THREADS (Nuclear War)

Threads was aired on 1984, one Sunday night at 9pm to an unsuspecting UK TV audience, it single handedly put the nation off the nuclear war effort and was then quitely removed from the archives until 2002. Threads redefines the word grim and is hard to imagine what sort of impact this would have had on its viewers given its from an era in TV when there was only 4 channels and a Mary Whitehouse mentality towards censorship.




On the plus side it shows that the BBC were once brave and did care about quality programming that dealt with factual real life issues, you know stuff people really needed know.

The full length version was posted 4 years ago on Google Video, as that website is being closed I decided to upload the full film to YouTube.

Wiki;
Threads is a British television drama produced by the BBC in 1984. Written by Barry Hines and directed by Mick Jackson, it is a documentary-style account of a nuclear war and its effects on the city of Sheffield in northern England.

Filmed in late 1983 and early 1984, the primary plot centres on two families: the Kemps and the Becketts — as an international crisis between the United States and the Soviet Union erupts and escalates. As the United Kingdom prepares for war, the members of each family deal with their own personal crises. Meanwhile, a secondary plot centered upon Clive J. Sutton, the Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council serves to illustrate for the viewer the United Kingdom government's then-current continuity of government arrangements. As open warfare between NATO and the USSR-led Warsaw Pact begins, the harrowing details of the characters' struggle to survive the attacks is dramatically depicted. The balance of the film details the fate of each family as the characters face the medical, economic, social, and environmental consequences of a nuclear war. Both the plot and the atmosphere of the film are extremely bleak.

Threads was first broadcast on BBC Two on 23 September 1984.[4] It was repeated on BBC One on 1 August 1985 as part of a week of programmes marking the fortieth anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which also saw the first television screening of The War Game (which had been deemed too disturbing for television in the 20 years since it had been made). Threads was not shown again on British screens until the digital channel BBC Four broadcast it in October 2003.

Threads was broadcast in the USA on cable network Superstation TBS on January 13, 1985,[5] followed by a panel discussion on nuclear war. It was also shown on PBS stations as part of fund raising drives.

Threads was broadcast in Australia on the Nine Network on 19 June 1985.[6] Unusually for a commercial network, it broadcast the film without commercial breaks.[7]

[edit] AwardsThreads was nominated for seven BAFTA awards in 1985. It won for Best Design, Best Film Cameraman, Best Film Editor, and Best Single Drama. Its other nominations were for Best Costume Design, Best Make-Up, and Best Film Sound.

[edit] Video and DVD releasesThreads was originally released by BBC Video (on VHS and, for a very short period, Betamax) in 1987 (catalogue number BBCV4071) in the United Kingdom but soon went out of print and became a much sought-after item in the 1990s.

A DVD release appeared in the United Kingdom in 2000 on the Revelation label followed by a re-release in 2005.

Some video and DVD versions of the programme omitted the use of Chuck Berry's song "Johnny B. Goode" for copyright reasons.

• Category

  Education

[sydIRISH]

They speak English, but I cant understand a damn word they say.

[JohnnyFiveEagles]

I agree. I couldn't stop watching the thing. Weird. Not even very good effects by today's nauseous supply of special fx blah blah blah. Thank you.

[TheBookWorm1718]

Guess that makes sense...except it makes you wonder just how much food they managed to stockpile for themselves that they can waste the fuel on helicopters instead of tractors for farming the crops?

[calko56]

0:50:17 - is that ET burning O_O

[calko56]

0:15:17 - is that ET burning O_O

[kafroflol]

Have fun smoking on fallout.

[kafroflol]

Military stockpiles

[John Exeter]

Yes, the governments told us to be terrified of nukes and we duly obeyed.

The thing about nuclear weapons is that there have only been two used in anger in human history, there are two reasons for that: MAD and they're a last-resort sledgehammer.

Surgical strikes are cheaper and easier to conceal from the public - if the future is anything, it's more and more drone strikes, unfortunately.

[uel786]

Some English women in this show ARE attractive...news reader (@3:35), Ruth, Jimmy's sister (Alyson).

[TheBookWorm1718]

Okay, so if there's no fuel for tractors, HOW the hell is there fuel for helicopters?

[Patar Parkor]

Try learning about other cultures besides your own. That way you may begin to understand things outside your own borders.

[bagelpaste]

Uhh...