Play Safe (public information film)

Play Safe is a series of three public information films (PIFs) broadcast in the United Kingdom from 1978 highlighting to children the dangers of playing near overhead power lines and electrical substations. The broadcasts were sponsored by the Electricity Council, as part of wider efforts to educate the public about electricity. In a fashion typical for such broadcasts of the period, the films were made to be frightening for young children[1] – depicting graphic electrocution scenes well before the 9pm watershed for programs unsuitable for children. Television transmission was typically most frequent during school holidays and at times of day dedicated to children's programming.

The three individual films were in fact part of a longer 10-minute film shown in schools to highlight the dangers of electricity. The film was hosted by two animated characters, a Wise Owl voiced by actor Brian Wilde, famous for his roles in Last of the Summer Wine and Porridge, who indoctrinates a younger bird, a robin, voiced by Bernard Cribbins, in electrical dangers and then shows the three films as demonstration of the hazards described. The inclusion of these animated characters provided a reassuring presence to younger children who would have been potentially traumatized by the events depicted in the films.

Within this longer film, all three separate films differ slightly from their individual TV broadcasts with very minor changes to the music. However, the first film 'Frisbee' is notable also for about 5 seconds of additional footage not broadcast on TV, showing more of the character 'Jimmy' forcing entry through the sub-station fence, and also an additional graphic shot of his legs on fire after his electrocution.

The longer 10-minute film also features a fourth incident not released as a separate stand-alone TV PIF. This focuses on the consequences of vandalism to electrical infrastructure and opens with a teenage boy, encouraged by friends, throwing a chain up to a 132,000 volt pylon, causing an explosive short circuit which in turn triggers an area blackout. This knocks out power to local traffic lights, which results in a young girl being knocked off her bike and killed. It subsequently transpires that the dead girl is in fact the younger sister of the teenage vandal who caused the power cut.

Within both the 10-minute film and as a stand-alone PIF, the film 'Frisbee' is not narrated. However, in both formats, the other two films are narrated by Brian Wilde and also commence and end with a white on black caption with the words 'Play Safe' placed between two prongs between which a violent arc of electricity then occurs.

The 'Play Safe' campaign was superseded in 1989 by a new film called 'Powerful Stuff' which was also presented in both a longer version for schools and separate stand-alone PIFs for television broadcast. The tone of this later campaign, whilst broadly aimed at all ages, placed the emphasis on older children and teenagers.

Television Broadcasts

Play Safe was regularly broadcast during advertising breaks on ITV and Channel 4 well into the 1980s. The three broadcasts were:

  1. Frisbee: The campaign was infamous for this PIF. A young boy named Jimmy accidentally throws a Frisbee into an electricity sub-station, where it becomes wedged into an insulator. Although reluctant to do so, his sister Amy persuades him to retrieve it. He breaks through the perimeter security, climbing up onto a high voltage transformer to retrieve the Frisbee. As he reaches out to the Frisbee, he is electrocuted and killed by a 66,000 volt current arcing from the insulator string, much to his sister's horror. The film cuts to a radio broadcast stating that he was killed instantly by a 66,000 volt shock and that children must stay away from sub-stations.
  2. Kites and Planes: A young boy flies a kite near a transmission tower (pylon), not realizing that the kite control cord is a conductor. The boy receives a shock when the kite makes contact with a conductor on the 132,000 volt pylon. As a stand-alone TV broadcast, it is assumed the incident is fatal. However, within the 10-minute film, it is stated afterwards by the 'Wise Owl' character that the victim was 'badly burned but didn't die'.
  3. Camping and Fishing: The film highlighted the dangers of using fishing rods and camping poles near overhead power lines. After depicting a few near-misses, it concludes with a boy receiving an electric shock from a wooden-pole-supported 11,000 volt wire when the mast of his boat strikes the conductor. Again, from the stand-alone TV broadcast, the incident is assumed fatal, but again the longer film clarifies otherwise, referring to the victim having been 'knocked unconscious but alright after a few days'.

Notes
  1. "Play Safe: Kites and Planes (1978)". BFI Screen Online. British Film Institute. Retrieved 26 May 2014.
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