BBC to air two of its most ‘horrifying’ programmes in a double-bill - how scary is Threads?
Threads and The War Game to air on BBC Four - but maybe best not to watch them before bed 😨
- A double bill of two of the most ‘horrifying’ films will air tonight.
- The War Game and Threads will be televised on BBC Four.
- Both offer frighteningly realistic aftermaths of nuclear war.
If you want to get a good night's sleep this evening, you may just want to avoid BBC Four. The channel will be airing a double bill featuring two of the most horrifying films ever made by the broadcaster.
Classic movies The War Game and Threads will be playing this evening and could be set to traumatise a whole new generation. Dating from the 1960s and 1980s respectively, the films are a product of Cold War anxieties about ‘The Bomb’.
Each tackles the run-up to and the potential aftermath of a nuclear war happening. Fortunately, in the decades since, they have remained simple warnings and not prophetic visions.
I have not personally watched The War Game, but during my A-Level history course we spent a deeply haunting two hour class watching Threads. It has remained seared into my mind ever since and I still get chills anytime I see the name.
When is The War Game and Threads on TV?
BBC Four will be running a double bill of the two classic apocalyptic visions this evening (July 30). First up will be The War Game, which is set to start at 10.10 pm, following a brief 10-minute prelude called Michael Aspel Remembers - The War Game.
The documentary will run for 45 minutes and is set to finish at 10.55 pm, according to the schedule. It will be followed by a second prelude programme in which Threads director Mick Jackson reflects on the 1980s movie.
Threads itself is due to start at 11.15 pm and will run until 1.10 am. The movie has an approximate runtime of 112 minutes.
What are the movies about?
Both The War Game and Threads were born out of the Cold War anxieties about the looming threat of nuclear war. The tension between the communist bloc and the capitalist world threatened to bubble over on numerous occasions in the decades between WW2 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in the 1990s, most famous of which was the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The preview for The War Game, via Radio Times, reads: “Docudrama that imagines the events leading up to a nuclear strike on the UK, then presents its likely after-effects. Director Peter Watkins focuses on a decimated community in Kent as public health declines, order crumbles and martial law is declared.”
Meanwhile Threads is about, according to Radio Times: “Harrowing drama about the consequences of nuclear war, focusing on two Sheffield families in the days leading up to - and the years following - a direct hit on the city. First shown in 1984, the award-winning film pulls no punches in its depiction of the fallout.”
Who is in the cast of The War Game and Threads?
The War Game was made with an unknown cast with Michael Aspel as a commentator. Threads on the other hand features some more recognisable names.
It starred . Reece Dinsdale and Karen Meagher. The former would go on to appear in shows like Spooks and Home to Roost.
Are the films really that scary?
I cannot personally speak to The War Game as I have never actually seen this docudrama. However, it caused such a fluster in the BBC and the Government back in the 1960s that it was pulled from its provisional premiere date of October 6, 1965.
The film would go on to be screened at the National Theatre in London from April 13, 1966, to May 3 of that year. It would not be broadcast on TV until 1985, the day before a repeat of Threads.
Legendary film critic Roger Ebert gave The War Game four stars in 1967 and described it as featuring some of “the most horrifying (scenes) ever put on film”. He hailed its “remarkable authenticity”.
On the other hand, I can firmly speak to the deeply unsettling and harrowing nature of Threads. It has been nearly 15 years since I watched the movie, on a spring afternoon in a classroom on the top floor of my sixth form (Nunthorpe Sixth Form in Middlesbrough).
The hairs on the back of my neck still stand up at just the mention of the film's title. Some of the scenes feel like they have been permanently branded in my mind’s eye.
Only a very few times in my life have I been so deeply affected by a movie or TV show that is has disrupted my sleep - and Threads was one such time. For reference, another was when watching the ghost train episode of Thomas the Tank Engine as a pre-schooler (I slept with my head under the covers for a year).
It is not one for the faint of heart, and you would probably be wise to mentally prepare yourself before turning it on.
Did you watch Threads when it was originally on TV - or in the years since? Let me know your thoughts and if it scared you as much as it did me by email: [email protected].
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