-
16 votes
-
The forgotten Roman roads
9 votes -
Pigeons in the Arctic: Part III: Sir John Ross’s 1850-51 search for the lost Franklin Bay expedition
6 votes -
Yorkshire crafts: Drystone wallers
14 votes -
Medieval historian and game developer, Jason Kingsley CBE, reacts to Manor Lords
12 votes -
How the Berlin Wall worked
13 votes -
Britain’s vast network of abandoned nuclear bunkers | Cold War UK
8 votes -
What happened when you visited a medieval inn?
11 votes -
Borders book store | Bankrupt
9 votes -
Salvage of the century: The lost WWII gold of HMS Edinburgh
10 votes -
Packages seized by the Royal Navy from a Faroese cargo ship bound for Denmark during the Napoleonic Wars opened – previously hidden away in the National Archives
9 votes -
The Greenwich meridian's forgotten rival
4 votes -
Welcome to Sealand, the world's smallest state
13 votes -
If we shoot a 140lb draw weight English longbow from a five story medieval tower, how much further will the arrows go?
13 votes -
The first US Army Christmas: Washington and the Hessians
8 votes -
WWII rescue buoys - Secret 'floating hotels' of the English Channel
4 votes -
Archaeologists reveal life stories of hundreds of people from medieval Cambridge
12 votes -
How one man rewrote one thousand years of history
6 votes -
Sinking the Blücher: How an outdated fort stopped the WWII Invasion of Norway
13 votes -
Journey to EPCOT Center: A symphonic history
13 votes -
Monica de Wichfeld awarded Blue plaque honour in Derrylin, Northern Ireland – was a leading member of the Danish resistance against Nazi occupation in World War II
10 votes -
Logo rewind: Discovering the trademarks of medieval Norwich
4 votes -
Wikipedia’s king who doesn’t exist
9 votes -
Wreckage likely belonging to a British submarine that sank during World War II was found off the coast of Norway
13 votes -
A closer look at Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong, the most densely populated place that ever existed
40 votes -
Archaeologists discover world’s oldest wooden structure: dating back half a million years and predating the evolution of our own species, Homo sapiens
33 votes -
Norway remembers its wartime debt to Dumfries – special relationship being marked with the unveiling of a one-and-a-half tonne stone of friendship
3 votes -
The unmaking of India: How the British impoverished the world’s richest country
21 votes -
Why British cities make no sense | Map Men
16 votes -
Long barrows are Neolithic constructions that might have been churches, or graveyards, or landmarks. And some are being built again: for the first time in recorded history.
15 votes -
What's the difference between medieval inns, taverns, and alehouses?
13 votes -
A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps podcast: Patrick Gray on Shakespeare
6 votes -
The history behind Orkney's vote to ‘join Norway’
9 votes -
Illustrations of madness: James Tilly Matthews and the Air Loom
9 votes -
The campaign in the desert of North Africa in 1940-1943 mapped
7 votes -
The advent of sunglasses
9 votes -
Cold War British RMP video shown to travellers before driving from West Germany to West Berlin through the Soviet East German corridor
8 votes -
No, the King doesn't own all the swans in Britain
8 votes -
True kilts: Debunking the myths about highlanders and clan tartans
10 votes -
The city that fell off a cliff
6 votes -
How codebreakers decrypted a trove of long-lost letters written by Mary, Queen of Scots
7 votes -
Crippling Hitler's navy – the battle that knocked out 50% of the Kriegsmarine's destroyers in Norway
4 votes -
I was wrong (and so was everyone)
8 votes -
Darwin's Barometer
3 votes -
The evolution of Father Christmas
5 votes -
The horrifying Public Information Films of 1970s Britain
As far as I can make out, every country has public information films. They rarely pull punches, which is pretty important as their messages are usually important. I remember being terrified by...
As far as I can make out, every country has public information films. They rarely pull punches, which is pretty important as their messages are usually important. I remember being terrified by Monolith as a child. I still think about It's Thirty For a Reason whenever I drive in suburban areas, and I've seen similar things from New Zealand, Canada and so on. Creative agencies love PIF gigs because you can do so much more than a normal advert/TV spot would allow. People can, and do, go all out on them. They're also ripe for parody
However, back in the seventies, that's when the UK government went a little... well.. overboard. Imagine showing Lonely Water to actual children. Or Stand Steady, or even Frisbee? I remember being shown films like these at school, from scratchy old VHS tapes on clunky old school TVs. I remember them being broadcast during children's programming time. I remember being irrationally terrified of old fridges even though I've never see a fridge with a lock in my entire life.
But sure, they're scary topics and sometimes you do need to scare people into not doing stupid stuff that might kill them. There are plenty of examples of scary short PIFs aimed at all ages from their invention right up to the present day. But then there are the longer form movies about safety for children. That's what this post is really about. Let's call these the "unholy trinity" of PIF terror:
There's the weird time-loop slaughter fest of Building Sites Bite (unfortunately the only copy I could find was a 'reacts' video but it's worth watching)
Ignoring the of-it's-time but now recognised as problematic "Cowboys and Indians" conceit, Apaches is utterly horrifying.
Then there's the dystopian awfulness of The Finishing Line
These films were rated PG (aka safe for kids). They were shown in schools. Not just high schools, but primary (elementary) schools. Although to be fair, someone did get a clue fairly quickly and The Finishing Line was banned and withdrawn in under a year because holy shit.
I'd be interested to see some of your favourite public information films, please do link them if you have any.
9 votes -
Letters from the loneliest post office in the world
4 votes -
London pirate radio adverts 1984-1993, vol. 1
6 votes -
Endurance, Ernest Shackleton’s ship, lost in 1915, is found in Antarctica
18 votes -
When hundreds of vampire-hunting children invaded a Scottish cemetery — and helped spur a comic book ban
5 votes