In Part 1 of this series on anti-nuclear dramas, three differing levels of British Bleakism: Raymond Briggs’ When the Wind Blows (1986) on Blu from Twilight Time, Mick Jackson’s Threads (1986), and Peter Watkins’ The War Game (1965).
After producing an animated version of Raymond Briggs’ beautiful, now-classic, all-ages Christmas weepie The Snowman (1982), John Coates set his sights on something more in tune with the more timely subject of nuclear war / utter annihilation…
Raymond Briggs’ classic Christmas tale of a boy’s ephemeral friendship with a snowman on Christmas Eve was first published in 1978, and was rendered into an Oscar-nominated short by director Dianne Jackson for Britain ‘s Channel 4…
Twenty eight years after its broadcast, this grimy, grainy, BBC production has yet to be eclipsed as one of the most grueling viewing experiences made for mainstream television…
Banned by the BBC for over 20 years, The War Game (1965) is an Oscar-winning, short documentary that remains one of the most potent anti-war, anti-nuclear films ever made, but to understand why Peter Watkins’ film was rejected and suppressed, one has to flip back and do a tally of all the horrible things that had occurred within a few years prior to its making: the erection of the Berlin Wall…
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