Known in the short form as PIFs, they were government-commissioned television commercials mainly, but not exclusively, aimed at children that had begun on television in the 1960s. But the 70s were most definitely their heyday, and you may even have found yourself recently quoting them without even realising it
The Seventies were truly the Golden Age of Public Information Films. In a poll organised by the BBC in 2006 to celebrate 60 years of the Central Office of Information, 40%, voted the Charley Says films the Nation's Favourite PIFs
The iconic red squirrel created by Elsie Mills in 1953 played a crucial role in teaching millions of children about road safety from the 1950s to the 1990s. In the 1970s, a series of 6 short television films bought him into the nation's homes
In spite of all the major domestic news stories of 1963; The Great Train Robbery, The Profumo Affair, everything else was eclipsed by the world shattering events in Dallas Texas on 22nd November.
John Winterson Richards chooses his own personal choice of ten classic television shows that had a major influence on our viewing habits and the type of programmes that followed them.
Andrew Cobby takes a humorous look at 1970s daytime TV: Crown Court, A Handful of Songs and Nancy Kominski - who wouldn't want to skip school for that?
Andrew Cobby remembers 1983: VCRs, Columbo and Top of the Pops.
British television in the 1980s welcomed the first new national television service for twenty years, breakfast TV was launched and cable and satellite were established. For many, it was the last golden decade, for others it was best forgotten
It's not all about television - okay, it is really. But let's take a commercial break for quick look back at the decade that became known as Cool Britannia. As we plunged headlong towards the new millennium and the Y2K Bug, what were the stories that formed the nineteen-nineties?
Quintessentially the epitome of 60s cool, charm and fashion, The Avengers owes as much to British culture as British culture does to it