nominated documentary tracing the history of paint and it's components from the paintings of the stone age to the the late 1960s.

Listen up, apprentices! Learn how to smooth and shape metal – an important wartime skill.

A BAFTA award nominated looking at methods of increasing food production, including improved strains of crops, the use of pesticides, weedkillers and insecticides and land reclamation.

A documentary tracing the development of the helicopter from the original Da Vinci drawings to the modern versions actually in service in 1951.

A documentary demonstrating the evolution of lubrication since Egyptian times and how modern machines have advanced.

A short introduction to Indian classical dancing.

A brief history of British aviation and the development of both civil and military aircraft. Made for the Festival of Britain.

A BAFTA award nominated documentary looking at advances in the treatment of infectious diseases.

An introduction to the sport of flying model aircraft. Made with assistance of the Society of Model Aeronautical Engineers.

A BAFTA award winning documentary on the basic principles and applications of hydrostatics.

A BAFTA award nominated documentary showing highlights from the Le Mans 24 hour race won by Mercedes-Benz.

A documentary investigating the science, aerodynamics and technologies involved in enabling aircraft to travel at speeds approaching or surpassing that of sound.

The main industrial processes concerned with the shaping of metal under pressure.

A documentary looking at a day at Croydon Airport south of London.

A BAFTA award nominated docu-drama that illustrates the fact that every individual working in any potentially hazardous situation is responsible for his own safety and for the safety of others.

A celebration of Shell Petroleum, tracing its manufacture from discovery in oil fields to its eventual use as fuel for modern living across the globe.

A BAFTA award nominated documentary following the work of supply ships to North Sea oil rigs. Described by members of the crew, it focusses on the difficulties posed by the unpredictable weather conditions.

A BAFTA award nominated reworking of a 1957 documentary using models and animation to explain the need to mix air and petrol in the correct proportions to create an efficient fuel for an engine.

A short documentary looking at the science of life itself and at the international collaboration involved in it's study.

This final in the three part documentary series looks at the capabilities of modern commercial aircraft to regularly travel faster than the speed of sound.