It’s 1964 and in living rooms across Britain a jolly black-and-white public information film flickers on to the nation’s television screens with a novel message: “Don’t ask a man to drink and drive.”
It’s short, amusing, innocent and fun and, although nobody knows it yet, it will one day be recognised as a major turning point, the moment when drink-driving begins to lose its gloss of public acceptability.
Fifty years ago millions were still routinely downing “one for the road” before swerving home in the car. So despite hundreds dying each year at the hands of drink-drivers, the film’s central message and title still seemed alien. A little un‑British, even.
