Here's a bit of nightmarish childhood nostalgia from the 1970's. A sinister, black-robed figure lies in wait to trap unwary children (link provided here for anybody looking at the preview on Facebook)..
Whether you're old enough to remember public information films like this, or young enough to find them quaint or bizarre, it's well worth visiting the National Archives' extensive on-line collection of British public information films from 1945 to 2006.
If you're my age, you'll remember a lot of these - the clueless holiday makers, Joe and Petunia who used to promote the coastguard service, Rolf Harris on the benefits of teaching your kids to swim, Jimmy Savile clunk clicking, Tufty the road-safety squirrel, Charley the cat, reminding kids to beware of strange men bearing puppies, Patrick Allen, the voice of authority, urging people to save power during the 1973 fuel crisis and the stern warning about putting a rug on your polished floor - you might as well set a man trap... It all looks a bit quaint, patrician and nanny state-ish now, but at least then you could maintain the illusion that there was a benevolent, if stuffy, authority that actually cared whether ordinary people lived or died, an illusion that's looking increasingly questionable.
Mind you, that illusion would have collapsed a hell of a lot sooner if the Protect and Survive films had ever gone out for real. It would have taken more than Patrick Allen's authoritative delivery to persuade the survivors of nuclear Armageddon to keep calm and carry on with neatly wrapping and labelling the dead people in their houses, rather than just screaming 'You Maniacs! You blew it up!'
If you're my age, you'll remember a lot of these - the clueless holiday makers, Joe and Petunia who used to promote the coastguard service, Rolf Harris on the benefits of teaching your kids to swim, Jimmy Savile clunk clicking, Tufty the road-safety squirrel, Charley the cat, reminding kids to beware of strange men bearing puppies, Patrick Allen, the voice of authority, urging people to save power during the 1973 fuel crisis and the stern warning about putting a rug on your polished floor - you might as well set a man trap... It all looks a bit quaint, patrician and nanny state-ish now, but at least then you could maintain the illusion that there was a benevolent, if stuffy, authority that actually cared whether ordinary people lived or died, an illusion that's looking increasingly questionable.
Mind you, that illusion would have collapsed a hell of a lot sooner if the Protect and Survive films had ever gone out for real. It would have taken more than Patrick Allen's authoritative delivery to persuade the survivors of nuclear Armageddon to keep calm and carry on with neatly wrapping and labelling the dead people in their houses, rather than just screaming 'You Maniacs! You blew it up!'
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