In 1984
I was 13.
Threads was on the telly. Never been so disturbed in the whole of my young life. It's on youtube if you ain't seen it.
I think it's even more weird now as it has that public information film feel to it, that makes it even more creepy.

It seems really weird now to explain how fucking petrified I was of getting obliterated by a giant mushroom some day, but it was in the back of my mind as a kid. All of the time.
It was on the news, it was talked about, you couldn't escape from the nuclear threat. My dad was an avid supporter of CND and I joined in, even at 10/11 because fuck that, I wanted all that nuclear stuff to just go away, because I was scared!
I knew about Duck and Cover, not sure where from, and thought about which stairs I could hide under when the bomb finally dropped. Like it would help.

Then When the Wind Blows came out just to cheer us up a bit.

There were articles in newspaper supplements with people showing off their expensive underground bunkers in their back gardens, and I remember being so jealous of the rows and rows of tinned goods, all ready to save them from the instant hit, but wondering what the fuck would they come out to when they finally plucked up the courage to open the hatch.

Strangely of my favourite places to visit is Hack Green Secret Nuclear Bunker. Now a tourist attraction in Cheshire. Go if you get the chance. It's a bit shit, but I have the best snow globe EVER from the gift shop.
Except that's not snow. It's nuclear fallout!
( Herb Alpert's Taxi Driver I have very beautiful lips, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 0:40, 15 replies)

Threads is amazing. I watched it whilst on a date the other week. Proper romantic.
I really want to go to Hack Green now too, mostly to get a fallout dome. Wow.
( TFD is sporting this season's finest necropants, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 1:56, closed)

It's good to know romance isn't dead!
Go to Hack Green TFD, it's RUBBISH*



*amazing
( Herb Alpert's Taxi Driver I have very beautiful lips, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 9:36, closed)

Without a doubt one of the most unsettling films I've watched.
Possibly only mildly offset by at the time by my being in a country with a guaranteed place for evey resident in a bomb shelter when I watched it.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Fri 15 Jun 2012, 3:46, closed)

I've been to Kelvedon Hatch
"Secret" nuclear bunker. I liked how they had bicycles in it and all the dummies had Ronald Reagan masks on.
( Dervel OTBC, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 9:33, closed)

I always remember the cover of The Radio Times
it had the copper with a dirty/bloody cloth mask in front of a gated crowd.
Then I watched the film, Oh dear God. If we weren't already petrified by the prospect of a nuclear war then, well, we were now!
I also remember the public information films that they used to show every now and again.
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 9:49, closed)

Protect and Survive
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXx5Y2Fr2bk
A cheerful series made by the same people who did Charley says!
Janet don't watch this, it might cause flashbacks.
( Herb Alpert's Taxi Driver I have very beautiful lips, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 10:37, closed)

hey, kids! nuclear war looming?
simply place a door against a wall, fill your bath with water and wait for the sun to come out again!
( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 11:18, closed)

They used to tell us in army
that if you see the flash from a nuclear weapon then you must lie down. Sound words, I thought.
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 15:20, closed)

aren't you supposed to get in a ditch if there's a ditch?
i can certainly see how THAT would help.
( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 15:40, closed)

Their reasoning was that on seeing the fireball
you didn't have time to dig, or anything else for that matter, so it's best to lie down to reduce the blast.
I think it was more:- there's a nuclear explosion, everyone's fucked, might as well have a lie down. Sex anyone?
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 15:58, closed)

I don't think anyone would want to
being as we would have all shit ourselves.
( Herb Alpert's Taxi Driver I have very beautiful lips, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 17:56, closed)

Still gives me the jeebers.
And the sirens... don't get me started.
(SpangoTheWonderBadger is brewing beer, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 15:21, closed)

about 6 months after i watched that, we went to my parents' friends' house in south woodham ferrers.
there was an early warning radar system on the hill. the fucking FOUR MINUTE WARNING went off at 8am sunday morning. i hid in the bottom of my sleeping bag and counted the seconds. the cold war, kids - not fucking funny :(
( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 9:58, closed)

When the Wind Blows is brilliant and heartbreaking in equal measure.

( Pig Bodine., Fri 15 Jun 2012, 11:17, closed)

their little faces when they sunbathe :(

( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Fri 15 Jun 2012, 11:19, closed)