Threads - BBC4 - 9 October 10.15pm

[AlecTrevelyan006]

Probably the most harrowing television show ever made, Threads follows the build up to and aftermath of a nuclear attack on Great Britain.

It is being broadcast for only the fourth time, and the first time since 2003.

If, like me, you watched it first time around you will never have forgotten it. If you’ve never seen it before, it is a must-watch - but prepare to be traumatised.

Watching it whilst pregnant must have brought it home big time, it's not surprising you were anxious. When I saw it I was about the age that Ruth is and it made me wonder how I'd manage in those circumstances.

It's that realism that made it so frightening. The ordinariness.

I fee sick just reading about it. Genuinely think I might have a mental ill health relapse if I watch it, so I'm going to need to pass...

There is a New Tricks episode called The Queens Speech.

https://davidgpearce205.wordpress.com/2021/05/02/new-tricks-the-queens-speech/

From the link
This episode is based on a genuinely unsettling real life premise. In 1983 the NATO forces held exercises in Western Europe that the Russians were convinced, briefly, were the precursor to a full scale attack. For two days, there was a real chance of the world being plunged into nuclear war. In the event that it became imminent, 600 people from various walks of life were to head to 12 regional headquarters where they would stay for two years or until the country was deemed safe enough to reinhabit above ground. Everyone else was being told to ‘Protect and Survive’ inside their homes, or as Danny noted prepare their own coffins! If you were a teenager in that time, there was a fair chance, as far as you were concerned, of never making it to adulthood. The songs around that time by Nik Kershaw, Ultravox, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Nena were testament to that fear. Well, if you couldn’t affect it you may as well dance to it!

Fascinating.

There's excerpts of the intended Queen's Speech here

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/01/queen-speech-nucklear-war-national-archives

I won't be watching, and I'll make sure I steer clear of BBC4 as I often stop there when I'm flicking through on a Friday night with the kids.

I saw it on tv when I was around 8. God knows why I wasn't ushered away from the living room by my parents or why the tv wasn't changed to something else, but I wish I hadn't seen it. I don't think I saw the whole thing but I saw enough, and it's haunted me for 40 years. I even shudder if I see Reece Dinsdale on twitter now and then. The sight of his character when the bomb drops will be in my mind forever. Just awful. Those who are going to watch and haven't seen it before, just be prepared 😰

DD’s most adored y6 teacher selected ‘the end of the world’ as a topic one term. They didn’t watch Threads but they did read Z for Zachariah and spent a long time thinking about nuclear holocaust. She says it didn’t give her nightmares. I wonder if that was the case for all of them.
This was pre pandemic, I wonder if it would feel quite the same now.

I'm faintly stunned 🤯 but not surprised at how there's a sort of sanitisation of the stuff this deals with in pop culture.

I'm still getting lots of Fallout stuff popping up. I realise they're trying to evoke the kitsch and nostalgia of the cold war

Look at this still for a preview of Fallout London

https://www.vg247.com/fallout-4-next-gen-update-part-two-shouldnt-have-caused-trouble-fallout-london

😱

I will record this and watch it back in the daytime

@Abiharwich

How do you record things these days?

@CarpeVitam
I have a PVR (personal video recorder), just in case it isn't available on iplayer!

I watched Threads aa a teenager when i

Pressed send far too early!

I first watched Threads as a teenager when it was first broadcast, absolutely traumatised me, I couldn't stop thinking about it at all.

I saw it again about a year ago (DVD) and it was as horrifying, traumatised myself again. I read a few years ago that the girl who plays Ruth's daughter died in a car crash not very long after the film was made. So sad.

Like a previous poster said, to those who will be watching it for the first time, please prepare yourselves, and take care after. It really is horrific.

Someone told me years ago never to watch Threads. So instead I have spent the last few years listening to the Atomic Hobo podcast break it down into four-minute increments. In the end that amounted twelve hours of in-depth analysis, which might have been more disturbing than actually seeing the film.

Julie McDowall who does Atomic Hobo says she first saw Threads at age three which sparked her obsession, which always struck me as a bit odd, but it was a great series within the podcast.

I first it in College and regularly refer to it as the scariest thing I’ve ever seen. I bought the dvd in 2006 and watched it alone one day and it still traumatised me.

Maybe one or two years ago, I watched it with my teenage sons and they were completely unmoved by it and complained about how crap the special effects were. I don’t think today’s generation ‘get’ it. Sad really. I was worried it would give them nightmares and was prepared to have a discussion afterward but nope, they weren’t interested.

never seen it but I’m going to watch, interested to see if I find it as bad as some say.

It's not really a scary, don't watch alone in the dark film. The scariness is in the everyday - how quickly things happen and how bleak the reality us. It's scary because it feels believable!

Ok, thank you

@mum2jakie this is correct. It's not 'scary' like a horror film, it's the utter bleakness that leaves you feeling depressed and hopeless. It really is awful. Fascinating but awful. Part of me is tempted to watch it, but I will not put myself through it again.

They’re not watching it with a background of Thatcher, Reagan and Greenham Common etc like we were. They’re watching it with a background of Love Island.

They’re not watching it with a background of Thatcher, Reagan and Greenham Common etc like we were. They’re watching it with a background of Love Island.

More like a backdrop of 9/11, the pandemic, social media documenting atrocity’s etc….

Three?!?

Looking forward to this. Never seen it before!

I know of it, recognise scenes from it like the traffic warden with his bandages and gun, know the storyline about ho horrific life is after but have never seen it. Whe the Ukrainian invasion began, my mum said to me that if anything terrible happened I had to keep in contact with my brother. I told her that I would be racing to be killed in the initial blast, I'm not going to put myself through nuclear winter!

Glad someone else had read Children of the Dust @winewolfhowls - it was my favourite book as a child (I was a morbid little sod). I watced Threads as part of a nuclear weekend or something on the BBC. They showed The War Game as well... triaging the injured was particularly miserable. If anyone else is similarly obsessed I recommend The Last Children by Gudrun Pausewang - it's about the aftermath of a nuclear attack on Germany and makes Threads look a bit gentle.