Vintage UK Public Information Films (Vol.1)

[@choppercam01]

I swear they need to bring all these back because of this new generation 😂

[@RetroSteveUK]

We definitely don't seem to see as many PIFs as we used to. It might be due to the fact that there are so many channels and platforms now. When there were only three or four channels it was easy to get everyone to be watch the same thing at the same time. Actually, now I think about it, that sounds a little sinister!

[@sarahfields288]

Especially the littering one. Especially in my area

[@mgthestrange9098]

Yeah, there’s a lot of entitled dum dums about these days. They could do with watching these.

[@Mel-hl1bb]

Yes they need to bring these back

[@samanthahardy9903]

The problem is that this new generation don't like being told what to do, especially by the government. However, many of these films would be a good idea because there are a lot of idiots out there without a lot of common sense. E.g With fireworks. Stranger danger. Rules of the road. Dangers of drugs etc. I still remember the "Just say No!" Campaign.

[@SiRhodesDriverTraining]

That Jimmy advert was haunting. On those substations, you don’t actually have to go very close to the conductors to get electrocuted. A school mate thought he was safe retrieving a Football as it was on a flat roof and not directly on the conductors. He didn’t make it back down. Thinking back, the area round the substation was a playground for us. There were warning signs up but not many compared to these days and, despite theses adverts, I think a little bit of the mindset of invincibility was to play with my generation.

[@RetroSteveUK]

Absolutely. I remember it well.

[@fatherjack636]

Thanks. Took me 40 years to get over Deep Dark Water and now I won’t sleep tonight

[@RetroSteveUK]

😬

[@MrDirkles]

Confession time. In 1982 I was playing with matches and candles in the garden. Suddenly I remembered that swap shop had started on the tv so I ran indoors. 30 minutes later someone was shouting and banging on the front door. Some idiot (me) had managed to set fire to a wooden cabinet in the garden which had then set fire to the fence. All the neighbours were getting buckets of water to put the fire out. It was quite a commotion. I told my dad that it was probably a firework someone had set off which had landed in the garden.

[@RetroSteveUK]

Good save! 😬

[@mattw8332]

Loving the moog synthesiser music in some of these. I think that was the late Donald Pleasance voicing the 'Spirit of Dark water' one.

[@glenjarnold]

The dark water one was definitely the best!

[@OofusTwillip]

Donald Pleasance's calm, empty delivery is as chilling as it gets.

[@glenjarnold]

@@OofusTwillip Absolutely - they couldn't have chosen better.

[@pupskin123]

I used to have nightmares as a kid about these PSFS....especially dark water and learn to swim...or you will dye!!! They worked on me lol 😅!

[@TimelordUK]

Dark waters gave me nightmares. Loved it

[@mysticgeneie4668]

Don’t go near the water, it is full of debris the council can’t be arsed to remove. *Ends with child throwing more debris in water*

[@julieb5707]

Wow memories. These need to be bought back and maybe shown in schools

[@peteychops7888]

‘Do you know where your lad’s going tonight?’ It’s an effort to get the buggers to go anywhere now.

[@RetroSteveUK]

That crossed my mind too! 🤣

[@RetroReminiscing]

🤣🤣 yes more like: do you realise how many hours your lad has been staring at his monitor/screen ? 🤣

[@bigdvinyl2012]

Classics from the good old days thanks for sharing ❤

[@anjkovo2138]

Spirit of the Dark & lonely water was the one for me in the 70s. Frightend the life out of me👍👍

[@thomascook578]

Another brilliant batch of adverts. Jimmmyyyyyyyyyy!

[@mistofoles]

Ha ! Very appropriate ! In the fireworks pif That's James Marcus who played Fire Officer Sidney Tate in "LONDON'S BURNING". And I think that's Liz Sladen narrating it.

[@RetroSteveUK]

Irony

[@richardbutler4654]

I would have guessed Felicity Kendall myself.

[@storm3698]

Great ads. Some were even scarier than that. As for the tv dectector van, apparently it was scare tactics and couldn't pick up tv signals.

[@RetroSteveUK]

I'd heard something like that too.

[@storm3698]

@@RetroSteveUK yes mate. The Jimmy electrical accident slightly longer version shows his trousers proper burning for bit longer . Scary but hits home an important message. Thanks for uploading. Nostalgia is a great thing. 👍🏻

[@mistofoles]

The longer version must be the one where Jimmy was wearing his flares..

[@oakfront]

The editors cut

[@danbrown7562]

Brilliant! The frisbee one gave me nightmares when I was little. Whenever I listen to ‘Boards of Canada’ it always comes back to haunt me. Cheers Steve!

[@RetroSteveUK]

I love Boards of Canada. Their 'Aquarius' song came on the radio so I looked them up. I still need to properly listen to the rest of their albums though. Have they done a song based on this advert?

[@danbrown7562]

@@RetroSteveUK I don’t think so - it’s just those eerie 70s electronic samples. It’s a wonder we weren’t all traumatised growing up back then !

[@canturgan]

I think that 'band' is one Scottish bloke.

[@TallSilentGuy]

0:46 I love the way the frisbee nestles between the metal plates just like it belongs there.

[@Matty112uk]

Great set, If you've got more of these it could be over several more videos. One of the scariest I remember was the 'Rabies means death' PIF. The older 70's and 80's UK PIFS were very distinctive, you knew they were coming on because the video would play and then the sound would cut in!

[@RetroSteveUK]

I have seven more in storage at the moment, waiting for Volume 2. As more turn up they'll get added to the folder. Once there are enough to make a compilation I'll fire it out.

[@burbercat3558]

Missed a trick on the Punch and Judy add. It should be Don't hit the baby, don't hit the wife, and certainly don't hit crocodiles as they'll bite your arms off.

[@kevinlewis3029]

I swear I still have PTSD from that frisbee information video.

[@waynemillward2807]

That's one thing you don't see enough of on TV today if infact at all.Very popular in the 70s and 80s but very rarely today.They use to be on ITV and the BBC.

[@emilywhitfield2780]

Wish we had these back now! Kids these days need them!!❤❤❤

[@RetroSteveUK]

I agree. Btw .. volume 2 will be uploaded this Friday. 😁

[@OofusTwillip]

"Grain Pit" reminds me of a 1909 silent movie called "A Corner in Wheat", about a ruthless businessman who sets out to corner the market in wheat. He meets his doom in a grain silo.

[@jimmymorrison8314]

"Jiiiimmmeeee'! You'd think with all these infomercials I would have had more sense than to grab hold of fallen overhead cables. Nope, I actually did. ''kin doughnut. Thanks for sharing, a real blast from the past. ❤️

[@RetroSteveUK]

I managed to touch the bare element of an electric fire when I was a kid, to see if it was starting to warm up. I never did that again! ⚡🤣

[@jimmymorrison8314]

@@RetroSteveUK haha, ouch! Good lesson learned.

[@boredsund]

Great to see some of the more unusual PIFs here, look forward to seeing the second lot.

[@KatMusic2009]

The frisbee one scared me so much as a child. Did anyone else spot Joe McGann in the later litter dropping ad, driving the car?!

[@RetroSteveUK]

Yes, I thought he looked familiar.

[@seansabhaois]

It's amazing anyone of a certain generation, managed to survive childhood: so many dangers & obstacles in the way of growing up. The golden rules I can remember, in no particular order: Don't run around with scissors ✂️ Don't stand near a window, during a storm⛈️ Don't drink liquids, from bottles you find under a kitchen sink😵‍💫 Oh yeah, don't go swimming after a big meal 🏊

[@RetroSteveUK]

My mum hides her Irish Moonshine under the kitchen sink. You're probably right about that kitchen sink golden rule.

[@seansabhaois]

@@RetroSteveUK Ha! Ha! 🙂👍

[@bhamacuk]

Im a child of the seventies, I remember these! The seventies were ace as a kid

[@RetroReminiscing]

I often say these should all be brought back and drummed into children these days from a young age , fantastic upload..love these old retro warnings... we need them back 👍👍

[@RetroSteveUK]

I wonder how many lives have been saved over the years?

[@RetroReminiscing]

@@RetroSteveUK That'a a VERY good thought!!!

[@catherineferguson7388]

Wish they still did these information ads, these days it’s all shopping ads, there’s just no safety ads for kids, it’s so sad, I remember these ads when I was growing up. Thank you xxxx

[@CoolhandLuke552]

I remember the frisby substation ad really hit home with me back then. I will be 50 next year and still to this day seeing substations and pylons "the kite" always conjours up the memory. Safe to say i never diced with either. Great compilation 👍

[@RetroSteveUK]

We must be about the same age - I'm 50 next year. And yes, those ads had a similar effect on me originally.

[@samanthahardy9903]

I still remember singing a song in primary school to encourage us not to drop litter. "Milk bottle tops and paper bags, oil and things and dirty old rags. Litter on the pavements, litter in the parks. Is this what we really want to see? No! No! No!" This was back in the late 1970's/early 1980's. This seemed to coincide with the PIFs on the t.v at the time.

[@stephaniespragg5586]

I remember that song from infant school

[@samanthahardy9903]

@@stephaniespragg5586 I wonder if we went to the same infant school or if the song in assemblies was the same across different schools across the UK.

[@stephaniespragg5586]

@@samanthahardy9903 I went to two different infant schools from 1996 - 1999, the second of which I remember the ‘litter on the pavements’ song from (attendance at the second school was from 1997 - 1999). Infant schools in question were Stokenchurch First School, 1996 - 1997, and Carrington First School, 1997 - 1999

[@samanthahardy9903]

@@stephaniespragg5586It seems the song was still circulating across the U.K for at least a decade or so. Personally I think it was a good song to teach kids not to dump stuff as adults and to recycle.

[@FatNorthernBigot]

This one has the "Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water". 👍 I've saved it to watch later, but I might chicken out. 😁😁

[@DW-ut3fx]

The fireworks one hit home. "YOUR CHILDREN ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!"EXACTLY.

[@Some-kid-called-David]

‘Your children are your responsibility.’

[@RetroSteveUK]

Is that a quote?

[@Some-kid-called-David]

@@RetroSteveUK From one of the clips in this compilation. Just resonated with me. So many memories watching these as a kid. Thanks for the upload.

[@thefrecklepuny]

Thanks for these. They really brought back some memories.

[@Froggywentawandering]

I've had that "learn to swim" song stuck in my head for days hahaha Nice nostalgia vid 😁

[@Mishima505]

Rolf Harris did a PIF about getting kids into swimming…

[@loeuf508]

i love the aesthetic of these commercials the most; the almost cheap, grainy early colour film stock and the weird electronic music gives it a sense of hyperreality. no wonder Analogue Horror is so popular😂 also 5:25

[@davidjones6470]

Excellent as always sir 🤘

[@mistofoles]

"Ay, look ! There's samone in the wohta !" "Err...Pardon ?"

[@sourcecode6467]

Brilliant, as always. KZbin is a better place with this channel on it.

[@geoffwright3692]

JIMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! The greatest PIF moment ever, bar none.

[@garrylawless3550]

I agree with the other comments, they should bring these back. I'm familiar with the ones in the 1970's, they worked on me. Great compilation.👍🏻

[@al201103]

I remember Jimmy and the frisbee all too clearly!! Why was there such a push on learning to swim back then? The one in this video is new to me, but I still remember (word for word) "Here's me dreaming about my boyfriend Dave".

[@RetroSteveUK]

I have that one stored up for the next volume of Public Information Films (Vol.2).

[@Urko2005]

When you can still remember these ads several decades on you know they worked.

[@brutonstreettailor4570]

I was that kid 6 days til Sunday! Except ( probably because of safety adverts just like this ) i knew not to climb into substations, though i didn’t go out the front door, id wait til mum thought i was asleep, put one of my pillows longways under my sheets, and climb out my window onto the porch roof to get out !

[@bernardwallace4165]

They certainly got the message across.

[@ked1804]

These PSAs take me back. Really legit, true and still to this day, effective.

[@stopwearingwatches]

A few classics in here!

[@stacydraper1001]

Public Information Films (or PIFs for short) are massive on KZbin. You could do different categories of PIFS (Road Safety; Fire Safety; etc) 😊❤️👍

[@kevineeley]

did you kids spot the cameo in the learn to swim ad, the lad from the charlie says was in it :) also i loved the creepy footstep at the end of the the tell kids not to get into cars one.

[@RetroSteveUK]

Yeah, had to be the same artist for both adverts.

[@AndreiTupolev]

My lord, I never knew knocking a bottle off a wall could be so terrifying 😢

[@peterwright6721]

Just brilliant, I remember these when I was a kid.

[@TimelordUK]

We need more of these on tv and KZbin ads rather than Grammarly and Remitly

[@chrisstrider]

The Delorien TV❤ I lived in the country and survived the 70s

[@BalearicBeatnik]

scarred me for life as a kid, but they worked, and I never drowned in a grain silo or got zapped by a sub station. I read somewhere the BBC paid Film School Graduates to work on the gory effects, dunno if that's true!

[@mistofoles]

Strangely, I never drowned in a grain silo either. I guess we led gifted lives.

[@montyzumazoom1337]

We need stuff like this on TV now

[@paulreddington6863]

Amazing how these ads stick in the memory. I agree they should show them again - what about in the KZbin advert breaks? 😂 can you remember one from the late 60s featuring a cartoon spiky Jack Frost warning about burst pipes?

[@OofusTwillip]

And the Darwin Award goes to... JIMMYYYY!

[@RetroSteveUK]

🤣

[@D0R3YdrOg0n5]

My plush flimgo 👁️👄👁️

[@stuartsinclair6269]

Just saw my school mate actor, I sat next too, Simon Fenton on that crossing the road ad, yes mirroring the idea from others on here some of these ads should return, 👍🏻

[@RetroSteveUK]

Wow. Small world!

[@robertespley248]

As a kid, all the advice given to me seemed to be prefixed by the words... "Charlie says....."

[@davidbrown7379]

04.19 😳 Some of these still creep me out.

[@Silver-rx1mh]

"Jimmy!!" And Ashen's opening titles were born......lol

[@ChristopherLightfoot-zu3kb]

There was a slightly longer version which showed his flares catching fire 😂😂😂

[@vallejomach6721]

4:35 RIP Terry Sue-Patt (Benny Green in Grange Hill)

[@chrisb4350]

I used to have the book about the firefly lol

[@El-Ritmo]

Richard Briers! Finally. It’s been too weird the past couple of weeks without his voice 😂 A lot of these kid-related films are super-sinister and grim, but I harbour doubts about their effectiveness - they really seem more like they’re actually aimed at adults than children. Some did stick in the mind, though. JIMMY!

[@RetroSteveUK]

If I think about it honestly, I think some of these type of films I saw when I was a boy have stayed with me even to this day.

[@El-Ritmo]

@@RetroSteveUK I clearly remember assemblies at primary school warning about things (there was always a pre-summer holidays one about all the giant hogweed along the canal - the school seemed to be really concerned about that one 😕), but I don’t have strong memories of most of the TV stuff, except for fishing rods and electricity lines (apparently another big deal 🤷🏻), and Charlie Says, though The Prodigy surely played some part in that 😁

[@andrewcostin3297]

Charlie voiced by Kenny everett

[@AtheistOrphan]

Jimmy’s now what the yanks call a ‘Crispy critter’.

[@RetroSteveUK]

@@AtheistOrphan Oh hell yeah! He' dead!

[@ElizabethMorbiddoll86]

Love it!

[@neilgilbert6798]

God i most be getting old I remember these 😂

[@pearljam619]

When children were allowed/wanted to play outside with their friends and not just stare at a screen.

[@AndreiTupolev]

And get run over by a car/blown up by fireworks/suffer apparently appalling injuries from a broken bottle/be zapped by 60,000 volts while attempting to retrieve one's frisbee/be drowned by creepy faceless characters in a monk's habit. Honestly, think of the millions of lives they've saved by never going out of doors! 😰

[@ninaevans4501]

@choppercam01 Hi. Well said, me and my other half are 53 this year. We remember these adverts, and advice from our parents. I work in retail, my other half works in electronics, and knows the pain of 230volt electric shocks. Stored by mains filter capacitors, long after they should have discharged. Life has a big curve of understanding. But my other half says, "Always learn by small mistakes because the next mistake could be your last" 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@RetroSteveUK]

Good advice. The stored charge thing is a shocker (no pun intended). I got a massive jolt years ago from the flash of a smashed camera, when I picked up the camera's internal circuit board. It put a little burn hole in my thumb.

[@kumachan9311]

JIMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Daracdor]

Sad to think we will never see the Reginald Molehusband parking add again was wiped from memory :(

[@RetroSteveUK]

Yeah, lost apparently. There's a recreation though: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jJXOlGBtf5lkf9U

[@RickP2012]

The Jimmy one still gives me nightmares 40 something years later. I was only 4 when I saw it.

[@thefrecklepuny]

"Do you know where your lad's going tonight?" "Absolutely. He's a member of the Bullingdon Club and his about to smash up a local eatery, don't you know".

[@RetroSteveUK]

.. and his name's Boris? 🤣

[@mistofoles]

Donald Pleasence could scare the shit out of you just by clearing his throat.

[@Mishima505]

The biggest threat to kids in the 1970s wasn’t high voltage electrical substations, deep water or railway lines…

[@RetroSteveUK]

Yep! 😞

[@Icecoldgaming-vlogs]

I Remember these so much even substation one gave me nightmares

[@ametrinemoon]

Wasn't there also one with a yacht? The pole hit the electricity lines.

[@Icecoldgaming-vlogs]

Yeah

[@gerdsfargen6687]

The Jimmy rooster is strong with this one.

[@stevedickson5853]

What is it about Morris Marinas getting bashed on tv lol (6:50) 10p tyre test.

[@jeffgreen7629]

I remember most of these and watching them again made me wonder how I ever got out of bed as a child 😱…. At least I was safe in bed….

[@garrywitcomb2334]

Brilliant Steve,remember these well 😆😆 A No nonsense approach is ALWAYS best,shame we have lost that sensibility in this country Forget about "what might offend" , get out the common sence tool box,and apply it !!! Disaplin is NOT a dirty word. Grow up people . . .

[@RetroSteveUK]

I'm all for discipline, (not counting that time in the headmaster's office back in '83 with the tub of vaseline and the fluffy slippers.)

[@Redsleather]

Richard Briars, Felicity Kendall and Keith Barron doing voice-overs. Some very scary stuff here 💀💀

[@nudisco300]

I can hear Hywell Bennett, Richard Briers and Keith Barron.

[@TheWacoKid1963]

Bloody hell, it's station officer Tate with natural coloured hair, no grey in sight

[@sirtompo2]

I remember that Frisbee one

[@hugoboss5895]

You don’t see anything like this anymore. They would always be on at one a.m between the last program and the national anthem. They used to scare the shit out of me.

[@nicholasbuttery511]

Fiework adverts are no longer shown on TV for some reason ?

[@RetroSteveUK]

I noticed that. Not sure why.

[@BenPanced]

Parents separate in the UK? Thank goodness that NEVER happens here in the US! * sarcasm * Our PSAs never touched on such subjects. It's always been the standard "stranger danger"/"don't play with matches"/"don't drink and drive" sorts. But they were never as gruesome as these, either! Woof.

[@safirahmed]

The advert with the crocodile 🐊 could be even scarier if it referred to reptilians seen in popular culture.

[@ninogaggi]

That frisbee one has haunted my dreams for about 40 years, though as an electrician now watching it again I’m unsure how he took 66000V it just doesn’t make sense. I wonder what else they lied to us about 🤔😂

[@RetroSteveUK]

To be fair, those sub stations used to be really scary, and it's purely down to seeing that advert when I was a kid. I guess it worked!

[@mgthestrange9098]

There’s one near me and there’s no way I would’ve went near it! ⚡️

[@PeterFraser-hp3rs]

0:12 It's amazing I'm still here, actually, because I did what this kid did to fetch things that flew into an electric substation -- quite a few times actually -- even after seeing PIF multiple times. Was like water off a duck's back for all it meant to me. Mind you, I wasn't so stupid as to actually climb onto the apparatus, I just picked stuff up from the ground.

[@RetroSteveUK]

Glad you made it! 😬👍

[@theradgegadgie6352]

3:45 Is that Felicity Kendall doing the narration?

[@RetroSteveUK]

I thought that too. I'm pretty sure that's her.

[@mikewhitfield7000]

"We will have to build it all again" 😂

[@covmiss1]

That freebie one still scares me .. but hey , it taught us all though

[@covmiss1]

FRISBEE

[@RetroSteveUK]

Jimmyyy!!!

[@mistofoles]

Gillian Taylforth playing party boy's sister, I think .

[@matthewhendy5785]

Check out the PIF by Michael Spicer.

[@peterolley7159]

The tv licence advert 😂 nothing has changed with them has it

[@RetroSteveUK]

Not much, really. Less heavy-handed in their advertising, maybe. If they went THAT hard now, there'd be massive backlash, I think. They're just like that on the quiet, now.

[@manchesterukabriefvideooftime]

Hilarious yet .. terrifying 😅😢

[@DarkStar-wu9nq]

Robbie - by British Rail Police

[@mikehunt-qr9so]

Jimmmmmmmy toasted

[@herbert9241]

Think once - Think twice - Think don't - Drive your car - On the pavement. Anyone get the reference?

[@RetroSteveUK]

Enlighten me ...

[@herbert9241]

@@RetroSteveUK - Andy de la Tour sketch in an episode of Not the Nine O'Clock News. Plastic bag filled with mashed banana and jam is a deaf pensioner; cricket bat with a brick nailed to it is your car. Watch what happens ...

[@RetroSteveUK]

@@herbert9241 Cheers! 🙂👍

[@herbert9241]

Correction: The Young Ones. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l5q5pnt7q5eJkJY

[@RetroSteveUK]

@@herbert9241 Yes! I remember this now. I just rewatched every episode of the Young Ones recently.

[@cliffsaxon5493]

The British Made The Best PSAs!!!!!!