Tufty, it turned out, might be cute but he was a bit of a mummy’s squirrel. What cool kid was going to do what Tufty did?
What the government realised was they needed someone a bit more muscular to get kids to cross the road properly. Enter the Green Cross man, played by Dave Prowse, who would just a couple of years later become the body (but not the voice) of Darth Vader himself.
The Green Cross man would intervene when kids were going to cross the road dangerously. He’d teleport to them from his monitoring station at Green Cross Control using his wristwatch then stop them running without looking or whatever it was they were planning on doing. He’d then teach the kids the Green Cross Code – stop, look, listen, think – and then conclude each advert with “I won’t be there when you cross the road, so always use the Green Cross Code.”
And if the thought of a big, West Country bodybuilder in spandex popping up next to them wouldn’t scare kids into crossing the road properly, I don’t know what would. Maybe a robot.
