The COI Collection Volume Four: Stop! Look! Listen! (2-DVD set)

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. 

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 ends 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.