Watching ‘Threads’ in the 1980’s

[C0rdelia]

Are there others who watched this at the time?

I tried to post a picture from the leaflet but failed. It can easily be Googled.

Didn't fail after all.

Summary of threads en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads

The nuclear explosion scene, it still sends shivers down my spine

It was even scarier if you watched it as a child who lived in Sheffield at the time where it was filmed
The building my sister worked in (she was 8 years older than me) was in the scene where the nuclear siren went off. My cousin was in it and several school friends too. Terrified me.

I watched it at the time and it traumatised me. My grown up son watched it a couple of years ago and he found it really bleak and distressing so it clearly hasn't lost any of its power over the years.

I watched it when I was 13 or 14,it terrified me for years , the threat was very real in the 80,s

If you want something that is actually just as hard hitting but in a different way, then “when the wind blows” is well worth a watch.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_the_Wind_Blows_(1986_film)

Not as graphic as Threads, but will still leave you stopped in your tracks.

I think the couple in When the Wind Blows were following the advice in Protect and Survive.

I have it on DVD I wasn't allowed to watch it as a child. It is a brilliant film but a harrowing watch.

yes I was about 14 I think. It was traumatic, it was a scary time.

Yes! Gave me nightmares for weeks.

Zombie thread now but I’m interested to see that someone posted about this only last year.
I’m helping DD(10) with her world war project and we watched a YouTube doc about Hiroshima. She thought the bomb looked cool but understood why WW3 as we might understand it hopefully can’t/won’t ever happen.
They weren’t so optimistic in the 1980s. I remember Threads - the never-forgotten film that has had easily the most impact on me in my life. Low-budget, unglamorous and super-realistic and all the more effective for it!
They don’t make em like that nowadays.

I was about 20 when it was first shown and it was horrendous. I was already a paid up member of CND at the time.

I think the thing I found most disturbing in the programme was the lead-up with the "news" reporting problems in the middle-East which wasn't unthinkable at the time.

The AIDS thing was also coming to the fore about then so I was quite worried about that too (being young free and single as I was).

At least we could go to the pub and drink our fears away!

DD was disappointed that the bomb didn’t turn everything “to lava” but what happened in Threads was almost worse. The endless winter, the loss of education and even speech in the next generation(s). Powerful stuff for my young teenage brain.