Although likened to the aforementioned titles around the postwar/cold war period, Threads presents a realistic nuclear devastation that says “we’re not kidding anymore." Threads delivers a proverbial jolt like a glass of ice water thrown in the face; its a stark portrayal and a point blank look at life before, during and long after the devastations of an atomic attack.

In The States, the Wold War was realized with a thematic buffer zone as dramas along the likes of Fail-Safe and Dr. Strangelove, placed government officials in bunkers away from any of the literal obliteration on the horizon; almost as if the reality of WWIII was too much to take on. Given the geography of the United Kingdom as a potential Soviet target, and the proliferation of nuclear strike on the (roughly) 94,000 mile the United Kingdom would have 600 times the power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Around this period PSA’s such as Protect and Survive were in regular rotation on television and radio, with entries titled “Materials for your Fallout Shelter, Life Under Fallout Conditions, and Casualties”.