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Harry Birrell’s captivating films from the 1930s and 40s reveal the realities of life during World War Two.

These days we think nothing of filming the minutiae of our lives, but it's an easy thing to do thanks to the cameras we carry easily in our pockets. Filming was more unusual when Harry Birrell was a young man in the early 20th Century, but his passion for cinematography resulted in a fascinating collection of home movies which cast light on life during extraordinary times.

Harry was given a cinecamera as a child and it began his life-long love of film-making. He kept a camera close at hand as he grew and it accompanied him on his journeys from Scotland to far-flung corners of the globe.

Harry Birrell Presents Films of Love and War, narrated by Bodyguard star Richard Madden, recounts the story of Harry's life through his own recordings. From films of bustling London where he worked before the war, to falling in love in Scotland, to army life in India, where he captured both the mundane and distressing realities of conflict.

War looms

Harry was a young man when the threat of war fell once again over Europe. Holidaying with friends on the Isle of Arran in the summer of 1939 he recorded their final carefree moments before war was declared and they separated, fully expecting they would never be reunited.

Exotic new landscapes

Harry enlisted in the army and eventually found himself shipped to India to serve with the 7th Gurkha Rifle Regiment. He kept the camera rolling throughout the journey as he sailed from Scotland to Bombay [now Mumbai], and then as he crossed the country to Assam.

Thousands of miles from home in a land unlike any he had seen before, he revealed details of his new life in letters to his mother:

"This is a marvelous station I have come to; the aptly named Happy Valley," he wrote.

"Looking out from my window I think of the vast journey I have covered, about 15,000 miles in all, more than half way round the world. I think of those who I have left at home, how far away they seem."

The horrors of war

While many of the films highlight lighter moments of army life, such as the soldiers' camaraderie, taking in the wonders of Nepal on a few days' leave, or observing the Gurkhas' eye-opening traditions, he also captured the danger and horror of war in a foreign land.

In Burma [now Myanmar] reels show Harry leading a perilous mission behind enemy lines, and elsewhere in the country his camera lingers on the bodies of dead and decaying enemy soldiers lying in the open air.

Harry survived the war and eventually returned home to Scotland along with his beloved camera which he put to great use documenting the lives of his children.

The expert filmmaker passed away in 1993, but in the 400 roles of film he left behind he has provided an extraordinary account of life as it really was during some of our darkest days.