The public information films that scared Seventies children for life

From stranger danger to a mysterious Death-like spirit luring children into a lake, the public information films David Barnett grew up watching were brutal, terrifying and, sometimes, utterly perfect slices of filmmaking

A clip from ‘Cross Where the Road is Clear’ (Central Office of Information )

I firmly believe I have made it to my mid-century years relatively unscathed because I have never thrown a frisbee near an electricity sub-station, or been enticed away by strangers, or played with farm threshing machinery, or – in my later years – absolutely never put a rug on a polished floor (because, as any fool knows, you might as well set a man-trap).

In short, I am here to talk to you today thanks to the public information films of the 1970s and 1980s which put the fear of God into me so much regarding hazards both obvious and hidden that navigating those chaotic decades of my youth became a much safer process.

Public information films – or PIFs to the aficionado – still exist today. We have seen them recently with regards to Covid; government advice on washing our hands, wearing masks and being careful of hugging our friends.