It was one of the most terrifying programmes ever shown on British television.
In September 1984, when the Cold War was still raging, BBC drama-documentary Threads depicted the horrifying consequences of a nuclear attack on the city of Sheffield.
The imagined crisis that triggered it – an American-backed coup in Iran followed by retaliation by the Soviet Union – will be familiar to worried watchers of the current conflict in the Middle East.
Such was its impact that the show has been shown only a handful of times since – but tonight it is being shown once again.
The programme aired on BBC Four last night 10.20pm is now available on BBC iPlayer.
Threads was watched by seven million people on BBC Two and won four Baftas, but it also left many viewers traumatised.
The gruesome details – the shocking burns, the radiation sickness, the obliteration of buildings – were a constant presence in the drama.
Dozens of those who watched were so shaken that they called the charity Samaritans for support.
Rita May and David Brierley as Mr and Mrs Kemp (as David Brierley)
The nuclear attack in Threads is triggered by an American-backed coup in Iran, which is followed by a response from the Soviet Union.
The Daily Mail telling how traumatised viewers phoned the charity Samaritans
The situation escalates to crisis point, and Sheffield is chosen as a target because of its size – it then had a population of 545,000 – and its proximity to a NATO airbase and an RAF communications centre.
The programme is set both before the attack and 13 years after it, and follows the lives of two families, the Kemps and the Becketts.
They attempt to survive the aftermath as society and order breaks down.
Ahead of the harrowing programme airing for the first time, the Daily Mail’s first-look piece said the show would ‘probably go down in television history as the most chilling drama documentary to be shown on BBC’.
It added: ‘But be warned: You will see the whole fabric of society disintegrate as thousands starve or die from burns or radiation sickness.
‘Looters risk their lives for a crust of bread. No one cars and no one shares – even a crust.
‘Humans degenerate to become savages, tearing flesh from dead sheep to survive.’
A scene from 1984 BBC drama Threads, which depicted the impact of a nuclear attack on the city of Sheffield
A poster for Threads showing a traffic warden with bandages covering his face and a gun in his hand. Earlier this year, the man was identified as Michael Beecroft, an actual traffic warden who dabbled in work as an extra
A scene from BBC drama Threads showing anti-nuclear weapons protests before the blast
Sheffield, which then had a population of 545,000 people, was chosen as the target of the attack in the programme because the show’s writer, Kes author Barry Hines, lived there.
The show was made with the help of around 600 people from the area who worked as extras.
When they were invited to a private viewing, many were shocked at what they saw.
One woman told the BBC’s Look North programme: ‘When I was doing it, it was just a good laugh, you know? I didn’t really think about what it would likely be like to see it, and when you see it it’s a lot different – it’s very disturbing.’
A spokesman for the Samaritans said of the viewers who phoned for support: ‘Many of them said they had not realised just how terrifying a nuclear attack was and they had been extremely shocked by the programme.
‘Some were very shaken indeed. It was not surprising that some people felt they needed to talk to someone about it.’
The BBC said that they had also received calls from viewers after the programme finished. Some were demanding to know why the show had been made at all.
The Ministry of Defence even got involved, with a spokesman saying: ‘The programme showed the effects of a nuclear war would be horrific.
‘But there is no question of NATO’s policy being anything other than deterrence.’
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament criticised Threads for not giving people a ‘bit more positive direction about the sorts of things they could actually do.’
The Mail’s review praised the production, saying it was ‘concerned not so much to entertain as to instruct and warn us of a terrible day to come.’
However, it added: ‘One of the clear lessons of Threads is that ordinary people will be hopeless and powerless when the bomb falls.’
The moment in Threads that the nuclear weapon hits the city of Sheffield
Actor Reece Dinsdale seen portraying Jimmy Kemp in Threads
The production came nearly 20 years after the BBC made the two-hour film The War Game – and then banned it before it aired.
The BBC said at the time that the docu-drama, which depicted a nuclear attack on Britain, was simply ‘too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting’.
However, the show went on to win an Oscar when it was shown abroad.
In the 1970s, the Government produced public information campaign Protect and Survive, which advised ordinary Britons what to do in the event of a nuclear attack.
A pamphlet was released detailing the effects of nuclear-fall-out and advised what to do in the days following the use of nuclear weapons.
But, as Threads showed, for those in the blast area and its immediate vicinity, any measures taken would have been futile for most.
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