1984: Nuclear war

The closest the world came to nuclear war was of course during the Cuban missile crisis. However growing up in the 1980s there was a constant dread about it, a feeling it was terribly inevitable and terribly final.

For a boy growing up in Britain it did not look to great, the UK contained many missile bases, some controlled by the US. Modern nuclear warheads of the time were such that a single warhead would have wiped out most of the country in a single stroke. It’s no surprise that in such an environment of optimism, gloomy band the Smiths dominated the Indie charts who’s typical songs were on the lines of boy meets girl, they fall in love, they run away together in a car, only to then be killed by a head-on collision with a lorry.

But school was no escape – the teachers of my school, Abbot Beyne, decided to teach us the futility of nuclear confrontation, and generally scare us all out of our wits by making the BBC drama Threads compulsory viewing.

Threads, for those of you lucky enough not to have seen is not an 1980s fashion program. Instead, it tells the story of a nuclear attack on Sheffield, and how most of a family die in the aftermath and society falls apart. So pretty much the early forerunner to the modern soap opera really. If you’ve ever watched and enjoyed Threads, you might also want to check out When The Wind Blows, which is kind of like Disney on Plutonium!

[I have actually lived in Sheffield for 4 years, and can confirm there are areas which make you suspect a nuclear bomb actually was dropped on the city and subsequently hushed up]

The Crow has since learned to stop worrying ...



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