TV Cream

The Wednesday Play

War Game, The

The first Wednesday Play to be banned (famously decried by the then Home Secretary as a danger to the mentally unstable), Peter Watkins’s perfectly-crafted piece of pseudo documentary covering the aftermath of a nuclear attack on London was still affecting on its eventual transmission in 1985. Use of handheld cameras, a carefully-paced ‘timeline’, and the familiar tones of Michael Aspel all helped shift the notion of televisual realism up several gears. Watkins, who also directed, had previously turned the same  documentary eye on the battle of Culloden.

3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. pessoa

    May 30, 2010 at 12:17 pm

    It’s still a very powerful and disturbing piece of film making, by the most neglected director in Britain.

  2. Glenn A

    November 13, 2013 at 8:00 pm

    Makes The Day After look like a comedy. Even now The War Game is terrifying to watch.

  3. Adrian

    November 15, 2013 at 3:51 pm

    But can’t anything be ‘a danger to the mentally disabled’?

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