Originally broadcast on BBC Two in September 1984, Threads is a television drama which
explores the impact of a nuclear bomb going off over Britain against the
background of increased hostility between the United States and the Soviet
Union. Seeing the drama on the cinema screen of Manchester’s HOME venue, more than
thirty years after its initial broadcast, only added to the brutal impact of
its unflinching examination of a society which is reduced to an irradiated
wasteland where the survivors dwindle until the population reaches levels
unseen since the medieval period.
Threads was
scripted by Barry Hines, better known for his 1968 novel A Kestrel for a Knave and directed by Mick Jackson, better known
for directing the 1992 blockbuster The
Bodyguard. Prior to working on Threads,
Jackson had directed a documentary film for the BBC called A Guide to Armageddon and was keen to explore the results of a
nuclear holocaust through a more dramatic medium. The resulting work is an
intriguing mix of Hines’ gritty, socially conscious depiction of working class
life and Jackson’s documentary filmmaking background as informative voice-overs
and onscreen text relay information about the devastation caused by a nuclear
bomb and the plans the government have in place should such an attack take
place, while the first part of the drama focuses on the lives of the people of
Sheffield as they go about their day to day lives.
The drama, set in Sheffield, begins with young couple Jimmy
Kemp (played by Reece Dinsdale) and Ruth Beckett (Karen Meagher) finding out
that they are to be parents. They decide to get married and find a place to
move in together, although there seems to be doubts that the relationship will
last from Jimmy’s working-class parents and Ruth’s more middle-class family.
Against this background, news reports begin to report on heightened tensions
between the United States and the Soviet Union in Iran. As military action
begins to escalate anti-war and anti-nuclear protests begin to break out in the
city and people begin to stockpile food. In one of the few lighter moments in
this otherwise bleak piece, Jimmy’s mother (played by Rita May) remarks the supermarket
she is in is “busy for a Wednesday. You’d think it were coming up to
Christmas!” Meanwhile, the British government’s emergency plan to hand control
of running the country to the council leaders of the towns and cities across
the various cities and counties is pushed forward and an emergency committee is
established under Sheffield town hall to plan for the event of an ever-increasing
nuclear attack.
This first half of the drama is very much a spiritual
successor to Hines’ earlier work; Jimmy Kemp could easily be Billy Casper from Kes as an adult (he even keeps an aviary
in his parents’ home), having to face up to taking on new responsibilities as
husband and father. As the prospect of a nuclear bomb hitting Britain in the
American-Soviet crossfire becomes more of a reality, televisions begin to play
the Protect and Survive information
films seemingly on a loop. These government produced films contrast a
matter-of-fact British narration with the grim realities of nuclear fallout; a
section of a film about disposing of a dead body after a nuclear attack is used
effectively in Threads as people stop
and stare into an electrical goods shop in the city centre where every television
is showing the information film.
The turning point of the drama comes with the nuclear bomb
going off over Britain and Hines’ socio-political concerns soon give way to the
more visually dramatic film-making impulses of Jackson. From this point onwards,
the documentary elements become more frequent as the audience as regaled with
information about what happens when the bomb goes off and the drama shifts in
tone from a ‘kitchen-sink’ drama to a more nightmarish, horror inflicted vision
of life after the bomb. The section with the bomb exploding features some
impressive editing work which really brings across the shock of the event,
while the make-up artists did a fantastic job on the burn make-up on the actors
who played the survivors. In a harrowing scene, Ruth walks through the burnt
out remains of Sheffield, confronted with injured and sick people, and,
tellingly, a woman holding the burnt corpse of a baby to her breast. In another
gruesome scene, survivors begin to walk to the hospital and are treated by
doctors using hacksaws to amputate infected limbs; these scenes are closer in
tone to horror films. The emergency committee, meanwhile, have no clue what is
going on and soon anarchy breaks out as the survivors struggle for food.
This second half of the drama does seem to meander a bit –
the drama proceeds to show the after effects of the bomb for days, weeks,
months, and finally over 10 years after the event. The grim imagery and bleak,
nihilistic tone soon becomes grating but, one supposes, that is the point.
After a nuclear attack, time ceases to have any meaning, humanity and
civilisation falls apart and life becomes one desperate struggle after another.
Threads remains an
important landmark in British television history and offers perhaps the most
realistic depiction of what life in Britain would be like if we ever
experienced a nuclear attack. It isn’t an easy watch by any means but,
chillingly, resonates just as well in 2018 as it did 34 years ago.
Reviewer - Andrew Marsden
on - 30/8/18
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