Does anyone remember a TV movie called Threads?

[Lady Whistledown]

It must have been made in the early 1980s, when the Cold War stuff was all still very real, and was about the impact of a nuclear strike on Sheffield.

They made us watch it when I was at secondary school (not quite sure why, perhaps to dissuade Hassocks children from growing up to become nuclear-obsessed dictators?), I think I was traumatised for days afterwards



Kind of put the mockers on the idea that if the four minute warning ever sounded, you could hide under a table strategically propped up at the optimum angle to the wall. It was full of horrific special effects (well by the standards of the BBC budget probably). Very memorable for all the wrong reasons, but I've never met anyone else who saw it.

Anybody? No?

 

[bigc]

I read about it while going through my interest in that time period.

Scary stuff from the online clips I saw.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Yep, skin & eyeballs melting, mutant babies being born to the survivors, and a guy getting his leg amputated in a filthy hospital, by a doctor using a hacksaw and no anaesthetic



The school made us get permission from our parents to watch it, but I can't for the life of me figure what educational purpose it served....

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

We watched that at school as well.

 

[Nemesis]

I have a copy of it somewhere.....

 

[Stevie Boy]

i thnik i vaguely remember it

 

[GNF on Tour]

Excellent series, BBC at its best, scared the willies off me! Compare Threads to Jericho (if you get it in England) worlds apart in different intepreatations of post-nuclear war scenario e.g. in America a few days after the bombs the Septics have a town barbie to eat all the food and have a larf, in Sheffield the local TA shoot looters in cold blood for nicking a can of baked beans!

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Compare Threads to Jericho (if you get it in England) worlds apart in different intepreatations of post-nuclear war scenario

As Connor Macleod famously said "There can be only one!" and I think this is also true in the case of 'Threads' GNF, so enough about 'Jericho' thank you.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Found it on YouTube.

Moment of impact

 

[bigc]

Ever heard of Able Archer Edna?

I did some reading on that and it proves how close we almost did come in 1983.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

No, I haven't. But I do have vague memories of the atmosphere of the time, and the feeling that it was possible.

If you mention the Cold War and the possibility back then of US-Soviet nuclear conflict now to many people under, what, 23-24, they look at you as though you were mad!

The threat's still there to some extent, I guess, it's just the people with their fingers on the triggers that change.

 

[bigc]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_archer

That explains it.

The threat is arguably smaller(due to the end of the cold war) but also arguably higher(increased nuclear capabilities from countries, no balance of power that existed in the cold war).

Edna, you'd have been even more worried if you knew just how geriatic the Soviet leadership were at that time.

 

[Freddie Goodwin.]

I saw it on BBC, i think they had trouble getting permission. This was around the Thatcher/Regan era when it seemed that nuclear war with the Soviets was a real threat.

What made this so memorable was that it showed the effect on everyday people and how devastating such a war would be.

 

[medicine man]

Yep, watched it at the time, I was about 12 I think,scared the sh*t out of me. Saw it again years later when it was the first time it was repeated, about 20years later!! The woman just standing in the street pissing herself was probably more inpactful than the other special effects stuff, IMHO.
When The Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs, he of The Snowman fame, was also a classic of the cold war era.
"my cakes, they will be burned!"

 

[British Bulldog]

The woman just standing in the street pissing herself was probably more inpactful than the other special effects stuff,

Pervert!

 

[medicine man]

 

[strings]

I saw it while I was at Uni (I studied War). Must admit it scared the s**t out of me too.

The image of the woman cradling her dead baby was very disturbing. A very good film, and very thought provoking.

I was told that it was banned for a period before it was eventually shown on TV, as it was thought that the film wold have caused mass public panic. Is this true?

 

[Albion Dan]

We watched it at school as well. Heavy stuff. Made us all realise that Nuclear war is no option ever, basically would be the end for all of us.

 

[Muzzman]

I wateched this recently as a friend of mine has an old copy of it.. right at the beginning there's this guy listening to the football results in a car.. Brighton get a mention beating Portsmouth 2-0

 

[Blackadder]

Yep, I remember it. Good prog haven't seen it since.

There was also an American version called The Next Day (I think)