This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television on 17/08/17, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01439685.2017.1331630 THIS FILM IS RESTRICTED: THE TRAINING FILMS OF THE BRITISH SECURITY SERVICE Dr Shane O’Sullivan (Kingston University) School of Performance and Screen Studies Penrhyn Road Kingston upon Thames Surrey KT1 2EE Tel: 020 8417 9000 ext: 67091 Mob: 07931 107944 email:
[email protected] Abstract In 1962, following a series of spy scandals, the Security Service and the Central Office of Information (COI) created a security education campaign to raise awareness of the Soviet espionage threat to state and industrial secrets, and to provide security training for military and civilian personnel handling classified material. Several instructional films were commissioned, using fictional scenarios to dramatize the Cold War threat to security personnel. This paper will examine four of these declassified and highly inventive films – It Can’t Happen to Me (1962), Persona Non Grata (1964) and The Lecture (1968), produced by James Carr’s World Wide Pictures; and Any One of Us (1970), directed by Seafield Head for Verity Films. Drawing on COI production files at the National Archives and the films themselves, I explore the making and underlying message of these long-neglected and highly stylized pieces of Cold War propaganda; how they anticipate key texts of the sixties spy genre like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965); and how they compare to American security education films from the same period.