Threads (1984 film)

Threads
British DVD cover
Genre
Written byBarry Hines
Directed byMick Jackson
Starring
Country of origin
  • United Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producersGraham Massey
John Purdie
Producers
Cinematography
Editors
  • Jim Latham
  • Donna Bickerstaff
Running time112 minutes
Production companies
Budget£400,000[1]
Original release
NetworkBBC
Release23 September 1984 (1984-09-23)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Threads is a 1984 British apocalyptic war drama television film jointly produced by the BBC, Nine Network and Western-World Television Inc. Written by Barry Hines and directed and produced by Mick Jackson, it is a dramatic account of nuclear war and its effects in Britain, specifically on the city of Sheffield in Northern England. The plot centres on two families as a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union erupts. As the nuclear exchange between NATO and the Warsaw Pact begins, the film depicts the medical, economic, social, and environmental consequences of nuclear war.[2]

Shot on a budget of £400,000 (equivalent to £1,290,611 in 2023), the film was the first of its kind to depict a nuclear winter. It has been called "a film which comes closest to representing the full horror of nuclear war and its aftermath, as well as the catastrophic impact that the event would have on human culture."[3] It has been compared to the earlier Academy Award-winning programme The War Game (1966) produced in the United Kingdom two decades prior and its contemporary counterpart The Day After, a 1983 ABC television film depicting a similar scenario in the United States. It was nominated for seven BAFTA awards in 1985 and won for Best Single Drama, Best Design, Best Film Cameraman, and Best Film Editor.

  1. ^ Audio Commentary: Mick Jackson. Threads. Dir. Mick Jackson. 1984. Blu-ray. Severin Films, 2018.
  2. ^ "THREADS (Mick Jackson, 1984) on Vimeo". 8 February 2018. Archived from the original on 20 February 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
  3. ^ "Film and the Nuclear Age: Representing Cultural Anxiety" By Toni A. Perrine, p. 237 Archived 12 March 2023 at the Wayback Machine on Google books.