Mini Film Review – Threads

Yesterday I watched Threads; and it was very grim! Directed by Mick Jackson, written by Barry Hines, and starring Karen Meagher, and Paul Vaughan; Threads is a made for TV war drama, that depicts the events leading up to, and after, a nuclear attack on the city of Sheffield! I have known about this film for over a decade, but it wasn’t until it was re-released on iPlayer recently, that I was given the chance of watching it. It is an interesting premise, which highlights what life would be like in the UK after a nuclear attack. It features a wide range of graphic imagery highlighting the destruction of the cities, and injuries accumulated by both those who died, and those who survived, as well as the martial law like governance that has taken over. It is though difficult to take some of it all that seriously however. On several occassions, a narrator takes over, explaining scenes, which makes you think that you are not actually watching a drama, but a documentary. Now this is not all that bad a thing, but it does break the immersion, so you do lose focus on the drama aspect. Into the second half however, the narration stops; which would have been more helpful, in describing some of the scenes in the last 20-30 minutes. Another thing which is hard to take in also, is the predisposition, to suggest that life in the North of England is already very grim. You’d think for a story like this, it would show some positivity, or more light hearted moments, which hit far harder when its all taken away. But Threads doesn’t do this! Instead, it more or less suggests that things are bad now, but they could be a whole lot worse. It’s just a very grim film, from gloomy start, to a miserable end!