Terror in 1970's UK - The public information film.

These films were shown constantly in 1970's Britain on the TV. Scared - you will be after watching these

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb00H6mCTM8&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWcFAJ1_bok&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2r3j3VUe0U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItCToe0z4yc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIQX2UAt7P4&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omdCXEdVCT0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15CFF8DoYFc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6qU90IhCrk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-ISKXj-tTU&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojPnx3FQn7k&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0HIK4UkwBI&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWfOLN9Z1yw&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cna-MelQjGA&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zirp59zm1qE&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cyontoV4pw&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fu94BUQzoU&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNPb7NRahj0&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw3_4CkQD0M&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieKTpW-q9zQ&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiwfLlZ28ts&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1uTXTdCiJ4&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB6PX_CQBNc&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBc02FPSvXc&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W2OQuJO-TU&mode=related&search=

Protect and Survive - Hardcore Terror

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG3Kb12s16A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6677Eppc-sk&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WIl5BgpqZY&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJGEgTfecHc&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmuJqKopEm4&mode=related&search=

Edit: Forgot about Tufty.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHqqggwXbyE&mode=related&search=

Wow,

I'd forgotten about all those, must have taken sometime searching those out.

It's weird seeing these, because I was at that age when they first came out. Now I'm a dad they take on a whole new meaning.

The scene's are dated but the dangers still exist today.

Thanks for sharing.

Wow...those movies are really creepy.

Or how about this one, a school sports day with a difference,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc54mdvZTFw&mode=related&search=

this one is probably the creepest.

Apparently there is another film called 'The Great Tunnel Race',

I just watched the last one. I must have missed it, but what is the film (the race) supposed to symbolize? How to escape a PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. takeover? Don't cross railroad tracks? What?

It is kinda creepy, not something that would be filmed today because it would be too traumatic to our sensitive natures.

Something that really struck me is how skinny (and healthy) all the kids looked. Do that today, and if they could even get over/through the fence most kids (and their parents) would roll uncontrolled down the hill and lay in a big heap on the tracks. My skinny, hyperactive 5 year old is the minority in his class. Kinda sad.

The tunnel race?

Is that the one where a couple of guys decide to take a short cut through a tunnel whilst doing a cross-country run. One guy falls in the tunnel and then the train comes.

Cross-country runs, what a pain they were, 5 miles ever week, come sun, sleet or showers, I surprised anyone from those days is still alive. ; )

Not quite as creepy, because the children actually seemed to be upset about the death, though it gets points for the adults not seeming to care, and disqualifying the dead girl for failure to complete the course!

Not a public info film per say but quite horrific for its time.

http://www.tv-links.co.uk/listings/4/4210

Hi Johno

Thanks for the link, I think, rewatching Threads probably wasn't a good idea as it can bring about some serious depression (now where's my CND badge ). No wonder the UK government tried to ban it. They didn't like realities of the subject, and they didn't want the population to know the realities .
There was a animated film called When the Wind Blows with Sir John Mills and Dame Peggy Ashcroft about the same subject. Don't know which film was worse.

If they are from the 1970's why does the "Dial 999 for coastguard" clip show the British chap using a flip-open-cellphone...and why is his lady using an ipod?

The films were horrifying! I was hooked from the first one! Thanks for the nightmares!

Hi NIM,

We have had cell phones in the UK since the early 1980's and the iPod was designed in Scotland. I guess they must have been early adopters of the technology . Apparently even the Governator got his one liner originally from the PIF 'Dark and Lonely Water'. Scary indeed !!


Here is the original from 1968
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RAhfVqzVWw&mode=related&search=

I found "when the wind blows" a bit more frightening. Just me I suppose. Do you or anyone else have a link to "the War Game" This one was done in the 50's or 60's set in and around one of the Thames estuary towns.

Jesus H. Christ, those Brits really know how to make a point. I'm happy I didn't have to watch those movies when I was a kid.

Just curious, but were those in fact officially sponsored public information films? Hard to imagine any government would openly support broadcasting that kind of stuff.

I found "When the Wind Blows" to be a LOT more SAD.
I found myself becoming mad at how the public information pamphlets disagreed with each other, and gave very strange advice without explanation.

They had a cellar and used a door-lean-to instead!!!
I thought some older Americans were a bit 'slow', but if this is what the British think of their older people, I feel sad for them... And if older British people are really LIKE that, then I think they need to find out what is wrong with their food/water supply!!!!!

Words excape me, on what I think about everything in this movie.
Great movie though...

Hi Tom_L

The short films were in fact officially sponsored by the UK Government. During the 1970's there was only three TV channels on TV. Two of the Channels were BBC1 and BBC2, both being funded by the government and there was a commercial TV channel called ITV (ITV being funded from commercial advertising). There was no TV broadcasting until around 9:00 AM and the TV closed down around 12:00 - 12:30 midnight. Most of the films were actually broadcast by ITV during the commercial breaks. The longer films were shown to children at school.

The Charley series of PIFs were some of the most memorable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF9T7dcelKM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B90HxLOpes&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUMcqfd8NLg&mode=related&search=

The films such as Threads and When the Winds Blow and The War Game were not sponsored by the Government. The film 'The War Game' was first shown in the mid 1990's thirty years after it was first filmed.

Hello and thanks for the feedback! Fascinating stuff from the Cold War era. Though some of the clips are, for lack of a better word, a bit bizarre. Not quite what one would expect from the times of Michael Caine and swinging London...

Back when I was growing up in Yugoslavia we had similar public information programs, too. Mostly related to disaster preparedness, earthquakes, fire, floods, also military conflicts and nuclear war. There were short films aired on TV and booklets handed out to every household. It was part of a major public education/disaster preparedness plan run by the civil defense department. Most of the information was actually very good but it wasn't presented nearly as dramatically as in some of the British PIFs.

Again, thanks for the info and posting all the links and have a good day (just don't play around farms )!