Public Information Films

The 1970's Chip Pan Fire PIF's always got me

Talking of Chip Pans' about 4 years ago, does anyone remember when ITV showed a PIF about chip pan fires that was like set in the 80's/90's? When this man got out of bed and fryed chips whilst leaving it on, and fell asleep and the pan exploded and the whole kitchen was on fire, that PIF gave me knightmares.

"I am the spirit of dark and lonely water..."

Also, the first time I saw the Northern Irish Could You Live With the Shame PIF from 2000, where the car crashes into the back garden of a house and kills a young boy it shocked me.

Does anyone know if the current drink driving campaign shown in Ireland (Just One Look) has also been broadcast in Northern Ireland?

Speaking of cinema ads, the current Transport for London campaign about unlicensed minicabs is pretty stark - the message seems to be 'let a friend use an unlicensed minicab and she WILL get raped' - and I reckoned a bit OTT for showing in front of a 12A, but that's what BBFC gave it.

I remember once as a child checking with my parents that they'd not mixed cross-ply and radial tyres after seeing the PIF on the subject.

There was an item on "CrimewatchUK" about unlicenced taxis in London last week. Apparently the problem is quite severe and the number of resultant rapes was horrific, especially as many go unreported. Perhaps the OTT approach is best

I remember that one.......didn't one sort go on the back and the other on the front????.......but is this still a problem?

Are all tyres not the same now. I'm sure my garage happily moved my tyres around at the last MOT without a care in the world as to whether they were crossply or radial. And I haven't a clue whether my spare is only for the front or back?

I was always freaked out by the One Fatal Minute featuring the last minute of one little girl's life.

IMO the current NI promotion against drink driving is quite chilling.

Anyone remember "The Blunders" PIFs made in about 1976? They were a family of wreckless drivers that caused traffic
accidents where the victim was usually a driver not wearing their seatbelt. The film would conclude with a slow motion
scene of the driver being thrown through the windshield by the force of the impact, and would freeze frame here:

http://djgm.co.uk/stuff/TheBlunders-PIF3-smashthru.jpg

As I was only a toddler at the time, these PIF's used to scare the bejesus outta me, right at that very point.

Can you imagine if a PIF like that were to be made nowadays, how gory they'd most likely make it?

Yes, I remember the series of Blunders PIFs. That freeze frame should tell people even these days to Clunk Click Every Trip

I remember how scary these PIF were as a child of the 80's. Pity the ones they make nowadays are quite poor in comparison, the scare factor was the key element which made them so successful.

Particular ones still give me nightmares now at the age of 25! Any house fire ones did, in particular:

* Keep matches away from children (a tour of a burnt out house accompained by children screaming and finishing on looking in the wardrobe where they had hidden) Cannot even look at the clips on TV websites of this.

* The one with the woman drawing the curtains for bed and you see in the foreground a cigarette fall down the side of the sofa. The worst bit is when the narrator says "she'll never draw those curtains again, in the morning this room will be a burnt out shell" and when the lights go out, "lets take one last look", with a wisp of smoke just visible.

* The old couple and their electric blankets.

* The dolls house on fire.

* The fire ads which have demo sets of a living room, which they set alight and timed how long it took for it to go out of control, and informed you of your survival chances along the way (They did a few of those).

Recent (ish) one: The 'get out alive' ad where theres a child crying on the floor, a woman trapped and banging on her front door and the guy who's alarm goes off and he trips over his bike in the hallway.

Anyone remember these ones?:

* A little recent: One where the narrator says " this man is dying, dying because there is a fire in the house" and it explains the lethal effects of smoke. The narrator repeats this with other members of the house including the pet dog, and all you can see of fire is a hint of smoke.

* Another 80's one: Man comes down stairs putting on his dressing gown and sees the sofa is on fire and tries to control it by beating it with cushions. This ones a bit hazy with the old memory but near the end I think the wife and child are trapped and you hear the noise of what sounds like the begining of a 'backdraft'. It then cuts to black and says " Get out, get the fire brigade out and stay out".

Think they need to show the old PIFs again (but just pre-warn me when fire safety ones come on!)

Anyone know a good shrink?

I think that most of the fire safety ones are very scary, but I think that the "Fire shut it out" pif has a nightmarish quality because of the scary tank and flame thrower chasing the little girl through the house as she seems very helpless.