To ask you which public information films (if any) freaked you out as a child?

[fishdishwish]

There's a few threads in this vein at the moment, but I though I'd start one dedicated to Charley Says... and its ilk.

Most public information films creeped me out as a child (I think it was the sense of something bad about to happen), to the point where I used to try and avoid times where they were often shown. However, one that haunted me for years was the 'Grain Drain' one (warning farmers of the dangers of children playing in grain silos), which shows a doll sinking into grain with the sound of a child crying over it. I saw just a snatch of it when I was 5 or so, and the image stalked my mind for 20-odd years...

I remember the Robbie one, the scene that stuck in my mind was him sat in a wheelchair mournfully staring at his football boots hanging on the back of the door. I saw it last night on 'It was All Right in the 70s' and the policewoman breaking the news of his accident to his Mum tells her not to go to the hospital to see him as she'll 'only be in the way'

I also remember one similar to Apaches but set on a building site. One kid fell down a hole and I remember a close up of his blood oozing down the sides

The green cross code was much nicer and had the lovely voice and character.
hard to think he went on to be Darth Vader.

I can remember quite a few of these, and some of the less disturbing ones. The guy parallel parking, Reginald Molesworth or something? And the green cross code man. And lots of 'Charlie says' ones.

My sister drank white spirit from a lemonade bottle. She nearly died. My dad poured it for her, couldn't smell it because my mum was having a home perm. In those days you could buy it 'loose' and take your own bottle to be filled. So some 'H and S gorn mad' rules are really not so mad.

I remember the Robbie one and also one about a building site, or possibly a farm, where at the end you see the boy's shoe (he's already dead) being run over by some sort of heavy machinery and loads of blood oozes out.

Even the names of these things are scary now - grain silos, slurry pit, pylons. The film makers must have loved coming up with the ideas

There was one about smoke detectors that really freaked me out, I can't remember much about it other than it involving a dolls' house. I certainly remember being very scared by it though, it must have been late 80s or early 90s.

I can remember being shown the railway line one with Robbie in it during an assembly at middle school. It freaked someone in my year out so much they had to be removed from the hall screaming

The sparkler/ bandaged hand. I've never forgotten the scream.

Also a road safety ad which ended with eggs falling off a milk float onto the road. I remember seeing it when no older than 4. I don't remember details as it scared me so much I would hide, but I saw the eggs at the end and firmly believed that was what a broken head looked like.

this was probably only an Ireland / northern Ireland one but there was one about the circle of violence that is the IRA that used the cats in the cradle as the song - I cannot hear that song without thinking of the troubles

I was given a copy of When the Wind Blows by my "socially aware" parents for my 8th birthday. They regretted it about a month later when I was hospitalised for complications due to lack of sleep - but it still effects me until this day

Back to the question - the Farm on, the Pylon and the Substation one, I still have unrational fears about pylons to this date and don't like passing them

After a bit of Googling I've found the Building Sites one was called Building Sites Bite, it's on You Tube. The bit that freaked me out is in part 2 about 8 minutes in.

Also in the side bar a 1950's PIF came up called 'Watch out for Homosexuals'

I remember being shown one about Fire in school and I still obsessively check sockets, wires, fire alarms to this day.

I remember most of these and am currently feeling really uneasy just thinking about them! The sparkler one upset me and my sister so much we cried when presented with sparklers one Bonfire Night. I don't think I could bear to re watch any of them as an adult!

I just came on to say Building Sites Bite, I had nightmares for weeks. I remember someone being electrocuted in it.

There was also a similar one set on a farm (grew up in the countryside), I remember a kid fell in a slurry pit and drowned in it.

Really horrible films!

The kite on the power lines one.

I had to be taken out of Apaches because I was so traumatised. Years of horror as a result of that one.

I have never read the whole of When the Wind Blows. I spent most of the 80s almost wetting myself every time I heard a police siren. I did once hear a nuclear siren as well - was on a Guide camp in an area where they tested the siren weekly. My brain practically melted.

'I was hospitalised for complications due to lack of sleep'

It shows how little respect is given to mental health issues in children, and in general how much children are underestimated, that these immensely harmful films were made in the first place.

The Aids one was scarey, I remember seeing it on TV in the 80's, I was about 9/10.

The farm one, I still think about it now and I'm 45!
I grew up on a farm too.

The farm one was the only one I remembered until someone mentioned the railway sports day one upthread

Thanks for that!!!!!

Sorry if I've missed it but why on earth did they make such horrible films!!!!

The fridge one terrified me. There was one about gravel pits which confused ma as I didn't know what they were.

There was one about tyres too. I said to my young colleague the other day 'Never mix radial with cross-ply' and he looked totally bewildered.

I remember an old black and white one in the Sixties about not leaving a child at home alone and a boy playing with matches, starts a fire and screams for his mum, used to scare me to death.

getting locked in a fridge. scary film.

These old PIFs were simple, brutal and effective. Wouldn't be allowed these days.

I guess the most celebrated is "Dark and Lonely " water with Donald Pleasence intoning "I'll be back" long before Schwarzenegger. Poor old Robbie definitely lost both feet in my particular director 's cut. And broke most of the bones in his body as I recall. The actor who played him looked just like one of my classmates at the time. Freaky.

On a lighter note, Reginald Molehusband cracked it in the end. And dear old Alvin Stardust did his bit too. RIP.

I can't find it on Youtube. But, what was that fairly recent ad that had a woman, with a Scottish accent, wearing a black hooded cloak.

She said horrible things, such as
'' I am the boiled sweet your child chokes on..........''
''I am the heart attack.......''

I think that people (especially elderly) living on their own used to get frightened by it.
I don't know what it was advertising.

Found it.
This one's fairly recent, but it scares me half to death.