Threads: how apocalyptic pseudo-documentary shocked a nation

Some 40 years after it was shown for the first time, a BBC pseudo-documentary exploring the possibility of an apocalyptic nuclear attack on Sheffield, and its devastating aftermath, will be screened tonight.

Since the film aired in 1984, many have been unable to "scrub their minds clean of scenes and images" from this war drama, said The Times, yet it has rarely been shown since.

The showing, on BBC Four at 10.20pm, is only the fourth time the film has been broadcast. After its original screening, it was repeated a year later to mark the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and then in 2003 as part of a BBC Cold War special.

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Tonight's screening will provide new generations with the "chance to be horrified by the effects of nuclear weapons" and an imploding society.

'Everyone was talking about it' 

"Threads" was first broadcast on BBC Two during the "height of the Cold War", and with "fears of nuclear Armageddon gripping the world" the film quickly "scarred the collective consciousness", said Sheffield's The Star. 

Forty years on, "I'm still traumatised", wrote Nick Duerden for the i news site, who watched the "part TV drama, part public information film" as a teenager. The day after it aired "everyone was talking about it", and the film essentially "went, yes, viral", even before the advent of the internet.

The terror extended beyond the wider viewing population. Some "600 people" from the area decided to volunteer as film extras and were later invited back to watch a private screening, said the BBC. Many thought their appearance "might be a bit of fun", but it was safe to say "no one was expecting anything quite like this". 

A host of television programmes later discussed the film at length, including Newsnight, which was "given over to a special debate" featuring UK politicians and nuclear war experts.

'Modern parallels' 

The film has developed a cult following of so-called 'Thread-heads', people from across the world who return to watching the classic, in some cases finding it "weirdly comforting", said Jude Rodgers on The Quietus. 

Despite its absence from our television screens, it remains "the most terrifying film ever made", said The Spectator's Ian O'Doherty, but also a "work of uniquely stoic British brilliance".

As war continues to escalate around the world, returning to this "40-year-old masterpiece" will undoubtedly feel "uncomfortably laden with modern parallels" for all.