Bring back public information films!

[Glitterbiscuits]

I think we seriously need a return of basic common sense guidance in the UK — more help, less confusion, and less reliance on unreliable social media posts.

It feels like proper public information films have basically disappeared. The most recent one I can even remember is the CPR campaign with Vinnie Jones, teaching chest compressions to the tune of Staying Alive.

Maybe the big soap operas could even cover some of these issues, because people genuinely don’t know things they should know. For example, I’ve met several people who have no idea we should be taking vitamin D supplements over winter in the UK.
I’ve sat in concerts with people still wearing their hats!
I honestly think this reluctance to be seen as a “nanny state” isn’t helping anyone.
We could easily have public information films covering things like:
Washing your hands! It’s incredible to think people needed to be told this during COVID.
Avoiding online scams
Bank security and spotting fake texts
Basic food hygiene
Everyday courtesy (letting people off the train before you push on, not blocking doorways, etc.)
Keep Britain Tidy-style campaigns

Not preachy. Just practical. A bit of guidance would make daily life better for everyone.

Wasn’t that in Hancock’s Half Hour? 😀

Charlie says use headphones in public places because no one else wants to listen to your brain rot videos.

(Or the man with the puppies will get you...)

@CherryRipe1can you elaborate any more?

Actually this would be an excellent setting for a sitcom!

Quite right Fanny Button.

@ Glitter biscuits. Dad didn't speak about his job much really. I think he'd signed the OSA as he worked in propaganda at some stage too on secondment. I did go to his office a few times as a child at Hercules House, Hercules Road, Lambeth. It was dismal, shabby and utilitarian - if you've seen Slow Horses it was like Jackson Lambs office in Slough House. I would mess around on the phones & with the stationery. He did mention working on the Clunk Click production. Said Jimmy Savile was a nice bloke 😯 but my Dad liked most people.

This is Public Information HQ!

Cherry, somehow I had an idea the PIF building would look like that one !

Totally get it! OMG the boy drowning in the slurry pit, and the poisoned girl screaming... those screams scarred my soul as a 10-year-old! 😱We didn't live near any farms anyway, but it would have most certainly put me off playing on them...

In all of my 58 years I've rarely heard screaming more harrowing than that girl's. I gather she was supposed to have imbibed the tiniest sip of something like paraquat, and after having read what that would do to a person's insides that scene makes total sense.

Was the first one you mentioned the one with the frisbee and the electric pylon? I was pretty scared of pylons as a kid because of that one. Looking back, those PIFs were definitely a reflection of how 70s kids had more freedom than was good for them sometimes!