Public information films - I love 'em!
Gareth Randall
Does anyone fancy a bit of reminiscing about public information films,
classic or otherwise?
I used to live in the Anglia TV region, and they could never sell all
their airtime, so when I was a nipper back in the 70s and early 80s
virtually every ad break contained at least one PIF - and because
Anglia covered large farming areas, there were loads of them about not
falling into silage pits and stuff. Terrified the hell out of me.
Great!
Here are a few that my friends and I remember either scaring us or
making us laugh...
The frisbee flying into the electricity plant ("TIMMY!!!!!!!!!")
The anti-litter one which had a kid running along a beach, and
freeze-framed just before he trod on a jagged tin can (could have been
a broken bottle)
George and Petunia ("Now he's doing one of them country dances!")
The gun safety one where a chap gets shot by his hunting partner as he
climbs over a fence (the fence wire catches the trigger of his loaded
gun)
Ed "Stewpot" Stewart in a swimming pool ("Francesca, say 'Byeeeeee!'")
Rolf Harris in a swimming pool ("Kids and water - they love it!")
The Bedtime Routine (does anyone remember the full lyrics?)
The water safety one done in the style of a black-and-white silent
movie, which ended on a shot of an Edwardian bathing hat floating on
the water
The water safety one which had photographs of supposed drowning
victims (all children) floating in various dangerous places - weirs,
ponds etc
Yet another water safety one in which a mother (who isn't wearing a
lifejacket) falls off the family boat - the final shot is of her body
being pulled onto a coastguard vessel
And of course Charlie!
Anyone else care to comment or add their favourites? And - important,
this - does anyone have a collection of these old classics? You hardly
ever see them these days, and I think that they're as much a part of
TV culture as anything else.
Gareth
Allan Phoenix
VERY 70's one about an accident prone family. I can't remember much about it because I
was pretty young at the time. The bits I can remeber are . . .
The Gran always worried about them, she seemed to show this by twitching the
net curtains alot looking for car crashes.
It was narrated from the sons point of view.
The message was a road safety one and it ended with the Dad nearly running down the
Mum & son of the family in his Mark 1 Escort ( I think it was an Escort ).
There were a lot of flared trousers, flared collars and bad haircuts floating about.
And it had a typical 70's tune playing along in the background.
Does anyone else remember this or am I loosing it at 26 ?
Cheers
Allan
Jane Pook
>
>Does anyone fancy a bit of reminiscing about public information films,
>classic or otherwise?
>
>
>victims (all children) floating in various dangerous places - weirs,
>ponds etc
As well as the usual yobs drinking and then going swimming in the sea, and
not diving into water you don't know because you may break your neck.
>
>Anyone else care to comment or add their favourites? And - important,
>this - does anyone have a collection of these old classics? You hardly
>ever see them these days, and I think that they're as much a part of
>TV culture as anything else.
>
I was very impressed by a driving one I saw in Ireland recently, it was
definitely a classic - clips of some excellent songs ranging from
"It's a Lovely Day" at the start in the sunshine to "Highway to Hell"
when it rains and theres a nasty accident. The accident was rather good
too, plenty of blood and injuries and of course the obligitory child
who was killed or injured, and the bloke's girlfriend didn't look too pleased
with him. And he hadn't even been drinking, simply overtaking
rather recklessly. This was more appropriate in Ireland where there are few
roads with more than one lane, here you'd probably get to a bit of dual
carriageway.
On the other hand the ridiculous anti-drink drive ad we have in England
where there's someone visiting a friend in hospital after they'd both
been drinking and obviously chosen the least drunk person to drive is
totally ridiculous. Everyone I know who watches it says "it's his own
fault for getting into a car with a drunken driver, they certainly both knew
they were too pissed to drive before they started."
Peter Anghelides
Fairy Godmother: "Then learn to swim, young man. Learn to swim!"
(More like "Don't wear flares, young man", if my eyes didn't deceive me.)
Peter Anghelides
PS: Anyone remember Derek Guyler's dulcet tones providing the voice of
the cartoon grandad in the rain by the pelican crossing? "Wish I'd brought
me brolly."
mike plowman
Not to mention the green cross code ones. The ones with with Dave
prowse as Green Cross Man were just naff but who remembers the GCC ads
with Alivin Stardust!!! Recently reshown on C4's galm night. Excellent
What about Squawk the Parrot?
Mike
Bicester
UK
B&C
Have to agree the all time classic is "I wish I didn't keep losing me
birds", which I won't type out all again!
How about the little ditty..
"Dark means danger, so get yourself seen...
At night make it bright, in the dark make it light and get yourself seen.
Whether working for a living or riding for your pleasure
Let the world see that life is something that you treasure
and get yourself seen.
Take some paint to your bike..
etc." Remember it? Ends with someone sounding a bike horn.
Then there's "Think Once, Think Twice, Think Bike!" (Or as The Young Ones
had it: "Think Once, Think Twice, Think Don't Drive Your Car On The
Pavement!")
George and Petunia I have hazy memories of. She was a fat woman with
sunglasses? Someone was drowning and they thought he was waving? Remind
me someone...
Don't mix cross-plys and radials...
The dip don't dazzle cartoon with the guy with a dip-switch in his head.
"Some of my friends who drive cars tell me they have dip-switches too..."
10 Red bottles hanging on the wall. 2 pints to Casualty. Etc. Give Blood.
Some old fart on a bicycle (cartoon) making the perfect right-hand turn,
voiced by Kenny Everett? "I wonder if that's why he's stayed alive for so
long?"
"Look Back!" For motorcyclists. Voiced by Peter Purves.
My second favourite of all time is where the father and son are on the
sofa and dad is testing his sons highway code? "Very good son, now do you
think you find our way out of here?" And he drives off on the sofa!
Anyone remember what this was all about?
Andrew
--/___
Allan Phoenix
>prowse as Green Cross Man were just naff but who remembers the GCC ads
>with Alivin Stardust!!! Recently reshown on C4's galm night. Excellent
This one is also a tenuous claim to fame, my Dad knew him and I've got his
autograph. Not a big deal now, but when you're 8 and Star Wars is your
current obsession, having Darth Vaders autograph was 2nd only to having Kevin Keegans.
D L Jones
>
>Not to mention the green cross code ones. The ones with with Dave
>prowse as Green Cross Man were just naff but who remembers the GCC ads
>with Alivin Stardust!!! Recently reshown on C4's galm night. Excellent
>
Early versions with Cockney singer Joe Brown:
"'Ere, kids, can you 'elp me get back across now?"
"Wossit wurf, Joe?"
Marmiteman
Gareth Randall
>Also, the all time classic of all time, a short animated clip where a
>young girl's fairy godmother grants her three wishes; two of which
>were "I wish I was at the beach" and "I wish Dave were here". And Dave
>turns up, but he can't swim and has to decline going into the water by
>saying "Not my scene man!"; it ends with the fairy godmother saying
>"Then learn to swim young man, learn to swim!". Anybody?
Yes! Yes! I could only remember the final line from the fairy
godmother before, but now you've reminded me I can remember it all,
including the useless trivia fact that the voices were done by Peter
Hawkins (original Daleks, Flowerpot Men etc).
>Not to mention the green cross code ones. The ones with with Dave
>prowse as Green Cross Man were just naff
Oh, I don't know! I really used to like his costume (well, I *was*
about 8 years old), and remember the Green Cross Droid?
"I won't be there when *you* cross the road - so always use the Green
Cross Code!"
>George and Petunia I have hazy memories of. She was a fat woman with
>sunglasses? Someone was drowning and they thought he was waving? Remind
>me someone...
There was the waving/drowning one, and another one about them going
into the country and dropping litter, leaving gates open etc. A
red-faced farmer character jumped up and down in anger while George
said "Now he's doing one of them country dances!", and the farmer
ended the clip by saying "When folks go out to the country, why oh why
don't they follow the country code?"
Can anyone remember any other G&P clips?
>"Look Back!" For motorcyclists. Voiced by Peter Purves.
I saw another (very old) Peter Purves one fairly recently; it was
about the correct way to go round roundabouts. The pay-off line was
something like "Get in the right lane. Give the other fella a chance,
and we'll all get home a lot sooner!"
While we're on a roll here...
Can anyone remember specific Tufty ads? The only one I can recall is
where one of Tufty's friends dashes out into the road from behind an
ice-cream van.
"Snatch of the Day" - this must be the all-time classic
anti-pickpocket PIF! Remember the slo-mo action replay?
"Look After Your Plastic" - various cliche criminal types in a
classroom learning how to steal credit cards.
The one about locking up your car in which a Fagin and Artful
Dodger-type pair walk down a street at night past various parked cars.
Fagin points out all the cars they can't nick and why, and they
finally come across a VW Beetle (I think) which they *can* nick. This
always used to frighten me, because the final shot was from the
point-of-view of someone sitting in the back seat - Fagin turns to
smile evilly into the camera, while the V/O says "Don't think it can't
happen to you - it can!"
The "don't smuggle animals because they might have rabies" one in
which a dog wanders around a town. The camera sees from the POV of the
dog, and every human it meets backs away in fright - some old lady
shuts herself in a phone box!
And finally (I could keep this up all night!), the Punch and Judy
"don't go with strangers" clip. This also terrified me, mainly due to
the menacing-looking pair of adult legs wandering around behind the
crowd of children, the voice of the crocodile : "Would you like to
come for a ride in my car? Mummy sent me to get you!", and the puppet
policeman telling to the adult viewers to tell their children to
beware of strangers at the end, which included the line "...do it
carefully, so that you don't frighten them"!
Any more for any more?
Gareth
Kev Digweed
I seem to recall a road safety one where this film crew are filming something
and a guy in a car nearly knocks this girl off her bike. She moans about it
and they do it again to show how you "should" overtake a bike.
Definitely mid-seventies.
Kev.
--
Kevin. Micro Focus, Newbury, UK. (k...@mfltd.co.uk)
These views are strictly my own.
I doubt very much that anyone else would want them.
Scott Williamson
another traffic light.
Scott.
Paul Beardow
>Does anyone fancy a bit of reminiscing about public information films,
>classic or otherwise?
So far no-one's mentioned my fave - "polish a floor and put a rug on
it and you might as well set a man trap!" "Wooo-arghhhh!!" "and to
think he had only just come from the hospital"
Serves him right for looking like Dennis Dunstable from TV's "Please
Sir".
They never show the bit where he clouts the old bag round the head for
doing it in the first place. "You daft old trout, you might have
killed me!". It would also have made a much better advert if they had
shown him carrying the baby, then he could have slipped and accidently
tossed the baby into the kitchen along with an electric fire and do
two safety films at once - "Never let your children play with
hazardous high voltage electric items in the bath - or kitchen sink if
you are lower class council tenants".
I also seem to remember one where they warn you about Jimmy Saville
giving you a peach and then smacking you in the gob with a hammer.
"Goodness gracious, now then, now then, now then, hello Mr Pedestrian,
here's a nice juicy peach, BOSH! Remember "clunk, click every trip or
I'll smack you in the lip", here's a Jim'll Fix it badge for you,
oo-oo-oo-oo".
Of course my memory gets a little faded as a get older...
Paul B.
Chris Burns
: I remeber most of the ones in the original post, but does anyone remember the
Was this the one where the young son was reading comics under his bedsheets
with a torch?? "You'll ruin your eyes". Heh, heh. I seem to remember that
the ad just followed daily life and then there was a bit at the end lasting
about a second where the dad nearly ploughed into them.. waste of time!
Does anyone remember the road safety ad "Worn tyres spell danger"? where
this young man and his girlfriend went for a ride in rainy weather in a
soft top Morris Minor and of course came to a calamitous end. I think
the ad finished with a close up of a spinning car wheel with - gasp! -
worn tyres!!
Also, the all time classic of all time, a short animated clip where a
young girl's fairy godmother grants her three wishes; two of which
were "I wish I was at the beach" and "I wish Dave were here". And Dave
turns up, but he can't swim and has to decline going into the water by
saying "Not my scene man!"; it ends with the fairy godmother saying
"Then learn to swim young man, learn to swim!". Anybody?
And even (I'm gonna have to stop soon :-) the car parking film with
Reginald Molehusband (or something like that) reversing his Austin 1100
into a space a tank could have got through and being applauded as the
"safest driver in the world"?
: Cheers
: Allan
I'm glad I'm a child of the 70's!! :-)
Cheers, Chris
--
--------------------
Chris Burns, Imperial Cancer Research Fund
bu...@icrf.icnet.uk
"You're a creature of the night, Michael. Wait'll Mom hears
about this!"
-- The Lost Boys
D L Jones
>And even (I'm gonna have to stop soon :-) the car parking film with
>Reginald Molehusband (or something like that) reversing his Austin 1100
>into a space a tank could have got through and being applauded as the
>"safest driver in the world"?
"This is the story of Reginald Molehusband, whose parallel parking was a
public disgrace...what he missed at the back, he was sure to make up for
at the front...Until the day Reginald got it right...Not too far
forward...and watching traffic (Come on Reginald!)..." etc. etc.
Ah the curse of a packrat memory.
Of course, if you want to reach really far back, you've got Cyril
Fletcher doing a distinctly odd ode about how young Emily got tummy ache
because various people didn't wash their hands before preparing food,
All those Dixon of Dock Green voice-overs about traffic safety... the guy
going for a spin on the new-fangled Motorway and getting out for an
ever-so-illegal stroll along it.
Animations were popular in the early days, just like in early
commercials. The voice overs often were in rhyme, or involved kids as
questioners.."Why do your headlights get long and short, Daddy?"
How about the tramp who railed against people parking in places were they
would cause accidents, and could with a little whistle magically move the
offending cars elsewhare...
And this would all be incomplete without those great words from the Era
of White Hot Socialism:
"You know it makes sense"
Marmiteman.
R.P. Augood
g...@easynet.co.uk (Gareth Randall) wrote:
>
>Does anyone fancy a bit of reminiscing about public information films,
>classic or otherwise?
>
>their airtime,
Like when Channel 4 started and because they had no adverts they used to have
advert breaks anyway, spending four minutes showing you a picture of a frosty
hoare, or somesuch.
> so when I was a nipper back in the 70s and early 80s
>virtually every ad break contained at least one PIF - and because
>Anglia covered large farming areas, there were loads of them about not
>falling into silage pits and stuff. Terrified the hell out of me.
>Great!
I used to love the adverts on Anglia on Sunday lunchtime when all the farmers
were watching. You'd be tucking in to your roast lamb while Phil Drabble or
someone like that would describe all the various disgusting diseases that
sheep could catch and how some new product could prevent them. "Bowel Scour"
was always my favourite.
>
>Here are a few that my friends and I remember either scaring us or
>making us laugh...
>
>The anti-litter one which had a kid running along a beach, and
>freeze-framed just before he trod on a jagged tin can (could have been
>a broken bottle)
>#
'twas a broken bottle and that thing used to scare me witless. Whenever it
came on I used to casually saunter out of the room and sit in the next room
gibbering until I thought it was safe to come back.
The one with the ice cream van, the small child and the speeding Vauxhall
always had the same effect.
Rico.
R.P. Augood
anghe...@vnet.ibm.com (Peter Anghelides) wrote:
>Dave, recently usurped by fishy Mike: "I wish... I wish I didn't keep losin'
me birds"
>Fairy Godmother: "Then learn to swim, young man. Learn to swim!"
>
Breast stroke, back stroke
Butterfly and crawl
Doggy paddle,belly flop
You can do them all
LEARN
TO
SWIM
Rico.
R.P. Augood
Stephen Harrison
>
> I remeber most of the ones in the original post, but does anyone remember
the
> VERY 70's one about an accident prone family.
One of my favourites!
> Does anyone else remember this or am I loosing it at 26 ?
>
It went something like:
"This is my Mum....Dad..sister". etc "This is my Gran" <Old bag at the
window> "She always waits there. She worries when we're not all
home." <bit I can't remember but there is a sequence where he is always
being told not to do things - then it gets on to road safety and how his Mum
doesn't do what he has been taught at school> "We have been told at school to
use the crossing and my Mum says that's quite right when you're young. My
Dad's very careful. But he doesn't always practice what he preaches. <Dad
crosses road and causes car to pull up suddenly> "Now if anyone had done
that when he had been driving he'd have done his nut. The best though was
when I was with Mum. We were coming home from the shops after getting me my
shoes when suddenly <Mum tries to cross the street between some parked cars
and almost comes a cropper> "My Mum went to tell the driver what she thought
of him and he was getting out to do the same. And do you know who it was? My
Dad! In our new car. We could have both finished up as mincemeat. And how
do you think they would have explained that to my Gran <Cut back to old bag
at the window>
--
Stephen Harrison
He who filters my good name steals trash
ste...@telos.demon.co.uk
Richard Tibbetts
At the end, the frustrated viewer, unable to get a clear picture, smashes the
TV, and the car blows up!
God, I must be old!
--
Richard Tibbetts
ke...@krlee.demon.co.uk
<g...@easynet.co.uk> writes
[snipped]
>
>Any more for any more?
>
>Gareth
There was a series of vivid ones in the early eighties about the dangers
of discarding litter. One I remember showed a duck drowning after
choking on a plastic bag discarded in a river and the other showed rats
in the London Underground system feeding on discarded quick food boxes.
I think these may only have been shown in the Thames TV area.
--
Kevin Lee
Simon Gray
the aether:
~ >Not to mention the green cross code ones. The ones with with Dave
~ >prowse as Green Cross Man were just naff but who remembers the GCC ads
~ >with Alivin Stardust!!! Recently reshown on C4's galm night. Excellent
~ This one is also a tenuous claim to fame, my Dad knew him and I've got his
~ autograph. Not a big deal now, but when you're 8 and Star Wars is your
~ current obsession, having Darth Vaders autograph was 2nd only to having Kevin Keegans.
He turned up to the recent(ish) Babylon 5 convention in Birmingham with
the intention of signing autographs. It was actually quite sad seeing
this rather past it person sitting there being completely unrecognised
with nobody going up to him.
--
Simon Gray, Musician, in Birmingham, England, UK, European Union.
<a href="http://metro.turnpike.net/M/mahayana/index.htm">W3 Page</a>,
Last updated 14 June 1995. I oppose French nuclear testing
in the South Pacific. Make of that what you will... <*>
Pete Fenelon
Ooh, yeah.
Let me see, there was the one with the kid and his mum going shopping and
meeting Dad in his new brown Vauxhall Viva -- proper little miniature soap
opera that was.
The one about old people and fires...
The one about dropping lit fags down the back of sofas...
Something to do with unplugging your telly and/or bad wiring...
and the immortal "Learn To Swim" ones -- classics. "Mike's cool. He swims
like a fish".
Not forgetting the immortal Charlie the cat. This used to worry me.
The kid does something bloody stupid, like picking up a hand grenade,
pulling out the pin and sauntering off down the road with it in his pocket.
The cat makes a sort of whingeing noise approximately the same as the one a
lady cat makes when she's receiving unwanted and intimate attention from a
large feral tom. *AND THE KID UNDERSTANDS IT*. "Charlie says never mess with
unattended explosives, 'cos it's f---ing stupid".
What was the child on?
Followed of course by the inevitable shot of Charlie eating a fish, and
leaving just the inevitable skeleton, head and tail.
(incidentally, I wish Charley would start working in fish preparation for
Marks and Spencers -- cod *fillets* shouldn't have that many bones in 'em. But
maybe that should belong on alt.peeves?)
pete
--
Peter Fenelon - Research Associate - High Integrity Systems Engineering Group,
Dep't of Computer Science, University of York, York, YO1 5DD (+44 1904 433388)
Mail: pe...@cs.york.ac.uk & Homepage on: http://dcpu1.cs.york.ac.uk:6666/~pete/
Pete Fenelon
> : The message was a road safety one and it ended with the Dad nearly running down the
> : Mum & son of the family in his Mark 1 Escort ( I think it was an Escort ).
>
I was convinced that it was a Mk2 Viva HA, probably a 1300, but I might just
be terminally sad. I do remember that it was finished in that unique
monkeyshit brown hue unique to the naffer Vauxhalls of that era.
pete (child of the sixties)
Pete Fenelon
> Not to mention the green cross code ones. The ones with with Dave
>
it.
sad techie joke from
pete
(besides, you'd think Alvin Stardust should do ads about "don't let your
baby fall down the stairs when you're not looking" -- perhaps he could join
forces with Clapton ("don't let your baby go near high windows you
pillock..."))
Pete Fenelon
> Don't mix cross-plys and radials...
Ahhhhhhhhh....... a true classic. I'd forgotten about that. Mind you, it
reminds me of something.
Back in the days when the Morris Marina was regarded as rather sporty and
quite the thing by BL, there was a consistent and nasty case of a Marina
pulling to the left under braking.
Owner took it to the garage, they checked the brakes, everything was fine.
It was only some time later that some bright spark noticed that the
offending vehicle had been fitted with disc brakes on the left and drums on
the right....
Now *that*'s the sort of engineering that made Britain the great nation she
is today.
pete ("why don't the British make televisions?" "'cos they can't work out
how to make them leak oil"). (well, actually, I've got a Ferguson
portable that's worked beautifully for 11 years :))
Ed
noisely counting out her pocket money? The moral was supposed to
be 'don't drive too fast, think of your poor kiddies etc'. In
reality, it would have been more appropriate to say 'don't make an
annoying racket in the back of the car, or you'll *die*, you little
brat'.
Incidentally, many years ago, at primary school, the upper years were
shown 'very gory' public information films. Of course this didn't
really have the warning effect the makers had hoped. We were far
too busy cheering at all the disgusting bits.
Ed.
Chris Boden
one hate figure from the 70s ? Yes, it has to be ..... Claude the Caravan!
Claude and his dimwitted (surprise!) owner used to have their own ad. listing
no-nos for caravan owners; don't go over 50, don't let anyone ride in the back,
don't overload it, etc ..
A recent survey by a police force in the south-west (I forget which) found that
nearly three quarters of the caravans checked weren't fit to be on the roads,
so perhaps this little gem should be repeated ....
mab...@mathssun5lancs.ac.uk
then drops his fag and starts a fire.
And aJohn Cleese one with methods of suicide like jumping from
a ground floor being "Not reccomended" But driving close in the wet was.
On the same theme "Only a fool breaks the 2 second rule"
Rolf Harris teaching Kids to swim and at the end they all duck him
which seemed pretty irresponsible.
THe one with a foster mother and pictures of the lad in flares and long
hair and his girlfriend holding a stick running in the country, and him being hit on the
back of the head by the ball playing football.
A creepy one of a doctors report on a kid that has drunk bleach with
pictures of a kid playing tea parties with it.
Alvin Stardust "You could have been under a double decker bus and you
wouldn"t even have noticed"
For theGreen cross code.
mab...@mathssun5lancs.ac.uk
<were watching. You'd be tucking in to your roast lamb while Phil Drabble or
>someone like that would describe all the various disgusting diseases that
>sheep could catch and how some new product could prevent them. "Bowel Scour"
>was always my favourite.
mike plowman
My fave was the one imploring drivers not to park on pavements.
Firstly a young mum with shopping and a pushchair was forced to go
round the car onto the busy road but then the camera switched to an
elderly gent with white stick coming along and smack he goes into the
parked car and tumbles, somewhat shocked, to the floor. I know I'm a
twisted bastard but this never failed to crack me and my brothers up!
The other one, which terrified my son, wa about leavaing rubbish lain
about and ended with a cute little doggie about to stick his nose into
a razor sharp tin can. My son would burst into tears every time it was
shown. (We taped it so we could make him cry to order when we had
friends round. Hours of amusement! ) Only joking......or am I?
Mike
Bicester
UK
mike plowman
>(besides, you'd think Alvin Stardust should do ads about "don't let your
>baby fall down the stairs when you're not looking" -- perhaps he could join
>forces with Clapton ("don't let your baby go near high windows you
>pillock..."))
>--
ROTFLMBO
And Rick Parfitt in a Teach Your Child To Swim!' ad.
Mike
Bicester
UK
Simon Buch
>and the immortal "Learn To Swim" ones -- classics. "Mike's cool. He swims
>like a fish".
This PIF is rather ironic. The above line should read "Mike's hypothermic
and has gastroenteritis from swimming in British coastal waters".
About 1000 people die each year from the chilling effects of the waters
around Britain - and yet this death trap alone is not advertised. I just
wonder how many people die each year with retrieving Frisbees from
Electricity sub-stations.
But of course the government wouldn't dare show any of those films about
leaving rubbish on beaches when your local (privateized) water and sewerage
companies do it for free! (or should that read "at a profit" ?)
--
Simon
"Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures" - Samuel Johnson
Barbed Wire Kisses and Icicle Tears
: Does anyone fancy a bit of reminiscing about public information films,
: classic or otherwise?
One name says it all: Tufty!
--
Tony Blews, Software Technician, Staffordshire University.
URL: http://tardis.soc.staffs.ac.uk/tony/
Stephen Harrison
trying to encourage drivers not to switch lanes on a motorway for no
good reason.
Two other motoring ones that spring to mind - "Only a fool breaks the
two second rule" (about keeping your distance on the motorway) and
the risible "Think once, think twice, think bike".
Ian Collier
>But GCC is covered by the GNU Public Licence, they don't need to advertise
>it.
No, silly, that's "gcc". Unix is case-sensitive. :-)
Ian Collier - i...@comlab.ox.ac.uk - WWW Home Page:
http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/users/ian.collier/index.html
Ian Collier
>Can anyone remember specific Tufty ads? The only one I can recall is
>where one of Tufty's friends dashes out into the road from behind an
>ice-cream van.
There is one where they are playing with a ball and it goes across the road.
B&C
> Tufty wasn't as good as the ones with Charley the cat and that
>freaky kid. You know, "Charlie says... blah blah blah".
> My favourite is where the cat falls in the river and you have
>this weird sequence underwater which must have been based on some bad
>drug trip.
I don't remember that one. Are you sure you're not confusing
public information films with bad drug trips you've experienced yourself? :-)
David John Patrick
Oh come on, you must remember them. The cat would make some
yowling sounds and then the kid would translate, someone sampled it for a
record a few years back. There were three films that I could remember,
playing on the riverbank, another one about going off somewhere without
telling mummy or daddy and one about strangers.
Charlie could have Tufty for lunch and probably would have given
half a chance.
David Patrick
Pete Fenelon
>
> I don't remember that one. Are you sure you're not confusing
> public information films with bad drug trips you've experienced yourself? :-)
>
of four.
pete
Andrew Boulton
> Incidentally, many years ago, at primary school, the upper years were
> shown 'very gory' public information films. Of course this didn't
> really have the warning effect the makers had hoped. We were far
> too busy cheering at all the disgusting bits.
Ah, I remember them well!
_Building Sites Bite_ was probably the best.
---===---
Andrew Boulton
Stephen Harrison
sites.....
Sir Issac Newton told us why
An apple falls down from the sky
And from this fact its fairly plain
Most other objects do the same.
A brick, a bolt, a bar, a cup
Invariably fall down not up.
So if at work you drop a spanner
It travels in a downward manner.
These simple facts and many more
Illustrate old Newton's law
But one thing he forgot to add
The damage won't be half as bad
If you are wearing proper clothes
Especially on your head and toes.
So best feet forward and take care
About the kind of shoes you wear.
Its better to be sure than dead.
So get a hat and keep your head.
Andy Calder
i...@ecs.ox.ac.uk (Ian Collier) wrote:
>In article <1995Sep10.1...@zippy.dct.ac.uk>, pe...@cs.york.ac.uk (Pete
>Fenelon) wrote:
>>pete ("why don't the British make televisions?" "'cos they can't work out
>> how to make them leak oil"). (well, actually, I've got a Ferguson
>> portable that's worked beautifully for 11 years :))
>
>I thought it was smoke that they put in, not oil (you can tell because when
>the smoke leaks out the TV stops working).
I have a Mitsubushi TV (Made in UK), 11 years old and it has run out
of green and blue ink. Can't get the refills anymore either.
Anyone need the remaining red ink?
Andy Calder.
Julian Barkway
an...@calder.demon.co.uk (Andy Calder) wrote:
Nope. I've got a Hitachi which, so they tell me, runs on electrons....
red ones, green ones and, rarest and most precious of all, blue ones.
Actually, I think they're wrong. I think it's got lots of little pixies
inside who run up and down the screen very fast, painting little dots on
the inside. Then another bunch of pixies runs behind them with mops and
buckets cleaning off all the paint, as fast as they can go. Over and over
again.
Sometimes, when I blink very quickly, I can just see them running up and
down the screen....
========================================================================
Julian Barkway, | Be original. Wear a spoon on your head.
jbar...@euronet.nl, |
Amsterdam. |
Andrew Fovargue
writes:
> Actually, I think they're wrong. I think it's got lots of little pixies
> inside who run up and down the screen very fast, painting little dots on
> the inside. Then another bunch of pixies runs behind them with mops and
> buckets cleaning off all the paint, as fast as they can go. Over and over
> again.
> Sometimes, when I blink very quickly, I can just see them running up and
> down the screen....
> ========================================================================
> Julian Barkway, | Be original. Wear a spoon on your head.
> jbar...@euronet.nl, |
> Amsterdam. |
Amsterdam is the place with lax drug laws, isn't it?
Andy
Richard Evans
: In article <6994...@comlab.ox.ac.uk>,
: i...@ecs.ox.ac.uk (Ian Collier) wrote:
: >In article <1995Sep10.1...@zippy.dct.ac.uk>, pe...@cs.york.ac.uk (Pete
: >Fenelon) wrote:
: I have a Mitsubushi TV (Made in UK), 11 years old and it has run out
: of green and blue ink. Can't get the refills anymore either.
That sort of problem really makes me see red...
What about the PIF where the driver is falling asleep as he comes up behind
an HGV on the motorway - "does this ever happen to you ? Driver Fatigue -
get some fresh air, stop and have a cup of coffee (unless you're on the M40)"
I remember this one quite recently.
Another thing which always amused me was that after the BBC had shown a PIF we
would get an anouncement from the continuity announcement saying (in best BBC)
"That was a Public Information Film" - in case you thought it was an advert.
rhe
my views, mine alone...