TV-AM “Swimming Pool Clip” (lost public information film from breakfast television show; existence unconfirmed; mid-1980s)

TV-AM Logo

Status: Existence Unconfirmed

TV-AM was a TV company that broadcast Breakfast Television shows from 1983-1992 in the United Kingdom. Though, during an interview of TV-AM’s Good Morning Britain, a weird clip about a boy and his mother at the swimming pool was shown only once and was never seen again, sparking a mystery about this clip.

Description

By one witness, they describe about a clip they saw in the mid-1980s that scared them and was never seen again. They also described that the clip was possibly during an interview from Good Morning Britain and describes the clips as it follows, quote:

The clip featured a bird’s-eye view of a busy outdoor swimming pool on a hot summer’s day. My memory for detail must have been pretty sharp as a kid because I remember random minute details, such as there being a step ladder on the bottom left corner of the pool. Anyway, on the far left of the screen there was a mother sat on one of the chairs surrounding the pool, and a little boy was stood in front of her, whose shirt buttons she was unfastening. From memory, the mother had short black hair and was wearing a black top and black trousers. The boy was a typical-looking toddler with short light brown or blond hair, wearing a shirt and shorts. As mentioned, the mother was unfastening the boy’s shirt buttons, and she was talking to him as she did so (the boy didn’t say a word – it was just a long monologue by the mother). Seemed normal enough at first.

However, after a moment or so, the mother suddenly changed her voice mid-speech to a funny, comical voice. It was a proper silly, daft cartoon voice – a sharp voice right in the back of the throat. The change seemed undramatic – she just changed to the funny voice mid-sentence, and the boy didn’t react to this. She kept on unfastening (possibly buttoning back up?) the boy’s shirt, while talking to him in the funny voice, albeit with serious tones. Then after another moment or so the mother was lifted by nothing out of her chair, rose diagonally forward into mid-air, hung suspended in mid-air for a few seconds still in a sitting position – then fell into the pool with an enormous splash, while emitting a bizarre scream, still in the funny voice but sounding terrified. Absolutely no-one reacted to this – the camera hung on the scene a few seconds after the mother had fallen in, and the many swimmers in the pool didn’t react at all, while even the boy didn’t react – just kept staring straight ahead at the empty chair as if the mother was still there.

Cut back to the TV-AM studio. I’m pretty sure the late Mike Morris was among the presenters, possibly Anne Diamond as well, but childhood memories can never be 100% reliable. I seem to recall Mike Morris saying “Well that was…” and an air of bewilderment among the presenters, but no more specific details, much as I didn’t take in anything the mother had actually said in the monologue (well other than her bizarre funny-voiced scream of “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA–A!”) despite registering numerous other details.

Public Information Film Theory

A theory that people believe is that the clip was a public information film as TV-AM will air PIFs occasionally at the time. One person who witnessed it said that it was a PIF about sunburn and the dangers of skin cancer. Another witness said that it had to be a PIF of some sort, mostly believed to be something about taking care when swimming or looking after kids at the beach. Another one mostly believed that it was a series of adverts, mostly “several silly adverts with different things happening” they recalled but also believed it was a PIF of some sort.

Availability

No photos or footage of the clip exists and it’s not known if the clip ever existed.