To view this media, you will require Adobe Flash 9 or higher and must have Javascript enabled.

Duration 00:49

Keep It To yourself

Made in 1968, this film features a young Roy Hudd as the shadowy spy-figure mischievously dropping litter.

As one of the ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ campaigns, this 1968 film shows ‘Litter Defence Volunteers’ or ‘LDVs’, striking against “public enemy number one”; a litter bug. The formation of LDVs was a play on the ‘Local Defence Volunteers’, otherwise known as the Home Guard, who formed Britain’s last line of defence against invasion during the Second World War. In 1967 there were reportedly 5,000 ‘Litter Defence Volunteers’ criss-crossing the country pushing the ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ slogan.

Initially highlighted as a problem by the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, since 1955 the national anti-litter campaign ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ has been running. In fact, the International Tidy Man symbol that has become synonymous with ‘Keep Britain Tidy’ pre-dates this film by one year. The Tidy Man symbol that appears on many everyday foodstuffs and signs was first adopted in 1969 to help deliver the anti-litter message.

Transcription

Public Enemy No 1, hunted all over the world. Messy job.

Call on LDV – Litter Defence Volunteers: spotless, clean, tidy.

With good humour they strike against Public Enemy No 1 wherever he operates.

Litter costs you money.

Litter Defence Volunteers stop litter.

Save the cost of picking it up.

With more public help, they do even better.

Keep litter to yourself.

Put it here.