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Sponsored as part of the Electricity Council's 'Understanding Electricity'
campaign, Play Safe is a series of three hard-hitting fillers designed to
highlight to children the potentially fatal consequences of playing near
overhead electric lines and substations.
'Understanding Electricity' provided educational resource material for
schools and colleges, including scores of film titles and other educational
material covering every aspect of electricity and its uses. Play Safe - Kites
and Planes, and the two other titles in the series, Play Safe - Camping and
Fishing (1978) and Play Safe - Frisbee (1978), would have been distributed with
accompanying leaflets, posters and wall charts. The series, which was also
widely broadcast on television, was described in the 'Understanding Electricity'
promotional material as 'not a disturbing film but it is a film your child will
find hard to forget'. The Play Safe trilogy has become a cult classic among
public information film fans and was voted the 12th top public information
filler in a 2006 BBC magazine readers' poll.
The carefree attitude of the youngsters as they fly their kites and
radio-controlled planes in the open air is undermined by composer Harry
Robinson's electronic soundtrack, which pulsates with menace throughout. Brian
Wilde - best known as Mr Barrowclough in the BBC's Porridge (1974-77) and Foggy
in Last of the Summer Wine (1973-) - provides the suitably stern narration and
Brian Steven's animated interpretation of electricity charge at the start and
finish is arresting. The closing shots of the young boy being electrocuted
followed by the shrill screams of his friend must have induced many a nightmare
when it was shown on TV and in schools in 1979. The innovative Play Safe earned
its director, David Eady, who worked widely across feature film and documentary
for over five decades, a BAFTA nomination in 1978.
Katy McGahan
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Complete film (1:12)
