Anyone who’s seen Threads has never forgotten it. The British made-for-TV film, following the impact of a nuclear bomb being dropped on Sheffield, is a famously harrowing watch, unflinching in its depiction of the prolonged devastation that such an attack would bring – launched on an unsuspecting Sunday night audience on BBC Two in September 1984. The film, from director Mick Jackson and Kes author Barry Hines, has lived on in infamy ever since, a cult classic that hasn’t lost any of its stark power in the decades since.
Last year, a new version of Threads – from Brit production company Warp Films – was announced, set to unsettle a whole new generation. And yet, a statement from Warp’s CCO Emily Feller on how their remake will “[highlight] how resilience and connection can offer hope even in the most challenging of times” has rung alarm bells for original director Jackson.
Speaking to Empire for a brand new look-back at the original film, the filmmaker is wary of any notion of hope being found in Threads. “That one phrase worried me. Resilience of the human spirit is a concept from drama, a piece of entertainment, but hope is not part of nuclear war,” he explains. “Hope that it all turns out great in the end and that everybody’s resilient? It’s not true.” Still, he’s effusive about what the new producers have previously accomplished on screen. “Warp are a tremendously gifted team of people,” he says. “What they’ve done with Adolescence is one of the greatest things ever done on television.”
Even for Jackson, Threads has never left him. “It drove me crazy, making this movie,” he says. “I had to fill my head with these awful images and it was very difficult afterwards to get rid of them. I would look at normal, everyday things and then see them as they would be completely ruined. It’s like I’d created an alternative reality for myself. It was a bit like having PTSD — not to exaggerate it but that kept recurring for a long time afterwards. I couldn’t get these images of destruction out of my head.” Over 40 years later, Threads remains unforgettable.
Read Empire’s full Threads feature in the Masters Of The Universe issue – on sale Thursday February 12. Pre-order a copy online here.
