Public Information Films

[crunchie]

Does anyone have on DVD any British public information films from the 60's about what to do in the event of a nuclear attack? I have an American short ("Duck & Cover") but were any made specifically for the UK?

[ChristineCB]

There is a 1965 film called "THE WAR GAME" - singular, not plural -



The War Game (1965)



which contains wonderful information about avoiding thermonuclear blasts across the street by laying down in the street gutters.



Also, rolling a dining table over, facing the blast. Or wait - was that to ward off those pesky Indian attacks? Darn... now I've forgotten!



In either case, there wasn't a good commentary about re-finishing the table's surface after it deflected 50-megaton blasts. I'm pretty certain you'd want to refinish it, though - maybe that's just so obvious THE WAR GAME producers and other world leaders didn't think it necessary to address that.



Or repainting the house. Window shades, too, might need a bit o' straightening.



Another cute American film is ATOMIC CAFE.



After those, a good cheery film like ON THE BEACH should make the world look quite sprightly.

[Steve Crook]

name='crunchie']Does anyone have on DVD any British public information films from the 60's about what to do in the event of a nuclear attack? I have an American short ("Duck & Cover") but were any made specifically for the UK?

I think that there were so many pointing out the ridiculousness of thinking about survival like:

"Whoops Apocalypse" (1982)

The Bed Sitting Room (1969)

When the Wind Blows (1986)

The War Game (1965)

that the government never bothered with a major film.

There were some Civil Defence leaflets, some of which are detailed at Protect and Survive

The Civil Defence also did some Public Information Films which are detailed on that site



Steve

[ChristineCB]

(Steve's comments are straight-on, by the way. Mine are anything but-! If you watch THE WAR GAME, you'll probably realize it's the source of my sarcasm and total amazement that such info was disseminated 20 years after authorities knew better.)

[crunchie]

Thanks Steve, Thanks Christine - I already have THE WAR GAME and ATOMIC CAFE, as well as the excellent US film TRINITY AND BEYOND. What I'd like to get hold of are any public information "safety films" issued (or made and never issued) specifically for the UK.

[DB7]

There is an earlier topic HERE with some links to Public Information shorts.

[Steve Crook]

name='crunchie']Thanks Steve, Thanks Christine - I already have THE WAR GAME and ATOMIC CAFE, as well as the excellent US film TRINITY AND BEYOND. What I'd like to get hold of are any public information "safety films" issued (or made and never issued) specifically for the UK.

They have the transcript and audio track from Action After Warnings at the Protect and Survive link I gave above. It includes the useful advice that if you're in the open when the sirens go, you should lie in a ditch! I think that it's not the public that should lie anywhere, he Government were doing enough of that if they thought that would protect anyone.



Steve

[ChristineCB]

name='Steve Crook']...it's not the public that should lie anywhere, the Government was doing enough...

Gee - what ever do you mean? You mean that trusty table-top wasn't good enough? I mean, what if it had JUST been waxed? Wasn't there some kind of 75-megaton furniture wax? It kind of gave a glow-in-the-dark shine to it?



(Or was that reserved for "only after exposure to radiation"? Boy, where is that GW's Idiot's Guide To Warmongering? I was sure I had a copy around here somewhere... Oh, that's right. It was the last of our kindling...)

[Lord Brett]

name='crunchie']Does anyone have on DVD any British public information films from the 60's about what to do in the event of a nuclear attack? I have an American short ("Duck & Cover") but were any made specifically for the UK?

You need to get hold of a DVD released by Network called Charley Says which contains a huge number of British public information films, including the terrifying (and, thankfully, unbroadcast) advice in what to do if the bomb drops. The official advice is just as nonsensical as Duck and Cover, but without the catchy song.



Here's a link to it on Amazon:



Amazon.co.uk: Charley Says... Vol 1 & 2 (Over 300 UK Public Information Films): DVD: Charley Says

[MarkG]

I've seen a full set of the 'Protect and Survive' videos for sale on VHS, but forget where it was. Google may find the site.



Those are the only ones I know of, but I think they were 1970s, not 1960s.

[ajhooper]

This has now been reissued on DVD:



Protect And Survive

[Moor Larkin]

I saw this mentioned in the Sunday paper this weekend:

The National Cold War Exhibition - Royal Air Force Museum



It's obviously easy to mock the old info-films but what else was a government to do, apart from save the tax money and not employ some film-maker or other?



I do wonder if anyone ever paid the slightest attention to such things anyhow. Nuclear devastation was done to death in Films and TV all the time, I don't think anyone was in any doubt that if you lived within fifty miles of a big city - you were dead meat. I can clearly recall wondering if I would have a few seconds to *see* the white light over Liverpool, before the shock-wave hit me.



Some people were said to have dug shelters in their gardens. Anyone know anyone who did? And is it still there? I found a (long-empty) concrete septic tank under my lawn a few years ago. Would have done the job I reckon....... saved anyone burying me anyhow......

[MarkG]

name='Moor Larkin']It's obviously easy to mock the old info-films but what else was a government to do, apart from save the tax money and not employ some film-maker or other?

I think part of the problem was that while the advice might have helped a few people around the country, the whole idea that most could survive by sitting in a cupboard under the stairs was such lunacy that few could take it seriously. Nor would surviving for two weeks have achieved much when the majority of the country was destroyed.



Even the government seem to have accepted this, because their 'war plans' were based on far more limited attacks than would actually have been carried out by the USSR, and full of useful advice like 'a nuclear war would severely impact the banking system.' Worse than that, their own command bunkers were only about a hundred feet below the surface and would have been trivial for H-bombs to destroy.



'Duck and Cover' was less stupid because it was shot in the A-bomb era where a 20 kiloton bomb dropped on a city would have left many people alive if they'd followed the advice in the movie. But a few years later the USSR had H-bombs a thousand times as powerful.

[MarkG]

name='ajhooper']This has now been reissued on DVD:



Protect And Survive

Thanks, I'll have to get a copy. Shame it's an IE-only web site, I thought they went extinct with the dinosaurs.

[ChristineCB]

name='MarkG']...Shame it's an IE-only web site, I thought they went extinct with the dinosaurs.

Mark, what's wrong with you?!! Haven't you heard there's an on-going Us Versus Them Cold War starting anew?!!



ha ha



(Fortunately, draft notices are IE-only, too, so all of us commie-pinkos using Firefox, Opera, etc., will be considered outlaws shortly... Holy Linux, Batman! Maybe we should flee to Canadian websites!)

[Captain Oates]

The 1960s Civil Defence / Public Information films about nuclear attack are collected on an excellent DVD:



British Nuclear Scare Stories of the Cold War



available at Amazon



Amazon.co.uk: Cold War - British Nuclear Scare Stories: DVD: Cold War



Also, Protect And Survive films from 1976 + others on DVD from Amazon

[Moor Larkin]

I remember this movie as being my wake-up call.

[ChristineCB]

Am I wrong in thinking THE WAR GAME's film-makers should have had enough available education to provide the public with more correct instructions about a nuclear war?



Or was "If you're close enough, kiss yer ass goodbye" so reprehensible that the gov'ts decided that lying to the public and giving false hopes was the better option?



After all, it's not like the Dead would come back and sue the gov't for lies and misinformation.



"What else could we do?"



When I see the '50s monster films, the bad effects of radiation was sufficiently known so filmmakers created stories using some degree of knowledge. Still, the appearance of a Harryhausen dinosaur ("awakened by radiation testing"), Godzilla ("freed by H-bomb tests in the Pacific") and the numerous giant insects (Them!, Beginning Of The End) are only slightly more fantastic than some of the public service "instructions".



AND WHY DID THESE PUBLIC SERVICE FILMS DIE?



I have a feeling that the lack of late '60s Nuclear War Survival films is a tacit agreement that "Kiss yer ass goodbye" was probably the more appropriate "instruction". Did the gov'ts stop wasting money producing these propped-up hope type films?



By the '70s and into the '80s, I think there were more films about the Last Man On Earth scenario than public-service/THE WAR GAME type films.



Yes?



Good grief - could we have entered a time-period where gov'ts actually DID consider "Saying nothing is closer to the truth so why bother lying?"



Wow - what an accomplishment! Maybe Hope does spring eternal!

[MarkG]

Read 'War Plan UK' if you can find a copy: it goes into great detail on the government's nuclear war plans and is a pretty scary read. They had little but contempt for the people of the UK, and only wanted to ensure the war wasn't disrupted and preserve themselves.



For example, they had a deliberate policy of closing most major roads in the country and going on TV to tell people they'd be safer staying at home, even if those people knew they were living near a major military target that would be vaporised in the first few minutes of a nuclear attack (see the 'Protect and Survive' video on that subject, for example).



Some of the official communications in the 'war games' they ran even referred to members of the public who were trying to escape devastated cities as 'zombies'. There was also a great quote from one of the local government war plans about how a nation was like a forest, and war planning was designed to preserve the 'great trees' (i.e. politicians) because a forest could withstand the loss of much of the 'undergrowth' (i.e. the rest of us).



Unfortunately the book has been out of print for quite a while with copies currently going for about 120 quid second-hand online.

[Steve Crook]

name='ChristineCB']AND WHY DID THESE PUBLIC SERVICE FILMS DIE?

People used to believe the government



Steve