Protect and Survive
The series had originally been intended for distribution only in the event of dire national emergency, but provoked such intense public interest that the pamphlet was published, in slightly amended form, in 1980.
This evolved as the nature of warfare and geopolitics changed, with the pamphlets updated first into The Hydrogen Bomb in 1957, and later into Advising the Householder on Protection against Nuclear Attack in 1963.
[2][3] This document, of which 500,000 copies were made, garnered considerable public and government criticism when it was first released for its lack of explanations or conveyance of the reasoning behind the advice that was given.
Pamphlets similar to those prepared in 1963 briefly appeared in Peter Watkins' controversial 1965 BBC docudrama The War Game, in a scene where they were distributed to people's homes.
[13] This wave of interest had been preceded by numerous letters to The Times in December 1979[14][15] questioning what Civil Defence arrangements were in place in the UK.
This was then followed by a Times leader on 19 January 1980 which noted that: "In Britain, a Home Office booklet "Protect and Survive" remains unavailable.
The information detailed a series of steps recommended to be undertaken by British civilians to improve their chances of survival in the event of a nuclear strike on the United Kingdom.
The Protect and Survive booklet was prepared in 1976, and some 2,000 copies were printed and secretly issued to chief executives of local authorities and senior police officers.
Its existence having been brought to public attention by the Times, a slightly revised edition of the booklet was printed in 1980, and made available through Stationery Office bookshops.
[19] During peacetime, the booklet was priced at 50 pence, but would be widely distributed freely to all households in the United Kingdom if the threat of a nuclear attack increased.
[25] They are similar in content to the booklets, detailing the same instructions using voice-over narration, sound effects, and a combination of simple stop-motion and illustrated animation.
His voiceover was later described as "the calm, clipped vowels of a male announcer, advising how to build shelters, avoid fallout, and wrap up your dead loved ones in polythene, bury them, and tag their bodies.
While it has been speculated that a small portion of these recordings is heard in Threads, during the scene where the character of Bill Kemp is discussing removing internal doors to use for their shelter, this is in fact re-recorded by an actor.
In print, Raymond Briggs' graphic novel When the Wind Blows (later adapted as an animated film, radio and stage play) obliquely mentions various aspects of the Protect and Survive programme.
The leaflet series became the subject of detailed and scholarly criticism from anti-nuclear authors (such as E. P. Thompson), who produced a counterargument entitled Protest and Survive.
The Protect and Survive booklet appears on-screen during the episode as characters hide ineffectively under clothed tables and paint themselves white to deflect the blast, parodying its instructions on creating an "inner refuge" and whitewashing one's windows, respectively.
