What It’s About
In industrial Sheffield, England, young working class couple Ruth Beckett (Meagher) and Jimmy Kemp (Dinsdale) learn they are expecting and decide to marry. The couple’s parents (Moxon, Broughton, Brierly and May) assemble to get acquainted and start planning the nuptials. Suddenly, bigger external issues intervene as a Soviet incursion into Iran after a U.S. backed coup there triggers a showdown between the world’s two superpowers. “Threads” follows the grim fates of the Becketts and Kemps after a catastrophic nuclear conflict.
Why We Love It
Written by Barry Hines for the BBC, this apocalyptic drama from Mick Jackson plays like a painfully intimate documentary as it imagines how a global nuclear war would play out with two families in one city. This harrowing TV film, made for just $1.5 million in today’s dollars, shocked and riveted audiences in the UK and beyond when first aired. A remove of forty-plus years has diminished none of its power, proving that on rare occasions, you can achieve big impact without a big budget.