Threads looked at the hopelessness and outright nightmarishness of The Day After and said, "Hold my warm beer."

Sure, it has the big picture story of the nuclear war between the U. S. and the U. S. S. R., but it's really about the little people of Sheffield as they deal with the riots leading up to the war and then the cold reality of two-thirds of all British homes being destroyed the deaths of 30 million people as nuclear war comes to England.

Unlike the 1950's duck and cover films, this movie pulls no punches when it comes to what happens next after the bombs fall. Food can barely be grown, people die at a young age from radiation-related diseases, nuclear winter sets in and mankind slides back to the dark ages.

Writer Barry Hines told the website Off the Telly, "Our intention in making Threads was to step aside from the politics and - I hope convincingly - show the actual effects on either side should our best endeavours to prevent nuclear war fail."

Made under the name Beyond Armageddon, it's amazing that this even got on the air in England. A previous film, a mock documentary entitled The War Game, was so upsetting to BBC execs that it didn't air for decades, as they were convinced that it was so upsetting that people would commit suicide after watching it. It aired on July 31, 1985, the fortieth anniversary week of the bombing of Hiroshima, right after a repeat of Threads.

This is absolutely the roughest movie about nuclear war that I've ever seen. There is no hope whatsoever and as we've seen over the last year, the governments and services of the world are ill-equipped to even survive when the worst happens. It aired in the U. S. on TBS, as Ted Turner thought that it was an important movie that Americans needed to see. When he couldn't find a sponsor for it, he paid for its airing out of his own pocket.

You know what screws me up? This brutal and uncompromising movie was directed by Mick Jackson, who went on to make The Bodyguard and the Dana Carvey movie Clean Slate.

This was also shot in the same abandoned hospital as Cabaret Voltaire's video for "Sensoria."

The 80's were a different time. Everybody was making money, everybody was having a great time, things never looked better. Except there was always the threat of nuclear war hanging above our heads. This was more than just an idea. We felt it. It was always there just at the edges of your awareness and you could never really ignore it.

Enter "The Day After" which was an American made for TV movie showing what would happen. It was scary and it was effective but it showed an undercurrent of hope. That even in such a tragedy we could survive, pull together and win. Threads has no such message. It shows that even in a limited strike we are well and truly boned. No hope. No chance of a better world. The lucky ones would be the ones that died in the initial blast or that died shortly afterwards. The unlucky ones are the ones that would go on living and slowly get sick before dying.

This movie gave a detailed version of what would happen. From the initial blast to the radiation sickness to the lack of any kind of support or infrastructure afterwards. The worst part showing the long term effects of it. The birth defects, the lack of medicine and aid, the fact that suddenly food and clean water, things we take for granted becoming the most precious resources around.

This movie is a punch to the gut followed by a slow but deliberate beating until you are left spent on the ground quivering in fear. This needs to be required viewing by anybody in the East or West that might even consider that a nuclear strike is a good idea.

It's not. It would literally mean the end of life as we know it.

Nothing on television has disturbed me as much as THREADS, There is so much to shock the viewer in this docu-drama that it`s difficult to pick the most disturbing aspect of this nuclear holocaust scenario , but if pushed I`d say it`s the ending of the rule of law. The thought of having my throat cut for a packet of cheese and onion crisps is more frightening than the lack of medical facilities , famine , radiation sickness or mutant babies.

The reason THREADS wins over its rivals for the crown of " Nuclear Holocaust King " is its depiction of The Nuclear Winter , though it`s done rather unsuccessfully by sticking a dark filter over the camera , but at least it`s mentioned in depth unlike the awful THE DAY AFTER , and unlike TDA we`re shown the months and years after the war where the survivors have to cope without an ozone layer or a coherent language. These survivors are truly the unlucky ones. The final scene is so distressing it doesn`t need words

Of course it hasn`t happened , the cold war is over and for that the human race must be truly greatful but as a teenager in the 1980`s nuclear holocaust didn`t only seem possible - it seemed probable . And if it looked like the bomb was going to drop I`d be having a last supper involving lots of vodka and sleeping pills. A cowards way out perhaps but as THREADS shows they won`t be giving out medals after the third world war