Introduction Revised  We 4-May-05 Thanks to Gareth Randall for the info on Peter Hawkins and Threads.

Charley Says... Perhaps the best well known PIFs were the series of animated cartoons featuring a little boy and his wise cat, Charley. Six films were made (Matches, Falling in the Water, In the Kitchen, Teapots, Strangers and Mummy Should Know) in 1973. In each the moral of the story was told by the cat (voiced by the late Kenny Everett) and then translated into English by the little boy. "Charley says you shouldn't go off with strange men or ladies you don't know."

Jo and Petunia Another well known cartoon series, probably the most hilarious, featured the amazingly ignorant Jo and his wife Petunia. These became so popular (they should have been given a series!) that they were killed off in their last film. There were four films made between 1968 - 1973 (Coastguard, Water Safety (Flags), Acceptance of the Country Code, Worn Tyres). The voices were Wendy Craig (Butterflies) and Peter Hawkins (Original voice of the Daleks, Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men and Captain Pugwash). Brigit Forsyth took over the role of Petunia for their last outing.

PIFs to own on video and DVD In the mid-Nineties, Charley Says..., a collection of animated Public Information Films was released on video by MPI. On Monday July 6th 1998, the Network label released a re-mastered version of Charley Says which includes additional tracks and, on the same day, it released Charley Live, a new collection of live action PIFs. In 2001, the contents of both videos were released on a single DVD. The initial run of 2 000 copies was nearly sold out within a week. Charley Says includes the Jo & Petunia and Charley Says series, plus films about not clowning around at work as well as two films never transmitted. These are about what to do in the event of a nuclear war (Action After Warnings and Casualties) and were known under the collective banner of Protect and Survive (the government leaflet of the same name was rich-pickings for comedians at the time), and voiced by Patrick Allen, who you can hear on Frankie Goes to Hollywood's hit Two Tribes announcing, "When you hear the air attack warning, you and your family must take cover". These films are extremely chilling to watch. Another in the Protect and Survive series can be heard (but not seen) in the BBC drama "Threads", about Nuclear War, which was also released on video.   Charley Live contains live action films featuring celebrities such as Kevin Keegan and Jimmy Saville with dodgy 70s hairstyles. In January 1999 work began on compiling a new volume of PIFs, which after a few false starts, was finally released on May 2nd, 2005. The DVD and videos are available at good video stores. If you have difficulty locating them, you should be able to buy them on-line at the usual places, including HMV.co.uk, SendIt.com and Play.com. You can also purchase the titles directly from the source - Network. They also sell other TV titles such as Robinson Crusoe, Catweazle, Rentaghost, The Goodies, Crossroads and The Sweeney.

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