Some perspective

Or, no matter what happens, couldn’t it always be worse?
Has the current stand off between the US and Iran over nuclear weapons got you down? Do you worry about the escalation of the violence in the Middle East in general? Well, perhaps this will help ease your mind; it could all have been so much worse. Don’t believe me? Well, then read on.

The other day, I found the 1984 TV film Threads on GoogleVideo - and surprisingly enough, I even managed to sleep after watching it.

Set in the early 80’s, Threads follows two Sheffield families from the start of a US-Soviet confrontation in Iran to the inevitable (so it would seem) all out thermonuclear war. Needless to say - from it’s setting, it's grim up Norf, through to the precipitous descent of Britain to a barely literate, disease-ridden, post-apocalyptic wasteland - it’s not exactly uplifting. Being a BBC production, and one from the early 80’s at that, the budget was pretty slim, and at times it shows. However, the program was exhaustively researched, including data from operation Square Leg and even (alledgedly) a consultation with Carl Sagan. To this day it's considered to be a fairly accurate picture of what nuclear war, 25 years ago, might have been like for the people of Britain. In short - really fucking bad.

So, if you’ve got just under two hours to spare, you need some new nightmare material (or you just have a morbid fascination with nuclear war like me and Bluecupboard) then why not give it a watch?

On a side note, some P Club readers might remember a certain smarmy Religious Studies teacher (Mmmmm geeeentlemeeeen) showing us a clip of this video in the 4th form. Highlights of that showing included, if recall correctly, everyone falling about laughing when a woman pissed herself, after seeing a mushroom cloud erupt behind Mothercare. E-gads, we were a heartless bunch.

Not letting the bad thoughts in,

- Mr. Ed