Sunday 21 May 2017

687 Threads


First  viewed :  22  September  1984

This  was  the  British  version  of  The  Day  After,  presenting  the  effects  of  a  nuclear  bomb  on  Sheffield  in  a  style  that  was  half  drama , half  documentary.  It  was  written  by  Barry  Hines, author  of  A  Kestrel  for  a  Knave. 

 The  drama  centres  around  a  young  couple  Jimmy  ( Reece  Dinsdale )  and  Ruth  ( Karen  Meagher )  who  conceive  a  child  just  as  trouble  between  the  USA  and  the  USSR  erupts  in  Iran. The  other  main  character  is  Clive  Sutton  (  Harry  Beety )  the  Chief  Executive  at  the  City  Council  who  is  the  designated  Controller  in  the  event  of  an  attack. That  duly  arrives  in  some  impressive  BAFTA-winning  scenes  of  panic  and  destruction. Jimmy's  caught  out  in  the  open  and  perishes. Ruth  survives  to  give  birth  and  eke  out  a  living  in  the  rebarbative  society  that  develops  after  the  blast  but  eventually  succumbs  to  radiation  sickness. Sutton  and  his  team  do  their  best  while  buried  alive  under  their  Town  Hall  but  it's  pretty  useless   and  they  too  are  doomed. In  the  end,  we  just  have  Ruth's  teenage  daughter  Jane  ( Victoria  O'Keefe ) , a  semi-feral  scavenger  giving  birth  to  something  horrible  after  a  casual  rape.

This  is  interspersed  by  documentary  information  delivered  through  various  media, voice-overs, television  advice, Patrick  Allen's  public  information  films  and  now-primitive  computer  graphics.

As  you  would  expect  it  wasn't  a  barrel  of  laughs  and  still  has  an  impact  if  you  watch  it  today  despite  the  threat  of  nuclear  Armageddon  having  receded  somewhat.

Sadly, O' Keefe  was  killed  in  a  road  accident  in  1990  aged  21.


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