The COI Collection Volume Four: Stop! Look! Listen!

The fourth volume on the COI collection – Stop! Look! Listen! – focuses on health, safety and welfare messages. Cautionary tales, motherly advice, celebrity appearances and shock tactics have all been utilised by the COI to prevent us from being: killed on the road; burnt to death; abducted by strangers; crushed by tractors; drowned at sea, and so on. This release concentrates on the longer films in this area, punctuated by a small selection of some well known short public information films and commercials.

Highlights include: Mind How You Go (1973), Green Cross Code advice courtesy of Valerie Singleton; Drive Carefully Darling (1975), starring Frank Bough and a stellar cast of ‘numskulls’; Apaches (1977), a massacre on a farm from the director of The Long Good Friday; Betcher! (1971), a young Keith Chegwin takes on a cycling challenge; Never Go With Strangers (1971), sinister stranger danger advice for children; 20 Times More Likely (1979), Gillian Taylforth’s puppy love end tragically.

• I Stopped, I Looked and I Listened (1975, 15 minutes): a moving trip down memory lane and some road safety advice for the older pedestrian.
• Fully illustrated booklet including comprehensive contextualising notes and essays from academics and film historians.