I'm sure these have been touched upon
But I can't be arsed to trawl through 19 pages to find out. Public information films of the 1970's - brilliant. Although the 'I am the spirit of dark and lonely water' one scared the shit out me at the time. I couldn't look at a puddle for years without thinking a sinister, robe clad figure that sounded like Donald Pleasance, might be waiting for me to fall in and splutter my way to an early death.

Nice one.

*EDIT* And here it is www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/films/1964to1979/filmpage_lonely.htm
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Tue 20 Apr 2010, 18:40, 8 replies)

that was utterly terrifying

( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Tue 20 Apr 2010, 19:02, closed)

I don't know what was in charge of the Public Information films in the 70's
but all they seemed to want to do was to shit you up proper.

Remember the one with the seven kids on a farm dying a horrible death?
Or the kid who gets his feet chopped off by a train?
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Tue 20 Apr 2010, 21:32, closed)

Oh just great
I'd managed to forget about those

If i have nightmares tonight, its all you fault ok!

gets a sneaky click though
(insomniac-surfer oh go on then, just this once, Tue 20 Apr 2010, 23:34, closed)

NOOOooooooo
The one with the kids welly getting crushed on the escalator scared the be-jebus out of me. I think there was one with a rag doll getting dropped and mangled to death too.
I still have problems getting on and off the things now because of those films.
( Herb Alpert's Taxi Driver I have very beautiful lips, Tue 20 Apr 2010, 23:56, closed)

I hate escalators
Stepping on and stepping off just freaks me out, and I just never manage to do it without stumbling.
I guess I must have had hidden memories of crushed ragdolls
(insomniac-surfer oh go on then, just this once, Wed 21 Apr 2010, 0:45, closed)

hmmm
I wonder if the "I'll be back'' influenced the Terminator film?
(insomniac-surfer oh go on then, just this once, Wed 21 Apr 2010, 0:49, closed)

I love Public Information Films
to the point of spending cold hard cash on stuff like the 'Charley Says' compilations. I think the attraction is the way they indirectly provide a window on what life was like in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Nostalgia TV shows are all well and good, but focus too much on single aspects ("Look! Here's a clip of Love Thy Neighbour which shows how everyone in the 70s was a racist with a beige couch", etc). What PIFs do is give you an idea of the sort of things that affected people's lives in those days. These days, we have adverts warning parents that our children will be necking vodka, pills and cock as soon as we let them out of the house. In the 70s, PIFs were more concerned that those same children would be going out to vandalise phoneboxes ("Where's your lad going tonight? *SMASH*", etc). Today's PIFs warn us of STIs. 40 years ago they apparently didn't exist, although we should all be on the lookout for rabies.

It's amazing to think how many PIFs 30-40 years ago were warning us that if our children set foot outside, they'd be electrocuted by a substation/frisbee mishap, trapped in an abandoned fridge or drowned in a lake thanks to the Grim Reaper's poor lifeguard skills. Today, there are whole PIF campaigns telling the survivors "For god's sake, send your children outside before they turn into 50-stone X-Box-playing blobs. Forget all that stuff about death around every corner, they'll be fine, just give them a frisbee and send them on their way"
(costas, Wed 21 Apr 2010, 14:42, closed)

I was,
and I still am, waiting.

*adjusts robe*
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Thu 22 Apr 2010, 0:18, closed)