I wholeheartedly support George Monbiot’s demand that climate campaigning should be properly supported by the government (Dear ministers, I am a climate crisis campaigner: nationalise me right now, 28 August). And he’s right about those powerful films about road safety, fire safety etc.
Most, if not all, will have been made by the late Central Office of Information (for which I made two films as a freelance). I remember as a child watching its TV road safety fillers – some of which were brilliantly constructed, building tension that many cinema directors would envy. Half a century later, I can still recall one about not “amber-hopping”, and another suspenseful film about a boy waiting for his father, who would never arrive. The suspense came from trying to anticipate which driving mistake would kill him. I firmly believe they must have made me a better driver.
