For Your Information...

Many of the old British Public Information films are now online. The National Archive has made some of the most famous films of the last 60 years available to view on their website. Among the ones featured are the "Protect and Survive" films that told us what to do in the event of a nuclear attack (whether their advice would've saved us all is another matter), the "Green Cross Code" films, comedians Hale and Pace as their bouncer characters promoting the fireworks code (what happened to them?) and of course, the legendary adverts featuring Charley the Cat. They're interesting to watch if only to see how much life in Britain has changed over the years. You wouldn't get adverts warning of the dangers of putting rugs on slippery floors on TV today. That said, you wouldn't get many public information films on TV today, aside from ones about road safety. We probably need them on TV today as much as we did in the past, maybe even more so. If you want to see the old public information films in all their glory, click the link on this page.