Threads - plus Intro from Dave Valentine

As part of our mini-Nuclear Season this Autumn, curated by local DJ and film fanatic, Dave Valentine, we present a rare chance to see this nuclear disaster film on the big screen for maximum impact. Described as one of the "most terrifying films of all time" (VultureHound) and most definitely one of the most traumatising holocaust films to mark the memories of anyone who saw it on BBC in the 1980s.

Threads is a reconstruction set in Sheffield, where ordinary people from the working class live their lives while the television news reports the escalation of the tension between United States of America and Soviet Union after the invasion of Iran by the Soviets. People in general do not pay much attention until the day they realise that a nuclear attack may happen and affect mankind.

Includes introduction and Q&A with the Nuclear Season's curator, Dave Valentine, VHS film fanatic and DJ:

"My dad recorded Threads from the TV broadcast onto a VHS, but my sister and I were forbidden from watching it. Even though I was already becoming a film fan at that young age, and was permitted to watch action films like Mad Max 2, my parents knew that the down to earth gritty realism of Threads would probably have been too upsetting for me at the time.

I was eventually allowed to watch it around 1992, and it quickly became a favourite. Yes, it was still disturbing, but it also became the basis of my GCSE Media Studies coursework, where I edited together a supercut of cinematic explosions, also incorporating the nuclear blasts from Aliens and Terminator 2."

With thanks to the BFI National TV Archive.

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