Directed By: Mike Jackson
Released: 1984
Runtime: 114 minutes
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Threads will be introduced by special guest, Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

“The world is at its most dangerous point in a generation”.

Those were the words of NATO chief, Jens Stoltenberg, on September 17th this year.

So many decades after the end of the cold war, many of us today are unaware of the devastating potential of nuclear war.

Threads is a shockingly realistic docudrama account of global nuclear war and its effects on the city of Sheffield. The plot centres on two families as a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union erupts. As the nuclear exchange between NATO and the Warsaw Pact begins, the film depicts the medical, economic, social and environmental consequences of nuclear war.

To research the film, Mike Jackson consulted leading scientists, psychologists, doctors, defence specialists and strategic experts in the UK and the US, in order to create the most realistic depiction of nuclear war possible. Jackson consulted various sources in his research, including the 1983 Science article Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions, penned by Carl Sagan and James B. Pollack. Details of a possible attack scenario and the extent of the damage were derived from Doomsday: A Nuclear Attack on the United Kingdom (1983), while the ineffective post-war plans of the UK government came from Duncan Campbell’s 1982 exposé War Plan UK. In portraying the psychological damage suffered by survivors, Jackson took inspiration from the behaviour of the Hibakusha and Magnus Clarke’s 1982 book Nuclear Destruction of Britain.

Threads was first broadcast on BBC Two on 23 September 1984 at 9:30 pm. Despite being nominated for seven BAFTA awards in 1985, for which it won Best Single Drama, Best Design, Best Film Cameraman and Best Film Editor, it has only be shown twice since its first broadcast on British television.

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Film starts at 19:00. Entry is £4.

Every fourth film is free with a loyalty card. Seating is limited. We strongly recommend arriving by 18.30. Reservations can be made by emailing us on Facebook. Reservations are honoured upon receipt of a reply and will only be held 19.00 on the day.

Admittance will not be allowed after the film has started.