PSA: THREADS, 09 Oct, 10 pm, BBC4

She watched Z for Zacharia too the old one because apparently they re made it

I remember watching the original and in its own way, it was just as powerful as Threads, it’s definitely recommended. The ending is extremely memorable imo.

The new one is Hollywoodized and is “ok” but it’s a far more generic “end of the world” movie.

I love apocalyptic movies/ series, I find them oddly calming. They are a reminder that even on your worst day, boy, things could be so much worse.

That being said, I’m pretty convinced that during my lifetime there will be an atomic weapon used in anger (not necessarily by a state actor**), I’m just not sure if it will trigger a full out nuclear war. We shall see.

** Iran probed our border resilience a year or so back (during a border force strike) by getting a patsy to put some radioactive materials into a planes hold luggage. It wasn’t a bomb, it was simply to see if the UK had the systems in place, particularly during a strike, to detect a potential bomb.  It struck me at the time how little news coverage it got, you can make your own minds up as to why that was.

Is it a one off iPlayer screening or will it be on demand for a bit? I’d like to watch it but my evening shift yesterday snowballed into a 13 hour all nighter and I’m already nodding off ?

spooky_b329
Full Member
Is it a one off iPlayer screening or will it be on demand for a bit? I’d like to watch it but my evening shift yesterday snowballed into a 13 hour all nighter and I’m already nodding off ?

I’m not sure to be honest, it was on YT in the past but might have been taken down. Hopefully the bung it on iPlayer as I wont be able to watch it tonight either.

What a cheerful programme!

Yep, absolutely as grim as I remember!

When the Wind Blows next to see everyone into a blissful sleep?

Or perhaps, The Road?

Just finished watching it now, my god that was grim. Good, but I never want to see it again tbh!

To answer my earlier question, it’s on iPlayer for 30 days

im intrigued.  never watched it first time round so may give it a watch over the weekend.

It was a little late for me so I’ll try and watch it on streaming.

Probably worth reading this little beauty for maximum immersion of what it was like at the time.
Protect and survive

TBH I don’t remember being that phased at the time, I suppose you get used to it whilst living thru it.
We did have a good soundtrack to life then thou 🙂

Definitely grim, by today’s standards though it’s depressing for sure, but I can imagine in 1984 it would make pretty shocking viewing.   My paranoia though did feed into the Middle East / Russia / US parallels of today, and together with the in-movie “government is ahead of the public behind the scenes “ narrative I did start to think, why is this stuff on TV right at this particular moment….

Watching it last night brought back Martin Amis’s take:

Every morning, six days a week, I leave the house and drive a mile to the flat where I work. For seven or eight hours I am alone. Each time I hear a sudden whining in the air, or hear one of the more atrocious
impacts of city life, or play host to a certain kind of unwelcome thought, I can’t help wondering how it might be. Suppose I survive. Suppose my eyes aren’t pouring down my face, suppose I am untouched by
the hurricane of secondary missiles that all mortar, metal, and glass has abruptly become: suppose all this. I shall be obliged (and it’s the last thing I’ll feel like doing) to retrace that long mile home, through the
firestorm, the remains of the thousand-mile-an-hour winds, the warped atoms, the groveling dead.

Then—God willing, if I still have the strength, and, of course, if they are still alive—I must find my wife and children and I must kill them.

Seen it as a young kid on first release, was more excited by it and it was all chat the next say about the explosions and searing heat. Seen it again a few years later when at high school when we were learning about nuclear bombs, the 80s was an odd time as there were many programmes about surviving a nuclear strike. The reality is your better off watching the strike from close up, at least it’ll be a swift death.

Taped it, Never seen it.

Guessing its not suitable for my 9 year old?

Taped it

On Betamax for maximum 80’s throwback?

Guessing its not suitable for my 9 year old?

Absolutely not. Regularly features on Internet round ups of “most horrific non-horror film”.

Watched again last night, for the first time since I watched it as a young teenager back in the 80’s. I remembered a surprising amount, forgot that it’s mostly vignettes rather than a film. Still impactful though. I remember being thankful that I lived (at the time) right next to an RAF base, and would be instantly vaporised. Nothing has changed my mind that that isn’t still the very best outcome if anyone would be idiotic to turn the launch keys

This was a good book(let) that I had at the time (might still have, actually):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166389724944?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=EcarENKCSZS&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=fskVY7jvSgK&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I even had an NBC suit I blagged off my mum’s mate in the TA!

Is it a one off iPlayer screening or will it be on demand for a bit? I’d like to watch it but my evening shift yesterday snowballed into a 13 hour all nighter and I’m already nodding off ?

It is available for 30 days on iPlayer.

It’s also on the Internet archive site.As is some great radio program from the Beeb.

The BBC should make this permanently available on iPlayer as a public service to remind us what will happen if we don’t manage Russia and Iran effectively.

Guessing its not suitable for my 9 year old?

Watch it yourself first, I would have let my eldest watch it at 9 but no so much my youngest.

why is this stuff on TV right at this particular moment….

Just to reassure you a little, I think it’s on TV due to it being it’s 40th anniversary year.

Never seen it before but know of it, watched til about 1130 then taped the rest to finish tonight.

Loved all the early 80’s visuals …. A lady call Marjorie, Mothercare, a new escort Mkiii …. smoking !! lol …. Don’t worry it’s Armageddon out there, there are no fags left.

The Amis quote above strikes a chord… I was thinking of the couple behind the doors against the wall and him “caring” for his wife… it crossed my mind he should have topped her off??

Looking forward (weird) to watching the rest tonight.

then taped the rest to finish tonight.

Who are you, who are all these people in the thread (no pun intended) that tape TV shows?!!

😉

yep ….. I’ve got a Ferguson Videostar

With big chunky mechanical buttons/levers

^^ *I used to repair those “piano key” bad boys. The shop made a fortune changing the bulb (yes, a filament BULB!) that used to blow and stop it playing tapes.

Looking forward to watching this (I think). I would have been 9 when it came out but I never saw it then and only learned about it many years later. Though I do remember going to see when the wind blows at the cinema.

Growing up in a basement flat in London I used to lie in bed wondering if the shockwave would go right over the top of us, while also hoping the cat wouldn’t be in the garden when it happened. What a time to be a kid! 🙂

Like many above it had a traumatic effect on my as a 20 year old. Put less subtlety it scared the crap out of me!!

I suspect it will have dated somewhat in the intervening years. However that could work both ways. Could make it even more chilling.

Definitely one of the most important scary iconic memorable frightening upsetting (I could go on) bits of TV I’ve ever seen.

Who are you, who are all these people in the thread (no pun intended) that tape TV shows?!!

I’m sure it’s just an expression for using a hard drive or whatever.

Still don’t see the point I haven’t had an aerial or sat dish connection for a few years now.

Just looking at a Furguson Videostar gives me flashbacks to the explosive pop-up when ejecting a tape.

I suspect it will have dated somewhat in the intervening years

I watched it for the first time last night and it didn’t feel dated at all. They obviously had a very limited budget, so there are no dramatic wide shots and special effects. Everything is really tight and claustrophobic, but that, along with the 1980s TV quality video suits the documentary style of the film perfectly. The fact it leans more towards that documentary style rather than drama makes it more chilling, because you don’t feel the normal safe distance of watching a fictional story being told. I think it is a masterpiece of writing and direction.

Absolute silence after the first few minutes until the finish (including my 14 year old). Apart from my wife, who indignantly pointed out during the final scene that a character born post apocalypse had fillings…

Absolute silence after the first few minutes until the finish (including my 14 year old)

That’s interesting, I thought the relative lack of pace and background music would’ve had contemporary kids reaching for their phones in minutes.

Try him on this late 70s episode of a programme about the survivors of a global pandemic:

Absolutely sh£t me up as a 10 year old (you thought 80s parenting was hands off…) and I think it still stands up.

Just watching it now. Pretty grim.

I know things aren’t currently nuclear, but I can’t help feel for the poor buggers around the world getting bombed with ‘conventional’ weapons. Not something I’m sure nearly all of us can even comprehend living with.

Watched it last night.  Its my first time seeing it.

Bloody

Hell

People telling you how unremittingly grim it is, doesn’t really prepare you for how unremittingly grim it is.

Christ the ending…

I’m off to build a bunker in the garage.  I’ll be stocking it with enough Tramadol that everyone can go nighty night as we inevitably succumb to either radiation sickness, crippling illness or starvation.

But what happen when the bomb drops

Down

Watched it until the mushroom clouds last night. That was fifty minutes or so. Tense. “Why didn’t you unplug the bloody aerial?!” Would that have helped? Guessing not.

Will watch the rest at the weekend.

I know things aren’t currently nuclear,

We aren’t that far away worryingly, and the timeline of the film was a matter of weeks before conventional diplomacy turned into nuclear willy waving contest.

Definitely one of the most important scary iconic memorable frightening upsetting (I could go on) bits of TV I’ve ever seen.

You probably want to look out for Children of the Stones HTV 1976 that was pretty bad considering it was for kids 🙂

This is in a similar vein. Possibly even grimmer as it focuses on an entire country

Bit of light bed time reading

I thought it was a documentary about everyday life in Sheffield.