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Threads [DVD]

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Threads was a 1984 BBC2 drama/documentary which tried to predict what would happen to Britain if nuclear war broke out and follows the path taken by Ruth Kemp and her family. It's a show which is regularly feted as one of the most bleak, disturbing and realistic pieces of drama to ever air not just on British TV, but in the history of the entire planet's televisual output. And, no matter how many times I watch it, the unflinching honesty of Threads leaves me feeling incredibly disconsolate, but completely engrossed. Threads served up a bleakly British depiction of our impending nuclear doom". The A.V. Club. 10 October 2017. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020 . Retrieved 13 May 2020.

Threads the scariest TV show ever made? - BBC Culture Was Threads the scariest TV show ever made? - BBC Culture

And it's this sharp, sudden detachment from reality which makes watching Threads such a numbing experience. Again and again, Ruth, the innocent citizen that represents us all, is bludgeoned by the harsh realities around her. Every inch of Threads is infected with a crushing sense of helplessness and it's this that upsets the most. However, much as Ruth continues to stagger onwards, you can't help but keep watching. To say it blunts your soul would be an understatement; I genuinely think that Threads rewires something deep inside of you to cope.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs last year, Brooker cited the film as a formative moment of his early adolescence. “I remember watching Threads and not being able to process what it meant; not understanding how society kept going,” he said. “I assumed it [nuclear war] was going to happen.”

Curious British Telly: Threads: Remastered DVD Review

As tensions escalated between the US and the USSR, so speculation fomented that nuclear war was not so much a far-off nightmare, as an imminent possibility. Historians now compare those days of 1983 to the Cuban Missile Crisis two decades earlier as one of the most perilous episodes of the Cold War. As the nuclear exchanges escalate, Mrs Kemp frantically arranges a government endorsed makeshift shelter comprised of old doors and mattresses - unlikely to withstand a strong gale let alone a nuclear blast. However, what's even more terrifying is when she suddenly realises that she's missing her son, Michael, who is cowering in his beloved aviary. The resulting maternal anguish is a disturbing sight and captures the true horror of the situation as megaton after megaton of nuclear energy pounds Britain. No matter how you slice it, films about this subject matter are going to be difficult to watch. Threads is indeed that, from the first frame onwards. Knowing what’s going to happen doesn’t soften the blow either – it only makes the inevitable nail-bitingly dreadful. Watching individual people be subjected to one of the most horrible things imaginable and then following whomever is left makes for a very downer of an experience, but an important one. Told in almost documentarian way, even with narration, it feels like a piece of history – like it actually happened, which makes it that much more potent. The performances from everybody involved feel genuine, and there isn’t a moment where you feel any sense of irony about it all. This is serious business, and the film doesn’t have any other purpose than to scare you. It was created as a warning to those who watch it.

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Threads' was looked on as left-wing anti-nuclear propaganda in the mid-80's during the height of Thatcherism,yet was still broadcast by the BBC even though said Mrs T always clearly had a downer on the organisation. O'Connor, John J. (12 January 1985). "TV: Years After Nuclear Holocaust". The New York Times. p.42 . Retrieved 11 October 2023. a b "Nuclear fallout in Sheffield". BBC South Yorkshire. 22 April 2005. Archived from the original on 21 October 2011 . Retrieved 5 January 2014.

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