The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water

Aired in 1973 as a British public service announcement against drowning, Dark and Lonely Water is modelled as supernatural horror in which a dark spirit oversees children drowning.

A surprising amount of effort went into one and a half minutes of TV, with Donald Pleasence voicing the spirit. It is seen ominously in the background as children fall into the water through carelessness. Its narration is sinister and eerie; the Spirit shows no obvious joy in seeing children die, but appears to benefit from or even cause the accidents. It is remarkably cold. Of course, simply falling into water won't necessarily kill a child; also, swimming into a water for one child is foolish while others swimming into the same water is "sensible," and the difference isn't exactly spelled out. Still, the short is spooky, evocative of Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973), and gets a point across.

This small film, to inform about the dangers of playing near water, swimming in the wrong place, slipping down muddy banks, etc., is raised from the usual preachy style by a really chilling evocation of the Grim Reaper with a voice-over by Donald Pleasance.

Shot by Jeff Grant in the style of a horror classic, this film stays in the memory for a long time. It gets its message across in an original way - public information films of the time were usually far more mundane (although not uninteresting).

A fondly remembered film - or one which has traumatised children for life ...?

I used to love Public Information Films when I was a kid. Some of them were masterpieces of tension and scares. Always filmed on 16mm, always stark and to-the-point and mostly always featuring children as the victims. You were glued to the screen. There's just something so hauntingly brilliant about them and The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water is no exception.

Directed by Jeff Grant, the film had Donald Pleasance play the voice of The Spirit-a sinister, robed apparition who would always be present when some foolish person ended up in a lake/pond/etc when they couldn't swim or when no one else could help.

Of course the Spirit was powerless against sensible children but the echoing warning of 'I'll be back-ack-ack-ack' reminded you that going for a dip in a flooded quarry would probably be dumb thing to do.

One of the fantastic things about growing up as a child of the 70's and 80's and being a horror fan were the Public Information Films that were shown at random times both day and night on British TV. These could convey any burning issue from the dangers of abandoned old refrigerators on rubbish tips through to the importance of not using different kinds of tyres on your car.

Some could be quite humorous in tone. But some were the stuff of nightmares. They set out to scare the living bejesus out of you. And by Christ, they worked. Everything from the dangers of Rabies, how you could be maimed if you misuse fireworks and, as you will see, what can happen to the show-off children who play near water.

Lonely Water aka The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water was made in 1973 and directed by Jeff Grant. The jewel in it's crown was that Donald Pleasance was used to voice the ghostly monk who appears when a child is about to come a cropper near a river or stream.

The eagle eyed will also see Terry Sue Patt aka Benny Green from Grange Hill as one of the kids.

This Public Information Film scared a whole generation from even thinking of going near their local river. This would also have been the generation who would later see Jaws either at the cinema (if they were old enough) or when it was first shown on TV. I wonder how many of my generation actually have hydrophobia as a result of this double whammy.

Lonely Water is a masterpiece of horror that was permitted to be shown at any time pre and post watershed on British television. Generation X have never gotten over it.