Public Information Films (known as
PIFs) are a series of government commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the
UK. The US equivalent is the
Public Service Announcement (PSAs).
Subjects
The films advised the public on what to do in a multitude of situations ranging from crossing the road to surviving a
nuclear attack. They are sometimes thought to concern only topics related to
safety, but there are PIFs on many other subjects, including
animal cruelty, protecting the
environment,
crime prevention and how to
vote in an election or fill in a
census form.
Many of these films were aimed at children and were shown during breaks in
children's programmes during holidays and at weekends. The general low-budget quality and the infamous static "crackle" before them gave them a
Hammer Horror style aura. Some of them were quite terrifying and remained ingrained in the child's psyche well into adulthood, others were quite humorous and used comedy to show the dangers or ridicule the folly of those who ignore them (
Joe and Petunia are a good example of a comic PIF). Many of them involved or were narrated by
celebrities of the day.
History
The earliest PIFs were made during the Second World War years and shown in cinemas; many were made by and starred
Richard Massingham, an amateur actor who set up Public Relationship Films Ltd when he discovered there was no specialist film company in the area. They were commissioned by the Ministry of...
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