Description

Full description from the producer:

The Central Office of Information (COI) was established in April 1946 as a successor to the wartime Ministry of Information. It went on to produce and distribute thousands of films for use across Britain, the Commonwealth and the world. Many famous faces have passed through the portals of the COI including luminaries of the British documentary movement such as Paul Rotha, Humphrey Jennings and Lindsay Anderson and in later years the likes of Hugh Hudson (Chariots of Fire) and Peter Greenaway (The Draughtsman’s Contract) who spent 15 years there.

Complimenting the safety messages in COI Volume 4: Stop! Look! Listen!, this volume of COI films examines the issue of ‘risk’ in our everyday lives. Here, we get advice on crossing the road, the Welfare State, the dangers of drinking and of playing with matches, the complexities of decimalisation, surviving nuclear attack and much, much more, all peppered with the COI’s characteristic mix of horror, humour and gentle persuasion.

Highlights include:

• Skateboard Safety (1978), play safe, ‘you mad skateboard dogs’
• Charley’s March of Time (1948), a pioneering animation that explains the workings of the new Welfare State
• Green Cross Code (1973), in which David Prowse is on hand to admonish and advise
• Hole in the Ground (1962), an unnerving civil defence film from the Cold War era
• Say no to Strangers (1981), a creepy and uncompromising film starring Bernard Hill, Brenda Blethyn and Timothy Spall
• Laughing Matter (late 1970s), in which Robbie Coltrane’s stand-up routine isn’t funny
• Passing Places (1973), featuring a bluegrass-style road safety song from a young Bill Paterson

Additional information