Threads + Q&A

Our first physical festival following lockdown featured a comedy strand and various other feelgood programming. Now we figure you're ready for something a bit more... bracing.

Director Mick Jackson and writer Barry Hines (Kes) were commissioned by the BBC to write a film about the potential impact on the UK of a nuclear strike. By setting the action in Sheffield and using what were then relatively unknown actors, they plunge us from a small-scale domestic drama into a neorealist horror film as the bomb drops and society swiftly begins to unravel. The result is unapologetically designed as a warning, and many of the 1000+ Sheffield extras we see navigating the apocalypse were CND members. Threads has lost none of its capacity to shock, and remains all too relevant today.

Like many others Julie McDowall was permanently traumatised by seeing Threads on TV at an early age, but she has turned that trauma into a successful writing and broadcasting career. We're delighted to confirm that Julie will be joining us to reflect on Threads and its role in inspiring her new book Attack Warning Red: How Britain Prepared for Nuclear War.