The COI Collection Volume One: Police and Thieves (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. 

Volume one of the COI collection tackles crime, juvenile delinquency, policing and the justice system. A variety of styles and genres – story documentary, drama, public information shorts – are employed to deliver crime prevention messages and bolster recruitment in this area. The wonderful selection of films on this two disc set have been newly transferred to high definition from the original film elements. An accompanying booklet provides comprehensive notes and essays from academics and film historians.

Highlights include:

Children on Trial (1946), Jack Youth Club (1954), Help Yourself (1950) and Man on the Beat (1956). Together, these films provide a wonderful record of the police, the justice system and British life in a seemingly more innocent age

Full contents:

Disc one:

• Children on Trial (1946)
• Children of the City (1944)
• Probation Officer (1950)
• Youth Club (1954)
• A Chance for Brian (1977)

Disc two:

• Four Men in Prison (1950)
• Help Yourself (1950)
• Transatlantic Teleview 26: Man on the Beat (1956)
• British Policeman (1959)
• Unit Beat Policing (1968)
• Anything Can Happen (1973)
• Bicycle Thefts (1974)
• Snatch of the Day (1975)
• Challenge for a Lifetime (1975)