Public Information Films (From The Madeley Archives)

A railway sports day where children die in body bags, a farm safety film that ends with real dead kids’ names, and a nuclear warning video that casually advises you to move corpses into the spare room. Public information films were meant to keep people safe, but the ones that linger in memory often feel closer to horror than education, and we can’t stop picking at why.

We dig into classic British public information films and safety adverts, starting with the odd innocence of Charlie Says and its stranger danger message that somehow feels unfinished. From there we head straight into the controversy of The Finishing Line, a railway safety film so graphic it still shocks, and Apaches, whose ending reframes the whole film when you realise the “credits” are not credits at all. Along the way we talk road safety nostalgia, why these films often appeared late at night, and how the AIDS tombstone advert landed on children who didn’t even understand what it was warning them about.

The mood turns bleaker with Protect and Survive, the Cold War civil defence guidance designed for the days before nuclear attack, and we look at what it says about government preparedness and public fear. We also confront Boys Beware, a US government film that confuses homosexuality with danger, to show how “public protection” messaging can become propaganda. We finish by asking what we’d warn people about today, and whether modern safety campaigns have lost something by becoming less bold.

If you enjoy dark nostalgia, British TV history, and the psychology of fear-based public health messaging, hit subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave us a review. What public information film or safety advert do you still remember most vividly?

Transcript

Back To The Archives

SPEAKER_11 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Mayway Archives. And today we are going back to December 7th, 2021, when we spoke all of our public information forms.

SPEAKER_12 0:53

Yeah, you love all this sort of stuff, don't you?

SPEAKER_11 0:55

This is Well, on this episode, I I end it by saying we might do a part two, and it's what, uh, five years later, and we're still doing a part two. Yeah, we still might do a part two. But yeah, we chose this one to put to bring back the archives because um when we shared a couple of clips on Twitter recently, the um we got a load of responses, loads of responses from people saying, Have you seen this public information film? Have you seen this public information film?

SPEAKER_12 1:21

By the way, that when you shared that somebody was boiling a kettle on a boat, that at the time you shared that you thought that was genuine.

SPEAKER_11 1:27

I don't know if I did think it was genuine. What I saw it as is I it's always a it's a bit like when Jeremy Beadle did You Being Framed, and people said to him, Well, some of these clips are obviously fake, and he said, Look, if they're interesting or funny, we put them in. And that's what that's my I I like to suspend my belief on things. So yeah, we went back for it.

SPEAKER_12 1:47

What we didn't do is kind of credit the nah. Have we still got the notes anywhere? I can't I can't I can't remember what it's called. Yeah, don't boil a kettle on a boat. Um But it was actually, I mean, this is terribly researched as uh well. Yeah, it is a comedian who did that. But yeah, I I thought it was funny that you at least as far as I was aware, thought that was real when you shared it.

SPEAKER_11 2:14

I didn't I did look into it um because I thought I mean to be fair, as you listen to this episode, it's not that that there's there's something in this episode where as I'll listen back to and I and it blows my mind.

SPEAKER_12 2:27

Yeah. That's a good advert for the episode. So yeah, we've we've hooked you, we've we've got you now. So right now give it a listen.

SPEAKER_11 2:33

Right here we go, let's do

What Public Information Films Are

SPEAKER_11 2:35

it. Public information films.

SPEAKER_12 2:37

Living with made it So when we first decided to record these Living with Mail episodes, this was your This and uh Scary TV were the two you were kind of almost that obsessed with, but really pushing to do. What why why public information films?

SPEAKER_11 2:56

I love public information films because the what I like about them is they're so scary, and I've since found doing research for this, is restrictions didn't apply in terms of violence and horror because these were technically educational shows uh that were being shown. So there were no sort of um age rating or anything like that. So they could be as horrific as they wanted to be. And as we'll see with some of the stuff that I've got trains a lot then, right?

SPEAKER_12 3:21

Really?

SPEAKER_11 3:22

Yeah, yeah. And this as I I'll just go a little bit over what are public information films. They're basically government can commission short films made by the Central Office of Information, and they were sort of showing in schools. Do you remember them? There were sort of shown in schools between and uh shown in schools and in between programmes as well.

SPEAKER_12 3:40

Yeah, so a public information film it is it an advert? Is it not an advert then? Would you classify it?

SPEAKER_11 3:48

It's just that it's it's it's what it is a public in the same way a public information film of late, one that people might remember, is obviously Chris Wetay when he came on uh when the coronavirus started and he was saying stay at home, protect the NHS. I mean remember his dull phase came on.

SPEAKER_12 4:03

Yeah, so they're government funded and they're to to protect the public or to inform the public, yeah.

SPEAKER_11 4:08

Inform and protect, that's what he's basically there for, yeah. Um earliest ones were used in World War II, so that's where they first came out, you know what I mean. I think you mentioned last what were it? Uh Careless Whispers cost lives or whatever. Yeah, I'd say that for a poster, but yeah, JP's called me out.

SPEAKER_12 4:23

It was Careless Talk Cost Lives. Uh I said Careless Whispers and JP uh called me out, I think. That's George Michael's song, Careless Whispers.

SPEAKER_11 4:30

It's a George Michael song, Careless Whispers, very different uh to what they was what they were trying to get across. But I've gone down a massive rabbit hole for myself here, and although this is supposed to be about our memories, I found so much stuff that before like what we're out before our time, I think I'm gonna I have to mention them. I actually think we could get a follow-up episode out of this, but we'll see where we lead. Um I might come back to this topic.

SPEAKER_12 4:53

I know from what you sent me and and what I remember, yeah. We've had to bend the rules. These some of these are going to be before our time, aren't they?

SPEAKER_11 5:00

Yeah, and like I say, if people like this episode, I've genuinely I'm not joking, I think I've got 60 clips that I could have shown because that's how much I've been into like getting this sort of episode together. And I've picked out ones that I I'm not saying my favourite, but things that I've got something to say about. But I did ask you to pick one out, didn't I?

SPEAKER_12 5:18

Yeah, I'm not listening to 60 by the way, so that if if you've got 60 to play for this episode, no can do.

SPEAKER_11 5:24

We'll do that on a spare time, and I'm not I I'll just next time like I see you, we'll we'll go through all sixty.

Charlie Says And Stranger Danger

SPEAKER_12 5:30

Yeah, yeah, can't I can't wait. See you soon. Um yeah, so my first memory of this, uh I didn't really know when it's from, but it's before our time, and it came to me through uh the prodigy, so it's Charlie says. You must you must know of Charlie says, you must know what I mean.

SPEAKER_11 5:52

Yeah, completely. I know exactly what Charlie says.

SPEAKER_12 5:54

Um it's it's Charlie says actually uh it was done in the s early 70s.

SPEAKER_11 5:59

And alright. I'm sure this were on though. Would this all be in play when we were younger? I'm sure I'm not sure. Yeah, probably was.

SPEAKER_12 6:05

I seem to remember seeing it at school, I think. Um Yeah. I think they did six, although actually did they did a more modern one with David Williams, apparently. Uh David Walliams. David Walliams. Um but yeah, they did six cartoons, really weird animation, really sort of odd cat that makes really weird noises. And the the premise is Charlie, this little boy, he's kind of gonna do something that gets him in trouble. The cat makes its weird noises, speaks up, and Charlie can hear the cat speaking, and the cat tells Charlie not to do something. That's the premise. The one I'm gonna play you is about avoiding strangers, I suppose. I suppose it's like stranger danger. So this is an example of what Charlie says.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Then this man came up and said, Would I like to see some puppies? And I said yes. And I was going to go, but Charlie stopped me. Charlie's reminded me, my mum says I shouldn't go off with people I don't know. Then the man went away.

SPEAKER_12 7:15

So that is called Mummy Should Know. And that is obviously the premise, you know, people are scared of the kids being abducted in parks, so don't go anywhere with a stranger. That's it. That's that's the theme.

SPEAKER_11 7:28

Yeah. I like this one. I mean, compared to the stuff I'm gonna come out with, this is quite lighthearted, isn't it really?

SPEAKER_12 7:33

Well, as you say that, it's light hearted in a sense, but what what sort of information are they giving out of you? This this to me is absolutely mental. So a stranger, uh presumably a paedophile, tries to abduct a child in a park, and the guidance is just go home and tell your mum that that's it, job done. His mum's all right, all right, cheers, here's your sandwich. Where's your car? Here's his fish, there you go. Don't do it again. Yeah, if you go back tomorrow, don't go with him again tomorrow. It's like what why doesn't it give you more proper information? What surely they should be saying you should be teaching your karate or something. Maybe it doesn't say shout for help, it doesn't say scream, kick, it doesn't say try and remember anything you can about the the stranger and tell your parents. Yeah, report it to the police even. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, you know, the day after this, Charlie might be abducted and and murdered, but it doesn't matter, does it? Because he's alright. I just think there's there should be more to it.

SPEAKER_11 8:30

So straight off the bat, we're not happy uh with the public information films uh what the government uh put out there.

SPEAKER_12 8:38

The premise is fine, don't go anywhere with a stranger. That's that's that's simple. I don't understand though if you're gonna make this, why not follow it up with more kind of relevant information and say you know, and it almost implies, yeah, you know, don't go off if he's trying to show you puppies or something like that.

SPEAKER_11 8:52

But yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_12 8:54

It should be don't don't talk to strangers, you know, look for another adult if if you fight feel uncomfortable. And I don't know, it's it just doesn't really seem to tick all the boxes for me. I think it's uh it's it's leaving paedophiles out there just as long as they don't get this one guy.

SPEAKER_11 9:10

That's so Charlie's more important than other kids, basically, is what is what you're saying.

SPEAKER_12 9:14

The government seems to have spent money on suggesting.

SPEAKER_11 9:16

Yeah, so if your name's not Charlie, fuck it. Sorry.

SPEAKER_12 9:19

Charlie's a cat, innit? Charlie's alright, it's the boy.

SPEAKER_11 9:21

Oh no, Charlie's the cat, isn't it? Yeah, what's the guy like what's the kid called? Have any idea? Did he ever say?

SPEAKER_12 9:25

Uh Rudiger. No, I don't know.

SPEAKER_11 9:29

Uh I didn't know as well that Charlie were, I'm just looking now, Charlie were voiced by Kenny Everett.

unknown 9:36

Really?

SPEAKER_11 9:37

Yeah, Charlie, yeah, uh Kenny Everett voice Charlie. Uh so but yeah, that is a a real sort of uh massive memory that I when you I think when you talk about public information films, that's one that always stands out. Thankfully, I've not picked that because I've gone really dark as as I like to do. Um before I start, we've already played the Dark Waters one, which is probably known as the scariest ever public information film. We played that in the bonus episodes. You remember this, Liam?

SPEAKER_12 10:02

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_11 10:03

Don't go near the water. Like, yeah, and that's that but we've already played that, so we're not gonna go into that.

Railway Horror With The Finishing Line

SPEAKER_11 10:10

I want to go straight with the horror. The first one on I want to pick out is technically not a public information film because it wasn't produced by the government but by the British Transport film in 1977, and it's called The Finishing Line. Have you ever heard of this? Well, I know I've sent you here, in fact, haven't I?

SPEAKER_12 10:24

So Yeah, I I hadn't heard of it. I have it's burned into my memory now you're sending me.

SPEAKER_11 10:30

I'm gonna go through what happens in this public information film because I just find it absolutely horrendous. I really do. Basically, it warns about the dangers of children's face on railway lines. It will broadcast in its entirety several times on television. I think it's 12 minutes long, but it was so controversial that it was replaced less than two years later by the slightly less graphic robber. I just find it absolutely mad. Uh you can find this on uh Vimo. It's not on YouTube because it's too graphic for YouTube. This is a public information film aimed at kids. You have to sign up to Vimo to watch this video because it's age rated. You had to sign up, didn't you?

SPEAKER_12 11:10

Yeah, you yeah, you said to me uh if you don't want to sign up, I'll send you my account details. I had to Yeah, I had to register to confirm I was 18, I think.

SPEAKER_11 11:18

This is how horrific this is, so I'm just gonna go over it a little bit. I don't want to be too long, but so it starts off with a voiceover headmaster saying that children have once again been played on the train tracks, and he warns them that the railway is not the games field. Then we hear the in the thoughts of this young boy who's sitting on a railway bridge wall. And he's basically thinking to himself, how fucking cool would it be if we had Sports Day on the railroad tracks? And then then he starts imagining the school sports day style event on the railway tracks, and then the rest of the film is basically his imagined idea of what would happen. So everything's coming through the mind of this child. So three games are imagined at Sports Day, and children are challenged to break through fences surrounding the railway line, play chicken with the trains, and throw things at passing trains. Every time this happens, it ends horrifically, every sort of moment, every every event. So on the fence break challenge, for instance, the children run down a grass bank towards the track, but one girl falls down and is knocked out on the tracks. As the other kids try and pick her up, a train comes, the kids run off, and the train kills her. I've got a little clip of the the horrific yeah, the this is just awful.

SPEAKER_12 12:55

It is horrible. They seem quite confused that why a train would be coming on a train track, but yeah, it is horrific.

SPEAKER_11 13:01

Yeah, yeah, and then it gets even worse. You think, alright, she's dead, that's that's poor. And then we see a lot of adults picking up this girl's dead body from the tracks and putting it into a body bag. It's fucking horrific. And then the next game is stone throwing. So the kids begin throwing stones at a passing train, we then cut to a young passenger who's had a head split open by a brick that's been thrown by the kids, and the train driver with he's got I'm sure he's got blood coming out of his eyes. What do you both of his eyes have got blood like pouring out of them? Like it's just I just like there's no need for that sort of graphic.

SPEAKER_12 13:36

I've not watched it for a week.

SPEAKER_11 13:37

Yeah, they're pouring pouring as well. Like it's obviously like whatever the user, special effects, but they put it's pouring out of his eyes. And then the the next task for children is to basically play chicken, the run out as a train comes, guess what happens? Uh train it's them. Well, I count five dead children and twelve badly injured. Again, I've got a clip here of how this is delivered.

SPEAKER_08 14:00

The result of the last cross! Yellow! Score two, injured two, red, score one, injured three, blue, score seven, injured one, amber dead.

SPEAKER_12 14:21

Green, no score, amper up dead, it is powerful stuff, I'll give it that. I mean I I think people know to not play on a train track, don't they? I think I think they do it.

SPEAKER_11 14:34

Well then I'm at that age, I remember, genuinely remember, guy you know, friend of the show, Brendan. He we were we must have been playing chicken on the train tracks, and he got stuck, like his leg stuck in like a little bit of a hole, and everyone getting, oh my god, he's definitely there were no trains coming, thankfully. But I don't know, I think it's something that kids probably do do, idiots like like me anyway.

SPEAKER_12 14:56

Yeah, but you uh it's not that you didn't think it was dangerous, it's that you wanted to tell yourself to do it. I I don't think it's a shock to anybody that if the train hits you, it'll kill you. Is it like no?

SPEAKER_11 15:07

I know what you mean. I suppose the graphic nature of this is I suppose is just trying to sell you because it is that graphic, and in this way it probably works, that you what it does make you think more than oh, I'm just gonna get it by a train like oh shit. I don't know.

SPEAKER_12 15:24

Are these so deliberately over the top? Because people now don't play on a train track, but are these absolutely are these I suppose they're trying to frighten children, aren't they? That's what it's supposed to do.

SPEAKER_11 15:34

That's it, they should all petrify them to the point where you know they're not gonna go anywhere near a train track. So you know, this one maybe work, we'll get to the end and see what you think about it, see if they think you you think it works or not. Um the final challenge is for the kids to go through the train tunnel, but after the enter a train approaches, um, by the end of the sports day, only four children are actually still alive, and each of them are terribly injured. One boy who crosses the finish line collapses, and the overhead speaker announces that he's won. Uh, and then the film finishes as a group of adults appear and go into the tunnel and carry out the bodies of dead and injured children, which are then laid out in a long line across the railway track. And basically the camera pans out to show these dead and bloodied children across the track before returning to the boy sitting on the railway bridge, thinking, ah, maybe actually it's not a fucking good idea.

SPEAKER_12 16:21

Was he one of the four that survived? He's not in it, he's just overseen things. He missed a bit of a trick there, didn't it? Because if they had three left, you could have got like a gold, silver, and a bronze at the end. Now they give stickers out.

SPEAKER_10 16:31

Yeah, I mean the thing is it it doesn't actually be.

SPEAKER_12 16:33

I mean if he's got the golden four, actually, it's not that bad of that.

SPEAKER_11 16:37

Yeah, I can't get into Olympics. If everyone dies, there's only four survive out of all these classes. Then maybe I can yeah, but it he says like it looks like he's reconsidering, but he doesn't actually say it. Maybe he's not reconsidering, maybe he's looking and thinking, do you know what? I I might I I fancy my chances here.

SPEAKER_12 16:56

Collateral damage, but somebody's gonna win. But no, I mean it it is it is horrific, it is proper. I mean, actually, the slightly reminiscent of threads, you know, kind of the the real dark sort of just just keeps getting worse almost. It's only a short clip, but it is horrible.

SPEAKER_11 17:12

Yeah, yeah, completely. Um well that d I don't think it works as a public information at all.

SPEAKER_12 17:20

I think it works, but I think I don't know. I don't think I would before that be thinking I'll tell you what's really a safe thing to do, go and play on the train tracks, and then after that be thinking, oh actually, I think I don't know. I I don't know. Perhaps at that age it would have shocked me into thinking no, you can't go near them. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_11 17:44

Well we'll come to the end and we'll see if we we think that these films should be played. The next one I want to talk about is another uh

Apaches And Farm Death Statistics

SPEAKER_11 17:50

graphic one. It's actually by graphic films, and this one is made by the government, um, and it's called Apaches. This is 1977 again, actually, and this is I'm gonna be brief with this one, but it's basically warning of the dangers of playing on a farm. Obviously, all the kids die in terrible circumstances, you know what I mean fucking about in tractors and stuff like that, and they all die. The reason I want to bring this up is because the ending shows a group of adults eating at a dinner table, and a list of names ages and causes a death come up with this this groove. I'll play the music here. So it's showing you four uh adults eating at a dinner table, and then we get a list of children's name coming up with this music.

SPEAKER_06 18:36

The dead are watching me. Perhaps it was all meant to be.

SPEAKER_12 18:44

Yeah, the the music just seems very uh inappropriate, aren't it?

SPEAKER_11 18:48

Well, this is gonna blow your mind then if you think it's inappropriate. The the character the names shown, I thought were characters in the film that had died. We've just seen a film of people dying on a farm. They were a list of actual real children who had really died in farm accidents the year before.

SPEAKER_10 19:05

What would that be? It was set to that music. You are sorry. What are they doing? Who chose that what? It's crazy. They were real people. Some sort of groovy sixties track.

SPEAKER_12 19:21

Yeah. Again, yeah, I again I suppose it's it's it's frightening, it's shocking. I don't know if the end sort of takes away from that a little bit, because I assume they were like cast members or uh yeah, I don't know. I did. It goes through like the time. I'm shocking now you've told me that, but I wouldn't have known that. I would have just sort of thought, oh yeah, they're playing the credits now with this sort of nice guitar play.

SPEAKER_11 19:44

It shows you like all these because the reason I looked into this is because there's more people on the credit, what I thought were the credits, than there are children who actually die in the public information film. So I thought, who are all these people? So I did a bit of research and they are real children who died on farms.

SPEAKER_12 20:01

Does it say, because you sent them here I don't know, a while ago? Does it say in memory of or something like that?

SPEAKER_11 20:06

Is it some no, no, no, no, no. No in memory, just fucking straight to the

Tufty Squirrel And Road Safety Messages

SPEAKER_11 20:10

facts. Absolutely stunning. I want to get through these quite quick because I've got a lot, and this is sort of lightening the mood a little bit. Um, obviously, friends of the show, Tufty Club, got the name because Chris Wilder, the Sheffield United manager, Sheffield United podcast, for those who don't know, Sheffield United manager was nicknamed Tufte because he looked like the character Tufted who appeared in public information films. I'm gonna play a little bit of one of the public information films here where he's basically three squirrels. One gets knocked over by a car because he didn't wait for his mum to get an ice cream.

SPEAKER_09 20:47

This is what happened one day when the ice cream van stopped by Tufty's house. Ice cream! And Tufty goes to find his mummy. Tufty always asks his mummy to go with him to the ice cream van. But Willie Weasel has gone off to get an ice cream by himself. Oh dear! Oh mummy! Willie has been knocked down by a car. Now Willie has been hurt. And all because he didn't ask his mummy to go with him to the ice cream van. When you want to go to the ice cream van, always take mummy with you.

SPEAKER_12 21:30

Yeah, I don't remember this, and I didn't know. Obviously, I knew Tufty Club were named after Chris Wilder. I thought we were called Tufty because he had a bit of air that stuck up. So I didn't know of this character, Tufty the Squirrel. But now the Tufty Club badge makes sense to me.

SPEAKER_11 21:45

So this is yeah, I mean that that particular bit I've just played, I think it's better if you imagine the squirrels as Deb Bart Webster and and and Andy being the lad who's knocked over, which is why you never never hear from him on uh on their uh on the Tufty Club podcast. But I do remember Tuf Day soon. Slightly again before my time, but I've s must have seen it in some form or another.

SPEAKER_12 22:05

Yeah, uh I mean again it sort of shows the time, doesn't it? It's it's a bit of a kind of it's a world where I presume daddy's at work and and mommy's at home who can take you to get the ice cream. It's you must ask mummy if you want to go and get an ice cream, but yeah again it's slightly confused messages, really. It's not don't cross a road, basically, without a parent is is the message. Yeah. I think this is not a single house, he doesn't need to cross the road. So don't cross the road. If it's outside his house, that accident doesn't happen, but he's not learnt a lesson.

SPEAKER_11 22:40

I presume you've seen the Kevin Keegan look left, look right, whatever it is. Yeah, public information film. Yeah. Do you think that were better done than the Tufted one?

SPEAKER_12 22:50

Yeah, I think the message is confused in this one. It's saying make sure you ask your parent before you go for an ice cream. That that's not the mess. The message is listen to Keegan. Look left, look right. What is it? Stop, look, listen.

SPEAKER_11 23:01

Yeah. Well I don't know what it is. I can't remember that's how much he I mean, obviously before our time again, but I can't remember what he told me to do, to be honest, Keegan.

SPEAKER_12 23:08

I will love it if we beat them. Love it.

SPEAKER_11 23:11

Now, this is what I do remember, and I reckon you will too. This is from 1999. I'll just go play a little bit here.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

Now you see him. Now you don't. Now you see him. Now you don't. Now you see him. Now you see him. Now you see him.

SPEAKER_11 23:43

Yeah, uh, this is narrated by Christopher Eccleson. I think this is really well done, actually.

SPEAKER_12 23:49

It is the only thing I'd say with these is, and I don't know if I'm pointing out something that I'm I'm sort of stealing from somewhere else, because I'm not sure if I've heard this or whatever, but why do they put these public information films? I know why, I think it's because it's cheaper, but they show them at like midnight on sort of channel four. That why aren't they surely these sort of things should be on instead of like Marsbar adverts or Coca-Cola adverts? Why are they even?

SPEAKER_11 24:14

I'm not sure they've got a decent budget to do these films. By this point, we're winding down. I'll come on to the end of public information films uh as the episode goes on. But yeah, I do know what you mean.

SPEAKER_12 24:22

Uh just really I just remember like like sort of late night TV, you'd sort of all of a sudden you'd think, oh, what were that? And it were a public information film.

SPEAKER_11 24:29

And they were quite scary even then. I think even stuff like this, it were quite shocking. There's another one which I've not picked out. You remember where the the uh the the guy didn't put his seatbelt on and he kills his mum by going into the back of her, and it's like she knew where killer was. And then we'll have fucking hell, what the fuck?

SPEAKER_12 24:46

Yeah, I do remember that. Yeah, you should have played that, that was a good one.

SPEAKER_11 24:48

But they don't really work over audio because it's just the girl screaming, basically. Remember that one as well.

SPEAKER_12 24:53

Um from around the same era where it was something like uh if you hit this child at 30 miles an hour, yeah, there's a 30% chance that she will have broken bones. If you hit her at 40, there'll be a 90% chance she'll die. Something like that, yeah. I remember that as well.

SPEAKER_11 25:08

Yeah, there's another one. Do you remember that guy knocks a kid over and he keeps seeing him as he's in bed? Like, or like he's doing he's a not just in bed, it's like not this is awful. He just sees him every time he's in bed. No, he's uh he's every time he's like sort of doing like doing his cooking, he turns around and like that child just peering at him. I thought that was quite well done as well. I think they did get better of it. I think this is the this is one

Late Night Adverts And The AIDS Tombstone

SPEAKER_11 25:30

I definitely remember. And this shit me up. I was seven, I had no idea what was going on, and this was definitely shown prime time because I remember it.

SPEAKER_12 26:04

Yeah, there's there's something obviously age is not funny, the advert's not funny. I think because it was on, I think we were young, five or six. I used to quite like this advert because it reminded me of the Castrol GTX advert. Fuck me. So if anybody's listening in series one episode too, we did a sort of our classic advert from childhood. There's a Castrol GTX one that I loved, and there's something about this advert that reminded me of it, the kind of mechanical sound and the letters and stuff. So I was probably too young to know what it was or what was going on, and I just remember thinking, oh, it's quite quite like this advert.

SPEAKER_11 26:41

I used to be really scared of it, I didn't know what it was, but I don't know that sort of there is no known cure. I think that's like quite sinist John Hurt, doesn't it? Yeah, yeah, I thought that. I thought that wouldn't it be? Yeah, John Hurt does it. Um I if I'd have remembered, I'd have probably put this in my Scary Moments episode as one of my choices, to be fair.

SPEAKER_12 26:58

Really? Do you think you were kind of old enough to know what it was then?

SPEAKER_11 27:01

I remember it be it being on and not knowing what age was, no idea what it was talking about. I just found it really you've got to remember this is like a what? I've I've just looked at it, it's 98 hour five. Not even that, in fact, three, four, yeah, five. So I I mean it'd have been on for a couple of years after as well, I would have thought. But I sort of had not seen anything like this. This is prime time sort of TV. So all I see is cartoons, and I'm probably scared by skeletor or whatever. Do you know what I mean? This was so seriously done. I shouldn't have been watching this, if you know what I mean, because it were that scary.

SPEAKER_12 27:34

Yeah, yeah. Although I suppose it was done in such a way that I think if you don't know what it is, it's not it's not kind of giving away too much, is it?

SPEAKER_11 27:44

No, I don't mean I don't mean I don't I don't mean in that sense. I mean I I shouldn't have been subjected to that sort of fear and seriousness. I should have, because that's that's what the job of the public information film is. But to me it was just horror. I didn't know what AIDS was, didn't know what sexual intercourse was, still don't.

SPEAKER_12 27:58

Yeah, you'll find out one day. It's got full-blown AIDS.

SPEAKER_11 28:00

So the next the one we're gonna play now is one that thankfully was never used. Um

Protect And Survive Nuclear Advice

SPEAKER_11 28:05

but this this is this is in the background actually of a few scenes in threads, which obviously we covered in series two episode four. Um thankfully it wasn't needed, but this was what was genuinely going to be played um in the days leading up to a war. This is called Protect and Survive. Have you heard this? Do you remember it in Threads at all?

SPEAKER_12 28:24

No, and actually, of all the things I've listened to most of these, don't remember this one, so I'll give this one a listen as you play it.

SPEAKER_11 28:41

I love that theme tune because theme tune, really, or whatever it is, because it goes, you think, oh god, this is serious. Obviously, you're like you're preparing for war, you you know, you're gonna probably die. But I love how they have to it seems so needlessly creepy to add that extra synth line. You're like, and you think, God, it's like why what are you doing? I'm already shitting it. You don't need to do that as well.

SPEAKER_12 29:07

So there's sorry, just just to kind of get back. They do use this actual advert in threads, then, or do threads kind of make their own version of it?

SPEAKER_11 29:15

No, no, no, they use this actual advert in the background of threads. You might not notice it because it's just on the background of the TV.

SPEAKER_12 29:20

I do recognise that music from threads, yeah.

SPEAKER_11 29:23

Yeah, and I I'm obsessed with this prediction survive because it's an hour-long video, this, because remember, this is where you are gonna basically get a wall. So everything's taken off air, and this is the only thing that's gonna be put on. And it's about all the things you can do to try and survive uh an upcoming nuclear attack. So this is taking over. Imagine this being on. I mean, it's so I mean, this is like the 70s, so I'm not expecting fantastic so badly done and creepily done and stuff. I think I think you'd just I think you'd end it.

SPEAKER_12 29:55

Is it is it very bleak? Is it I've obviously I've not seen the full thing.

SPEAKER_11 29:59

Well, I'm just gonna play a line from it. This is my favourite line from the entire thing.

SPEAKER_07 30:04

If anyone dies while you are kept in your fallout room, move the body to another room in the hut.

SPEAKER_12 30:12

Yeah, so it's quite it's quite uplifting then, yeah.

SPEAKER_11 30:15

Yeah, so if anyone dies, fuck him. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, get him in spare room. We've got spare room, he's dead him, yeah. But it's all about there's all this thing like please stay indoors. If you go outside, the fallout will probably kill you. Imagine watching this.

SPEAKER_12 30:30

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm finding it funny, but yeah, it would be absolutely terrifying, wouldn't it, if they played this?

SPEAKER_11 30:38

I can't imagine what that must have been like, like if that had come on, and that were all ready to go during the Cold War, so thankfully we didn't have to use it.

SPEAKER_12 30:45

Uh was it ever heard at any moment? Did it ever come close enough to play that?

SPEAKER_11 30:50

I don't think it were ever heard, but I think the well, I don't know what the closest might have been, maybe Cuban Missile Crisis, I'm not sure. But like I said, this is what we're gonna be played. Uh there's a lot of spoof on this at Protect and Survive because it was so they released it, the British government released it, obviously, years later. Um, and I think people f I'm fascinated by it because it's a almost like watching an alternative reality, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. And I I suggest I suggest anyone who is interested in those sort of things of sort of you know how the government were gonna. I mean, I've read a couple of books on how the government were gonna prepare for it and stuff like that. And this is why I'm so interested in threads.

SPEAKER_12 31:29

If people are interested in threads, aren't you? You love your sort of negative apocalyptic.

SPEAKER_11 31:34

I love my apocalypse. Yeah, I love the apocalypse. I think uh I like all that sort of stuff. If anyone else is interested in it, um I just put in Protect and Survive. I think it's about an hour long, then it's all the videos that they play um as that's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_02 31:47

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_11 31:48

Okay, so

When The Government Stopped Making Them

SPEAKER_11 31:50

um so in 2011, the uh the COI was shut down. The government to this day no longer make public information films, which I didn't realise, did you?

SPEAKER_12 32:00

No, but I suppose it's not like you sit have you seen the latest public information? I suppose you only you register them when they're on, and that's it.

SPEAKER_11 32:08

So I know Charities and companies still do. Charities and companies still do. So you might see the odd. I imagine there's probably drink driving ones and stuff like that, which is not done by the government, but uh probably charities and stuff like that. Survivors, I'm not I'm not sure, I'm not entirely sure. But they closed on the 30th of December 2011 after 65 years. Uh there are still companies, as I said, making public information films like fire kills is one, uh, national security uh for the prevention of cruelty to children, which I've seen that in fact, and and the national rail. So they are still going, but the government don't do them anymore. I imagine that they're not as allowed to be as graphic as they once were, as well.

SPEAKER_12 32:47

It's almost like the government don't care about us no more.

SPEAKER_11 32:50

Yeah, man. Now you get Chris Whitey just saying, Yeah, if you want to stay in, stay in. If not, I don't know. I don't know, like a sort of hard man voice then. If you want to stay in, you stay in. I wonder if it'd have been better if they'd have got an hard man during the coronavirus thing to just say right, fucking stay indoors right now.

SPEAKER_12 33:09

And you fucking map it.

SPEAKER_11 33:10

Yeah, no, but it wasn't just Britain who had um public information films. This one blew my mind, and I have sent it to you, so you

Boys Beware And Moral Panic Propaganda

SPEAKER_11 33:20

know what's coming. I wonder what you're gonna play. Are you gonna play that or we're using it? I think we were debating about it because it's not funny, but it's just mind-blowing. Uh this is a shocker, this. This is from 1961. It's called Boys Beware. And it's basically a film where the filmmaker confuses homosexuality with paedophilia. I'm gonna play a couple of clips from it here.

SPEAKER_05 33:40

Ralph was sick. A sickness that was not visible like smallpox, but no less dangerous and contagious, a sickness of the mind. You see, Ralph was a homosexual, a person who demands an intimate relationship with members of their own sex. One never knows when the homosexual is about. He may appear normal, and it may be too late when you discover he is mentally ill.

SPEAKER_12 34:08

I'm laughing. This it's absolutely outrageous, and it it's unbelievable that that is a real was that a government-funded advert.

SPEAKER_11 34:16

Government funded, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the the thing about this is this was only 60 years ago. This is in the same country where Geraldine Lewis at this time married his 13-year-old cousin, which legally certain states in America were absolutely fine with, but this was just I do I mean, it's great how far we've come, obviously, from this, but it's it's quite scary, really, that you know, people are still alive. You know, who watch this as a 20-year-old and must have thought like homosexuality was well, it's as I said, they they basically painted him as a paedophilia pedophile, this guy should say.

SPEAKER_12 34:52

Yeah, it's it's it's outrageous, isn't it? I uh it is I can't say it's not funny, it's hilarious, but it's it's unbelievable like in in the sort of modern context that that ever got made.

SPEAKER_11 35:03

I I mean it this is a I think there's like I think it's about 15 minutes. The first time I saw it, someone sent me this, and I thought, wait, it's gotta be a spoof. It's like got to be like a sick spoof, sort of. But it's not, it's real, genuinely real. Um, so I just this out of all the ones that the the first one that I mentioned was the the most shocking in terms of the graphic detail. This one just blew my mind at how just awful it was to be fair. Um so I've come to the end of my quotes basically. I did want to ask you actually what you would like to be. I'm putting you on the spot here, I've not asked you this before, but what would you like to be made into a public information film? Anything that you think the public should know about more

What We’d Warn People About Today

SPEAKER_11 35:40

that that they don't?

SPEAKER_12 35:41

Oh, yeah, loads. Um uh use your indicators, don't drive too close to the back of my car, you fucking knobhead.

SPEAKER_11 35:49

Um just your car.

SPEAKER_12 35:52

Well, any car, but yeah, I could be in it. Um it's not really public information, is it? But I'd like to there's a lot of shops these days that have got like sort of fridges in with drinks in. But they're not really fridges, they're just sort of lit up cabinets, so you buy it thinking it's really cold. Yeah, it's not. I don't I don't know if I could do anything about that.

SPEAKER_11 36:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that that's worthy of a public information film. Definitely, yeah. I think there's the yeah, there's loads of things. I think like for instance, I think it should be a public information film about phoning your own doctors up at the moment, actually. Like I won't phone today for 20 minutes trying to get a prescription. It should be like don't phone your doctors, they're not gonna fucking answer. Just get a chemist. Just that. Just delivered in that sort of matter-of-the-fact way. I don't know, there's load, like I say, there's absolutely loads. There's um I don't like it, for instance, when customers in shops and things just sort of I don't know why some why does it have to take so long to pick a carrot out? You know when you're waiting behind to pick a get a carrot or something. Choose your carrots faster. Yeah, choose your carrots faster. Peter Serafanovich, well I can't pronounce, but I'll I'll say it that quick, I hope I've got away with it. He loves ape in these films, and uh, I was gonna play you one here.

SPEAKER_03 37:02

You've blown out the candles, turned off the oven, locked the front door, secured the windows, switched off the pencil, and hidden your gold. But you've forgotten about the poison sockets. Remember, poison sockets are full of poison. Switch them off.

SPEAKER_11 37:30

Uh but that basically I mean, like I say, I could be here all day. I've tried to bang through these as quick as I possibly can to try and get as much in as possible. Um, but I you know, if people enjoy this episode, let us know, and I I will happily come back to it. If people don't like it, I will put it I'll just use it for my own personal pleasure.

SPEAKER_12 37:49

Yeah, well this this has been a bit of a vanity project for you, this one, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_11 37:52

I think if completely, yeah.

SPEAKER_12 37:54

Perhaps we'll we'll see, we'll see what people think. We might do an episode in the next series, and uh I'll do a bit more digging and we'll we'll perhaps focus in on a few more rather than just skimming through a lot.

SPEAKER_11 38:04

So Well, if forever like for instance you I don't know, get an ice cream without asking your mum and get knocked over and I threw this uh uh the show solo, I can I can at least do

How To Get In Touch

SPEAKER_11 38:15

this because I've got loads of clips. Anyway. Thank you for listening to Who Remembers. If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us at who rememberspod at outlook.com. If you are a right-wing fascist, you can find it on Twitter at Whoremembers Podcast. Or if you're a local, you can find us on Blue Sky at Whoremembers Podcast. Once again, thank you for listening. We'll see you next time for more remembering.