PLAY SAFE (1978) UK Public Information Film - New Transfer 

Coming back to this after the news of Bernard Cribbins' passing (he played the robin in this). Rest in peace.

God, that Jimmy scene has such an emotional vibe burned into it.

"JIMMY!!!!!" - You got to love that menacing synth music right before he gets the shock.

I’m rewatching this because the voice of the Robin passed away today. That was Bernard Cribbins, aged 93! When I was younger I watched Old Jacks Boat a lot on CBeebies. One time my mom was doing a concert with him and got him to right a letter to me and even signed his signature. I don’t have it anymore but it is quite interesting that a person who played a Robin wrote a letter to me. Rest In Peace Bernard. 😔

I remember this when I was a kid, I've only just realised that the owl was "Foggy" from last of the summer wine... and then realised, almost simultaneously that Foggy was also Mr Barraclough from Porridge! 🤯 Heavy man!

The girl infamous for shouting "Jimmy" is Jayne Tottman she was the little girl who's cat is rescued by the late Christopher Reeve in Superman The Movie

This full length version was played to us in primary school the last day before the summer holidays.The sad thing is one of my classmates got hit by a car and killed last day of term back in 1980

Rest in Peace Bernard Cribbins.

As a child I read in a book about Benjamin Franklin flying a kite in a thunderstorm and getting sparks from a key at the end of the line; I really wanted to try this myself, but after watching this safety video I realise that this may not be a great idea.

I still remember when my dad brought this and the powerful stuff one home on VHS because he used to work for NORWEB, we watched these as children and it used to make me paranoid about power lines 😂😂😭

love the copper at 5.47 in."that's a stupid place to fly a kite" normally after that it was a good clip round the ear.good old 70's.

Poor jimmy. Youll never be forgotten

So many of these gave us kids a tough nights sleep, like the lonely water one with the Grim Reaper. But hey we are still alive, I mean the temperature in England hit loony levels today and just heard a 4th person has died swimming in lakes. So hey a tough nights sleep BUT I am alive, they did their job !

So this is where the famous "Jimmy" public information film comes from...

Sounds like Brian Wilde ( Foggy on Last of the Summer Wine ) narrating the voice of the wise owl. Remember these films well !

lesson learned: old british PSAs never fucked around

Jimmy's flares certainly flared up.

"If you want to have fun and stay alive"

Interesting that our British friends have these safety videos and here in the states we do not seem to have any. Has our schools banned them because they are graphic???

As a kid i was shown a video like this one at school I was terrified of electricity pylons for weeks afterwards and avoided them

damn, Inside No. 9 mixed this with an abusive drunkard father, an obsession with taxidermy and a burnt-down house and it still didn't manage to be as dark as the original PSA which it parodies.

Some of the live action footage was recycled some of the clips are used in Powerful Stuff and some were used in PIFs

5:47 “that’s a stupid place to fly a kite” if only more policemen were as honest as him nowadays too.

Must be bloody unsafe playing football in flares that big

This terrified me so much as a child!

I heard that 400,000 volts can jump if you’re 3 mitres away from a substation that contains it

What really bugs me is the mum's reaction to the policeman telling her that her daughter was just killed. She acted like she was just told her daughter's bike just got nicked.

This was added to the Children's Film Foundation playlists, it went at the start where a cartoon would normally be. The animation is very Yoram Gross style, especially with the live backgrounds, etc.

Brian Wilde is the perfect voice for the owl. Calm and authoratative but kindly as well.

poor jimmy, these ran on kids tv for a few years and i remember when, probably about 82, as 6 and 7 year olds there were these substations nearby and they were like a magnet for kids, i hated when the suggestion went out that we should go up the 'electricity place' so i used to sit my grifter and watch them still dont like walking past them

And the late, great Brian Wilde.....you almost expect to say "Get off, that man!!!"

" 'Extremely High Voltage?' Well, I don't need safety gloves, because I'm Homer Simp"--Frank Grimes, or Grimey as he liked to be called.

F in the chat for Jimmy, gone but not forgotten.

This must have been the inspiration for that episode of inside number nine

DANGER! Ignorance kills! Never ever ignore the safety signs!

5:24 You know what else costs a lot of money? Hospital Bills.

I think the real lesson is dont built power lines or electric poles right next to fishing/boating spots. we wouldint have to run the risk of going near them if they put them in a better spot.

Saw this at Rifftrax Live show in August 2017. It was so twisted and the riffing was hilarious.

Time will always kill you in the end! Now play safe. :)

People mock these films but if you were a kid in the 70's like me, you damn well knew where you should and shouldn't be going. They scared you shitless but it got the message across. Shame on the government for closing down the central office of information because they thought we didn't need it anymore. We need it now more than ever, maybe those young children wouldn't have ventured out onto that lake on the ice if these films were still being made. RIP.

That Frisbee didn't look very "stuck", one strong blast of wind and it would be out! Looked as if it had been glued in!

Why havent they got these on modern television today?!

I've never seen the full film to Play Safe just the 3 main clips in shorter PIFs in the 70s

I remember seeing this in school. My memory seems to think that Jimmy's death was more fiery than it was. :P

There's a great deal of confusion about this film, which really needs to be cleared up. Around 7:12 when the young girl is yelling "Jimmy", it has nothing to do with the boy on the power lines. What she's actually excited about is the new GM "Jimmy" Detroit Diesel Lorry that's coming down the nearby road. You see, she's something of a truck fan, and she hasn't seen one off these in the flesh before. Truth be told, she rather dislikes her brother and was secretly hoping he'd come to grief.

They should have mentioned the danger of wearing flares while playing football - a definite trip hazard!

Everyone talks about the Jimmy moment but the implications of the last short with the kid knocking out power as a prank only to get his sister killed because there were no lights to illuminate the street....Yeah, I think they covered it pretty well the danger of not just getting electrocuted but just messing around with power lines in general and how it puts other people in danger indirectly. Robin was pissed, mang.

This film should be played in elementary schools, middle schools and high schools.

"JIMMY!!!!" Is now become a meme or not

Some people out there are so quick to add so called funny comments but believe it or not many children’s lives were saved by watching these public information films. Unlike today where so many sit glued to phones and tablets with absolutely no idea about dangers in the real world ! So next time you feel like having a go at casting a silly comment about such a serious subject let’s hope it isn’t your child that falls foul to such an accident due to total ignorance by yourself !!

That woman cared more about that bike than her daughter.

When I was about 6 years old my aunty told me that Bill and Ben (British puppet show) lived in the HT power lines at the back of our house. I remember I always wanted to climb up and see them.

Don't go near and using the long things to the electric power cables like that or anything else.

Sounds like Brian Wilde, aka Foggy Dewhirst. Good information to teach young people.

Jimmy won't be home for dinner after that harrowing experience at the substation when he was getting his sister's frisbee.

This short film was on Rifftrax Live on 8/17/17 alongside "Doctor Who: The Five Doctors".

This one was awesome when used in the live broadcast of The Five Doctors by the Rifftrax crew!

They showed us this in school and thirty seconds later told us to put our hands on a van de graff

POLICEMAN: I'm afraid your little girl was dead when they brought her to the hospital. MOTHER: She's only had the bike 2 days. It was a birthday present. The mother didn't seem overcome with shock or broken hearted over her daughter's death. She sounded more concerned about the bike.

Coming in from 2024, two great legends still greatly missed, .......having the Charley Says DVD for sometime now and there are some “Play Safe“ clips on there - but how was there not this on the DVD.

I learned that electricity is never safe and you can be seriously injured or killed

A time when kids and youths respected policemen when bollocked by them--not like some of the Shits today. (By no means all).

I saw this short at RiffTrax Live while they were showing Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (1983).

I remember this film. I watched it during a science lesson when I was in Year 7. And I had no idea Bernard Cribbins voiced the robin!

Ah the joys of being a gen X kid. Where tv campaigns kept us sort of safe while we got up to all sorts lol.

In Fortnite Chapter 2, on the east side of the map, there were power lines that you could literally jump on and use as ziplines, to get to the north or south end of the map quite rapidly. Those lines couldn't ever electrocute you. They were not used at all as a hazard on the map.

We watched this in science class , good video

The substation one was when Jimmy was killed had132,000volts through him not 66,000volts as it was announced on the news radio.

I thought I recognised Bernard Cribbins voice. I couldn't think who the other one was but now I have read it was Brian Wilde, I can tell it was.

those little scrotes that chucked that metal chain up into the pylon and knocked the electricity off and the lad that threw it not realizing it would cause his sister to be killed

No wonder so many of us 40somethings are on anti depressants getting shown stuff like this at the age of 6

Play Safe in high definition? Excellent!

Ironically, there's no problem with a bird perching on a power cable.

These videos terrified me as a kid I was so scared of electricity. I now work as an electrician connecting up 400v from the 11kv substation transformers and switchrooms

6:35 Here's a better idea for you kids, why don't you two just not get it or throw something to the frisbee.

Peter Powell stunt kite at 4:13 ! I had a blue one the same ! So much fun I had with that kite !

RIP Bernard Cribbins and Brian Wilde

All the other kids fell over when they got a shock but the boy with the frisby was still standing in the substation

There was another version with Dame Judi Dench voicing a cat with Michael Williams as a owl

Kids need 2 play it safe around electricity.

the credits song is so unfitting yet relaxing lol

Jimmy learnt the hard way.

Jimmy,s sister is Bryony and Bryony will have nightmares for the rest of her life

5:45 Now that's a really honest policeman!

Never seen this one before. It's a bit before my time , lol I was born in 1978 . My Generation saw the Powerful Stuff Video .

Something I noticed was that you can hear the buzzing of the substation before he got zapped

I was quite surprised when I discovered it was Bernard Cribbins voicing the Robin. The first time I ever saw him was in The Railway Children. This is probably going to sound like a dumb question, but how come birds don't always get electrocuted when they stand on power cables? I have gone passed overhead power lines and I see birds standing on there very much alive. Should they not also get electrocuted just by getting too close?

The Voice actors of those two birds has died R.I.P.

7:55 I love to short circuit poles and pylons by throwing rocks at the wiring or transformer 🥰♥️

“if you want to have fun and stay alive”

“That’s a very stupid place to fly a kite.” LOL! Man I love British PSAs. They don’t sugar coat anything. I’m here after watching one hour of Protect and Survive. Yes, I’m a masochist 🤣

Shocking!

i remember my teacher showing this along with the safe as houses one to my class back in 2008. interesting to think about how they were still showing this by then

I,ve just got hold of the master copy of this the only one to be sent to all the schools in the 80s doubt if its worth much but anyone interested in the 16mm cine format will accept offers

Actually. It would never had happened if his sister told him to go in there. Jimmy was right the they weren't suppose to got in there. Her sister ignored the danger signs and I bet she saw a gang of teenagers breaking in the day before was on the television not in real life.

That was horrible how one of the vandals lost his own sister because he and his friends damaged they power line and the street lights went out.

They showed this exact uncut film to us kids in 1986-87 ? Scared the crap out of me and I'm still wary of pylons etc at 44 years old but this is only a good thing.

That Jimmy scene is about as nightmare fuel charged as Marcy's death in Amphibia's True Colors.

I think this was the short that went with Rifftrax Live's riffing of The Five Doctors. (Apropos, since Bernard Cribbins has connections with Doctor Who.) I don't know if the riffed version of the short is anywhere around...we don't have a streaming/DVD version of the Five Doctors riff.

6:39 Who convinced Jimmy to break into the power station, sending the poor boy to his own doom?? This is a sample how some dudes can lose EVERYTHING doing fool things for a pretty face… XAXAXA! …. Yes, yes, yes… I know…..... I’m a misogynist, insensible and stupid macho….