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'It's vital successive generations are reminded of Threads horror'

Andrew Barton and Grace Wood
BBC News, Yorkshire
Dave Pickthorn/BBC A young woman stands in a pile of rubble holding a teddy bear and a blue bag. She is wearing dishevelled clothes and looks into the distance.Dave Pickthorn/BBC
Victoria O'Keefe played daughter Jane in the apocalyptic nuclear film Threads

Forty years after nuclear war film Threads shocked audiences, the production company behind hit TV show Adolescence have announced it is being remade as a TV series - but what do the people behind the original think?

Set in Sheffield in 1984, the apocalyptic drama was directed and produced by Mick Jackson and written by Barry Hines.

It follows two families over 13 years as a war between the United States and the Soviet Union causes a nuclear winter.

The film featured thousands of people from Sheffield who took part as extras. One of those was Rob Brown, who was 16 at the time.

"I had just left school and was going to college for drama and dance. A few of us from our class went down and helped out.

"It was like a low-budget film. I think it came out on early DVD, and you could only really get it from the library.

"We just turned up on the day. We had a soup wagon and that was our wages for the day."

A man with short brown hair wears rectangular glasses and is wearing a blue and white T shirt. He is sitting in a white office room.
Rob Brown was 16 years old when he appeared as an extra in the original Threads film

Mr Brown says he was shocked to hear the show was being remade, but couldn't wait to see it.

"I wish them all the luck in the world to get it filmed in Sheffield - try and get Sean Bean in it - you never know," he says.

He adds he thinks now, 40 years on, is the right time for a remake.

"Because of what's happening in Russia and other parts of the world it might be a good time to release it.

"The technology might be better now too - it were good for its time, but it'd be better now."

A man and a woman shelter against a brick wall. It is a black and white image. They are wrapped in a grey blanket. He is wearing large rimmed glasses.
June Broughton and Henry Moxon played Mr and Mrs Beckett in Threads

Rob Nevitt is the director of SURVIVORS: The Spectre of Threads, a documentary about the show celebrating its 40th anniversary.

He says Warp Films - the production company behind Adolescence, BBC One show Reunion and This Is England - is the perfect choice for the remake.

"Warp Films are the natural successors to Barry Hines, who wrote the original Threads," he says.

"Warp have got this huge history in Sheffield and they've made some amazing productions, films and TV. So, if anyone's going to do it, they're the people to do it."

He says Thread is an important part of the city's history and the remake "100%" has to be set in Sheffield

"It's such a huge thing to people from Sheffield and it's a massive part of Sheffield's history so if you tried to take it elsewhere there would be uproar."

For many people, Threads has stuck with them because of the brutal portrayal of the apocalyptic "facts" of a nuclear war, he says, and hopes that element of the remake will be upheld.

"It was so based on actual fact, because Mick Jackson who directed it had a background in science," he says.

"He originally did the BBC science education programme called a Guide to Armageddon, which was all about the scientific facts of what a nuclear bomb would do to a city, so the way to do it is to take that fact and not make it too fictional.

"We talked to one of the advisers on the original production, and he said a nuclear bomb would be 100 times worse now in terms of the devastation caused, and the effects, if it dropped on Sheffield everywhere would be gone.

"It's a grim prospect, but given the way the world is now, it becomes apparent that's it's a real threat again.

"We've interviewed extras who have said to us that now they see it they feel they should have never stopped worrying about it."

A man with short blonde hair wearing rectangular glasses talks into a camera sitting behind a bookshelf.
Author David Lawrence said seeing a city like Sheffield destroyed had a huge impact

David Lawrence is one of the authors of Scarred for Life, a series of books looking at the impact of 1970s and 80s pop culture - and producer of the spin-off podcast.

He says the original Threads was the "ultimate expression about the fear of nuclear war".

"Where it was set is crucial. Everybody knows those streets, those buildings.

"I think seeing them get absolutely wiped out by a nuclear bomb is possibly more affecting.

"Seeing an ordinary city, a city that you know, is far more impactful - it grounds it in a reality, especially hearing voices, which are not received pronunciation, grounds it in the reality of most people.

"It's vital that successive generations are reminded of such horror so a remake is very timely and vital...and the message at its core is absolutely timeless especially as people don't seem to watch the news as much as they used to."

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