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Threads

THE END of the world, Sheffield-style. Nuclear war followed by nuclear winter on the mean streets of Ecclesall. Lots of shit, piss, blood and vomit, including the demise of REECE DINSDALE. One of the most nightmare-inducing bits of telly you could watch as a kid in the 1980s. Utterly without relief, and even the aftermath is appalling: radiation victim, pregnant, gives birth to a hideous lump of flesh.

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. TVS

    June 26, 2009 at 6:54 pm

    Really awesome!

    Much better than the American “Day After” and “Testament”.

    The nastiest bit isn’t even the bomb, but the Protect and Survive ads……that Radiophinic synth at the end of each ad is terrifying!

  2. Lee James Turnock

    May 4, 2010 at 3:08 pm

    The 1985 repeat was edited to lose the burning cat, oddly enough.

  3. iMatt

    October 4, 2014 at 7:21 pm

    I’d say the US ‘The Day After’ was pretty much as good. Just not as gritty. TDA had better special FX while Threads dealt with the grim aftermath more deeply.

  4. Glenn A

    June 18, 2017 at 4:31 pm

    The scenes where the houses collapse was filmed at Broomhall on the edge of the city centre, which was undergoing slum clearance. Other landmarks I recognise are Park Hill, near to the joinery yard when the first air raid siren goes off, The Moor, where the first explosion is seen, the Town Hall extension( now gone) and the elevated section of the M1, seconds before Sheffield is blown to pieces.

  5. mark robinson

    October 8, 2017 at 2:46 pm

    I actually watched some of this being filmed round the back of Hillsborough Park. There’s a bit where a bloke jumps into his van and can’t start it (“Dah! Shit!”) then hares off round a corner and out of view – which is actually a 30-yard cul-de-sac ending in a 30-foot brick wall. Happy days.

  6. Glenn Aylett

    November 7, 2019 at 10:16 am

    The War Game for the eighties, equally chilling and judging by what happens after the war, Britain going back to the middle ages, illiterate and out of control teenagers roaming the countryside and no public services, you’d be better off dead. Also the scene where a teenage girl miscarries at the end is one of the most unsettling in a British drama.

  7. Karl Savage

    March 29, 2022 at 9:16 am

    Wasn’t this written by Barry ‘Kes’ Hines?

    Always wondered if somewhere like Sheffield would actually be a target in a nuclear attack? I could be wrong but somehow, I doubt it.

  8. Richardpd

    March 29, 2022 at 11:06 pm

    Being the traditional centre of the steel industry might make Sheffield a target.

    Supposedly Daventry would have been the first place to be bombed as it would have knocked all the radio masts in the area as well as destroying the junction of the M1 – M6 – A14.

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