To paraphrase Michael Caine, not a lot of people know this - but, over the past 50 years, the British government has been one of the most prolific (or at least consistent) film-makers in the laughably small British film industry.
Yes, those little public information films (think "Charlie Says!, or Tufty the Squirrel, or the Green Cross Code Man) are actually funded by the Central Office of Information, an Orwellian-sounding Whitehall department that morphed out of the wartime Ministry of Information.
And now they're "coming to a cinema near you" (although this only applies if you live in London) - later this month, the National Film Theatre hosts a season of PIFs. As well as the nostalgic classics mentioned, lesser known works include How To Use a Handkerchief (yes, really - it was part of a series of public health campaigns to launch the NHS) and archive footage of the then technology minister Tony Benn explaining the "white heat of technology".
Recent notable examples include the infamous 1980s iceberg ad warning the British public about the then-new danger of Aids.
My childhood watch-through-my-fingers classics were the one of the kid clutching a sparkler - by the wrong end - and another of an old granddad foolishly attempting to change a lightbulb by climbing on a chair ... on a rug ... on a polished wood floor. Anyone remember those two?
