The War Game

When i was fifteen,i saw Threads on the tv,a stark and brutal look at the prelude and aftermath of a nuclear attack on the UK.It scared me senseless at the time,and is still a powerful,if somewhat depressing piece of work.
However,Threads owes a massive debt in style and substance to The War Game.Written by Peter Watkins,in his trademark docu-drama style,The War Game is even now still pretty hard hitting and was banned from the Beeb until the eighties.Primarily it would seem because it showed how unprepared the goverment was for such an attack,and in particular for two scenes where armed police execute looters and shoot hopeless medical cases.Both events that Watkins quite rightly said would be realistic and therefore refused point blank to edit out.As a result The War Game was banned by the BBC and Watkins took his considerable talents abroad and hasn’t made a film in the UK since.It’s also worth pointing out that the Beeb retained the rights to the film,and although it has since been released both here and in America,Watkins has recieved no income at all from the film.
It’s a superb piece of work,and well worth a look,it was a notable influence on both Threads here,and perhaps less so on The Day After in the States.
I am endlessly fascinated by this sort of thing,and love browsing through Subterranea Britannica for buildings from that sort of era.You can find a detailed and very lengthy report on SubBrit on the civil defense plans for the UK,written at around the same time The War Game was filmed,it provides valuable background information.