
Visiting Scarfolk, the Most Spectacular Dystopia of the 1970s - tintinnabula
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/visiting-scarfolk/
======
richardjdare
This really nails the psychological atmosphere of my late 70s-early 80s
British childhood. I remember being terrified of rabies thanks to films and
posters like the one in the article, and believing that I would one day have
to fight the Soviets in some foggy, anthrax infested field. All before I was
ten years old!

This diminished as the 80s went on, along with that sense of Orwellian
paternalism that seemed to suffuse British life (see films like Scum, If...,
The Offence) - Perhaps it was the shadow side of the "cradle-to-grave" era
which ended with Thatcher - a welfare state administered by former
aristocratic imperialists. I don't know. I was too young to have a handle on
it, and like the creator of Scarfolk, the time has a kind of mythological
existence for me.

The article mentions how the creator of Scarfolk was inspired by public
information films. These were a source of pure terror to any kid who grew up
in 70s-80s Britain.

Imagine you are watching something fun on childrens TV, then, out of nowhere a
short horror film appears - only, as the authoritarian narrator reveals - this
isn't fiction - this is real. You couldn't watch tv without the fear of some
horrible thing being shown at random. There were certain times of day when
they were more likely and you could feel the dread mounting as they
approached.

Here's an example of the wholesome and educational material 80s kids were
subjected to:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWfOLN9Z1yw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWfOLN9Z1yw)

This scared the crap out of me as a child. If you're at all interested in
horror or propaganda then I highly recommend them! There are a bunch of them
on youtube.

~~~
lordelph
If you grew up anywhere rural in the late 70s/early 80s there is one public
information film you never forget: Apaches
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0GyRz_lOQA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0GyRz_lOQA)

Over the course about 20 mins 6 kids playing on a farm are dispatched by
falling into slurry pits, drinking chemicals and getting run over by tractors.

~~~
VLM
We had something similar to that in America at weird times of day or night
with televangelist evangelical christian dramatizations. I remember one
particular episode, I'm sleepless with a fever from a cold and mindlessly
changing channels and there's some kids playing around farm equipment that
would give OSHA a fit (but this was a long time ago, back when OSHA was
new...) and naturally one of the kids VERY dramatically loses a leg, and then
it cuts to the evangelical preaching part of the sermon along the lines of god
loves you so be chill when bad things happen, based on a true story! However
effective at converting adults, I will say it was almost subversively
ineffective at converting me as a little kid... all I got out of it personally
was don't play around farms, and the preacher's god is a complete jerk to rip
the legs off a little kid.

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ilamont
In the U.S. in the 70s children were exposed to media and other exercises with
similar themes. In retrospect they were some pretty scary concepts (although
nowadays my kids have to deal with "shelter in place" exercises at their own
schools thanks to guns).

In my elementary school we didn't do "duck and cover" but we did have to
regularly go down in lines to the basement which was an official "fallout
shelter" of our city. In the mid-70s I remember being shown a film in school
about a society living underground owing to some unexplained environmental
catastrophe, and for her birthday a young girl is allowed to go aboveground in
a spacesuit with a guide to explore an abandoned city. One of the scenes
showed a museum with exhibits like "North American Squirrel - Extinct 1984".

In the early 80s there was a hullabaloo about a TV film showing the impact on
Lawrence, Kansas, after a US-Soviet nuclear war. The pundits warned parents
not to let kids watch it, yet we kids had grown up with the implicit threat of
nuclear war hanging over our heads. Of course I watched it, and was not too
surprised about what it I saw on the screen ...

~~~
aptwebapps
_TV film showing the impact on Lawrence, Kansas, after a US-Soviet nuclear
war_

The Day After
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/)

~~~
arethuza
If you think _The Day After_ is grim then you should see Threads - the UK BBC
equivalent:

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090163/)

The one I remember most as a kid was actually the QED episode "A Guide to
Armageddon":

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GJttnC8PoA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GJttnC8PoA)

Edit: The part starting around 6:40 gave me nightmares when I saw it...

The 1965 _The War Game_ was so bad (i.e. realistic) that it wasn't broadcast
until relatively recently:

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059894](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059894)

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golemotron
The lighter side of nostalgia for that era is the British series 'Look Around
You'
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_Around_You](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_Around_You)

It's a TV series of parody kids' educational films from the late 70s-80s.
Immensely funny.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaI6kBVyu00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaI6kBVyu00)

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dmschulman
Archive.org has a ton of these films peppered around various collections:

[https://archive.org/details/british_gov_public_films](https://archive.org/details/british_gov_public_films)

[https://archive.org/details/educationalfilms](https://archive.org/details/educationalfilms)

[https://archive.org/details/prelinger](https://archive.org/details/prelinger)

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sjclemmy
The TV Detector Van of the 1970s(?) is a classic 'real' example of this sort
of thing.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvritKhT3j8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvritKhT3j8)

And if anyone thinks this is a joke, I remember watching these adverts as a
child and thinking they really could work out what you were watching on the
telly.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
TV Detector Vans were a legendary hoax. A very small fleet of real vans
existed, but they were completely useless and the electronics were just a
movie prop.

This has never been admitted officially:

[http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ73](http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ73)

Which is all _extremely_ weird - because it means the BBC spent real money
buying a few vans and kitting them out with fake buttons, lights, and
switches. And then more real money driving them around the UK and parking them
in random locations. To frighten people.

As for Scarfolk - found it a few years ago, thought it was hilarious.
Technically it's an example of hauntology, which is borrowed from Derrida[1],
but only really makes sense in the grimmer parts of the UK.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hauntology_artists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hauntology_artists)

[1] Obviously...

~~~
jdietrich
Detecting a CRT television isn't remotely difficult - any decent radio amateur
could do it with the equipment they have at hand. The intermediate frequency
and the CRT deflection signal are emitted at detectable levels, particularly
on cheap sets.

Frankly, I think it's implausible that detector vans were a complete hoax. The
BBC undoubtedly had the technological capability to reliably and quickly
locate TV sets. I do think it's plausible that the actual use of detector vans
was overstated for PR purposes.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
There are exactly zero records of prosecutions obtained using evidence
collected by a detector van.

It would be one thing to detect an analog TV IF signal, another to triangulate
its position precisely enough to identify a specific house in a street or room
in a block - given that every other TV in the area would be generating exactly
the same IF oscillator signal - and a third to prove the TV was tuned into a
program and not being used for pong, a computer, or watching a video.

And it would be unnecessary. The licensing enforcers have always kept a record
of addresses without a license. If - like me - you don't have a TV, you get a
regular stream of letters threatening prosecution anyway, and an occasional
knock on the door.

If you're an enforcer, the easiest way to check if someone has a TV is to look
at a house after dark. Most living rooms in the UK are visible from the
street.

~~~
jdietrich
>There are exactly zero records of prosecutions obtained using evidence
collected by a detector van.

TVL say they use detector van evidence as grounds for a search warrant, which
seems perfectly reasonable. Why argue the technicalities of RF triangulation
in court when you can just get a warrant, search the house and collect
incontrovertible evidence?

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voodootrucker
I couldn't think of a more poignant analogy for modern society. A look at any
anti-smoking poster should be reminiscent.

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ihavedna
I can't help but think there's a little bit of a Welcome to Night Vale
influence - but a (distorted? misinterpreted?) Southern Gothic trend started
around 2012-2013. I saw a lot of revisiting of dark recolorings of reality in
that vein crop up when that podcast came out, particularly on tumblr.

If you look up the "Southern Gothic Meme" or "____ Gothic" memes (for your
city, state, concept, etc) theres some really entertaining shortform writing
out there. :)

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MikeNomad
I'm a little surprised that neither side of the interview brought up J.G.
Ballard's collages from the 1960s. Sorry for the lack of link. I know some are
included in Re/Search #7/8.

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marcus_holmes
There's something so wonderfully British about this

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Aardwolf
Reminds me of some of some of David Firth's work.

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coco1989
for more information please reread

