PSA: THREADS, 09 Oct, 10 pm, BBC4

A timely rescreening of the movie that traumatised a generation. I first saw this at a ridiculously young age (80s parenting) and was never quite the same again,  having seen a perfect rendition of the world I inhabited being utterly annihilated.

I see that Grave of the Fireflies is also screening on Netflix at the moment – might make it a double bill.

Never seen Threads.

Never watching Grave of the Fireflies again since having kids.

Watched it first time round. Author was from the village I grew up in

More famous for his book and film Kes

I’ll be watching, just as I was in 1984, hopefully not quite as traumatised this time.

More famous for his book and film Kes

One of my favourite films, funny and very sad

Threads, definitely not funny

The definitive answer to my 8 year old’s questions about what it was like growing up during the Cold War.

Don’t think I’ve ever seen threads so will watch it

Don’t think I’ve ever seen threads so will watch it

I think I was too young when it first aired.  I’m aware of its reputation though, it’s notoriously bleak.

Watched it back in the day when I was a teenager. Scared the shit out of me.

Won’t be watching it again unless they do a musical version.

I Watched it as a 12 year old in 1984, I grew up about 20 miles from Finningley and 10 miles from Sheffield city center. Scared me and all my mates to death, far more than any of the video nasties doing the rounds back then!

I didn’t catch it when it first came out, but being a RAF brat and loving on or near bases, it brings back the underlying tension at the time.

I was a baby when it came out so I’ve heard about it but never seen it.

The reviews on IMDb make it sound horrifying.

Does it have the same impact in 2024? Or is it like watching old Dr Who with the cheap makeup and wobbly sets etc?

Never watching Grave of the Fireflies again since having kids.

Amazing film but won’t be watching again

Recording threads
I remember bits of Threads but didn’t really watch it as I was about 12

I was a baby when it came out so I’ve heard about it but never seen it.

The reviews on IMDb make it sound horrifying.

Does it have the same impact in 2024? Or is it like watching old Dr Who with the cheap makeup and wobbly sets etc?

Watch it and let us know how you get on. I’m genuinely fascinated to know how its received now, as it traumatised me quite a bit the first time round, I now realise.
I’m not sure if I can watch it again. I’ll decide tomorrow.

Does it have the same impact in 2024? Or is it like watching old Dr Who with the cheap makeup and wobbly sets etc?

I think it still stands up very well. It’s very focused on the human experience, so isn’t overly reliant on effects sequences. The attack scenes use a lot of documentary footage, which obviously helps.

The most disturbing aspect has always been how real it feels (lots of non-actors on-screen probably helped with this).

I just checked iPlayer and it’s not on there yet. If they put it on I’ll definitely watch it.

If I try to stay up tomorrow I’ll just sleep through it!

The young couple doing up the flat for a new life together  whilst listening to the worsening global situation on the radio…

Very powerful stuff.

They are trying to find the guy that played the iconic traffic warden with all the bandages on, it was on the BBC Webby. Cant remember the reason, guessing it’s due to the anniversary.

Spare yourself all that trauma tomorrow and watch >> The French Dispatch 🙂

Everything feels better after a bit of Wes Anderson 😉

I think I was too young when it first aired.  I’m aware of its reputation though, it’s notoriously bleak.

I was only 12 in 1984 and living in Argyll at the time, not far from Dunoon so growing up we knew from drills to stay away from windows and dive under the desks at school if anything happened. Probably just as well we didn’t have a tv, where we lived there was no signal so I guess all we would have known of a strike was the big bright light in the sky.

They are trying to find the guy that played the iconic traffic warden with all the bandages on, it was on the BBC Webby.

He’s been found, apparently. Radio 4 did a doc on the movie last week: a local radio station in Sheffield surprised a couple of superfans, who’d been trying to track him down for ages, by wheeling him out, live on air.

He’s been found, apparently. Radio 4 did a doc on the movie last week: a local radio station in Sheffield surprised a couple of superfans, who’d been trying to track him down for ages, by wheeling him out, live on air.

That’s great, cheers for sharing, didn’t know he’d been found!

When I was younger, we had a physics teacher who told us what to do in the event of a nuclear blast. Keen I suppose to show differences between the speed of light and the speed of sound.

He said that light travels faster, and the flash would most likely blind you. So what to do was you were to clap your hands over your ears so that when you go blind, you dont go deaf as well

Having just read the Wiki summary, I thinks it’s best I don’t watch it.

Having just read the Wiki summary, I thinks it’s best I don’t watch it

Defensible. Know thyself.

I believe it was based (loosely) on a simulated attack called Square Leg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Leg

Remember Threads and those times well. My dad was on the Polaris Submarines.

Very scary film.

I read a load of Barry Hines  stuff in the 80’s and 90’s. The Blinder, Kes, The Gamekeeper, The Heart of It.

I’m sure I read a novel based on Threads but I can’t find any record of it? Anyone else remember it? Or have I just imagined it????

Live about 15 miles from Sheff. Will watch it to see what it looked like 40 odd years ago. I was too young to have seen the film the first time around.

Going to watch it for nostalgia of 80s Sheffield. Saw it first time round. Our sixth form college (now a steakhouse and wedding venue) hosted the sirens for south of Middlesbrough and had regular tests, which together with sirens for chemical leaks from ICI et al, kept us on edge somewhat.

There’s a podcast hosted by someone who watched Threads as a young child and it absolutely traumatised her.

Looks at the Protect and Survive stuff from the 80’s.

https://shows.acast.com/atomichobo

Watched it at the time as a callow teenager and was a bit Kevin-and Perry about it, as I recall. Watched it again as a download about four years ago – Holy Christ!!!

There’s a podcast hosted by someone who watched Threads as a young child and it absolutely traumatised her.

Looks at the Protect and Survive stuff from the 80’s.

https://shows.acast.com/atomichobo

Julie’s great. I used to work with her a long time ago; she’s truly a one-off. Really enjoyed seeing her turn an obsession into a career as a podcaster and author. She even interviewed Threads director, Mick Jackson for her show.

We were shown it at comp school – can’t remember being traumatised by it. In our rather shite school it was treated by us kids as a ‘doss’ session.

But everything around that era was about the cold war, so it was just another thing added to the TV output at the time.

One thing that era probably has done is harden me to news of wars. I look at what is going on in the middle east now and think it’s just more of the same and will never change. Jokes of ‘you’ve won a fortnight in Beirut’ were very much a thing back in the 80’s.

Although a lot of my generation (those of the late 60’s early 70s) haven’t had to fight in wars we’ve been bought up with the constant threat of one.

I have it on DVD (but no DVD player anymore) & can see parts of where it was filmed from my back bedroom.

I think if you have an awareness of what the 80s were like then it stands up quite well, otherwise its just looks old and low budget.

The very end is a bit rubbish, I get what they were trying to do but it feels rushed and disjointed.

I randomly watched it on my phone the other week it’s on the Internet archive site. Watching it on a phone made it a bit more grim.

The political build up in the film is oddly horrifying.

I love Threads, it’s terrifying. I do feel like there’s a space in the modern market for a similar type of film now, with a higher budget and more potential for effects – but the 80s style and grainy grimness really adds to the theme.

+1 for Atomic Hobo. Like Julie I am darkly obsessed with nuclear war, always have been since I was a kid seeing Fylingdales RAF station. It’s cool to have a regular podcast with loads of details about it for a total dweeb like me.

Thanks for the PSA – guess it will be a late night for me!

Is it on iPlayer? Didn’t watch it last night because I would have missed the start (watched Morvern Callar instead) but now can’t seem to find it. Was it a one-off broadcast?

It’s on tonight.

With some chemical warfare and other nuclear stuff before it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02kgkkg

The reason I watched it was because I had my tea break at work sitting on top of a command center in Oxford and my work mate had no idea what she was sitting on or the film. She watched Z for Zacharia too  the old one because apparently they re made it

The War Game from 1966 is also worth a watch.

It was banned from broadcast until 1985.

I made the mistake of telling my work peer group about it, and despite my warnings they’ve all committed to watching it.

Which means I will also gulp, going by the comments above I can’t wait for the faces on tomorrow’s early morning group teams meeting.