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Protect & Survive (Nuclear War Preparedness)

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Anonymous

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Remember in the early 1980s when nuclear war seemed inevitable and the govt sent out a helpful leaflet all about how to survive a nuclear blast by blocking up the chimney and hiding under a table. Well here it is.

Embedded link is dead. The MIA webpage (the booklet's text and illustrations) can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030412015011/http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/atomic/main.htm

I remember that the BBC produced a drama documentary about a nuclear attack which scared me ****less.

I was reminded of this when I heard on the radio this morning that the Home Office are recommending we stock up on baked beans and gaffer tape. Home Office Terrorism Advice

Embedded link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030603171052/http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/terrorism/

I couldn't decide where to post this, btw.
 
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Baked beans of course being a staple and wholly nourishing food that will provide every sort of vitamin, mineral and staple element you will need, as well as providing immunity to chemical or biological attack.

Also gaffer tape is well known for its radioactive protective abilities and was tested by the military earlier this year and proved to withstand biological germ warfare, chemical attack and could withstand a blast 700 times that of the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

The government is apparantly working on a top secret draught excluder to be released in the late part of 2004 that can with stand any terrorist anthrax attack or missile blast and willl be disguised as a plush cat.
 
'Threads' was the name of the drama documentary which most people remember from the '80s (and remember it with a certian amount of trepidation). Another was also made in the '60s, but is still banned from being shown on TV, AFAIK.

Both were far superior to the US attempt, 'That Day After' which looked like 'Dallas' with nukes going off. I think this was shown on UK Gold of Sci-Fi awhile back.
 
home.gif

Hey kids! We're going to build a fort in the livingroom and play hobbit for the next week! (Crud. The board has inline images disabled? How'd you do that Alb? Put it in your signature?)


You folks in the UK are just getting to this foolishness? Our fuehrer of homeland insecurity was babbling about this in January! They seem even more ineffectual and unprepared than in the 50's! I guess we can ship you some slightly used japes on a lend-lease program.
 
Physick said:
The new civil defense motto:

Duct (tape) and cover.
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I am so surprised I haven't seen this on a bumper sticker or a t-shirt. Physick I would run all the way to the copyright office if I were you, you warped little creature you. :laughing: ;)
 
How'd you do that Alb? Put it in your signature?
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Yeah. Which is why I'll only leave it their for a short while. Then this post will make no sense.
 
JerryB said:
Another was also made in the '60s, but is still banned from being shown on TV, AFAIK.
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"The War Game".

It was shown at my secondary school in the early 70's, first of all to the 6th year (17-18 y.o.), and after several of them threw up and one girl had hysterics (allegedly), plans to show it to the rest of the school were shelved, so 14-y-o me didn't see it....

There was also a comic book (late 70's-early 80's) about an old couple who survive a nuclear holocaust, only to wonder why the telly doesn't work, why the milk isn't delivered, why their hair and teeth are falling out at an alarming rate.....
(And I can't remember what it was called. I do remember the lump in the throat.....)
 
Raymond Briggs - 'When The Wind Blows'.

He also did 'The Snowman'. And 'Fungus The Bogeyman'.
"When the Wind Blows" tells the story of an elderly British couple building a shelter and preparing for an impending nuclear attack with the help of a government-issued Protect and Survive pamphlet. They are totally unaware that the nature of war has changed from their romantic memories of World War II.
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He taught at the Brighton Polytechnic Art Dept.

cybertrn.demon.co.uk/atomic/culture.htm
Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20090131205235/http://www.cybertrn.demon.co.uk/atomic/culture.htm
 
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alb said:
Raymond Briggs - 'When The Wind Blows'.[/B]
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That's the one!

I remember when it came out, thinking "Bloody stupid idea for a comic book, load of mince, no doubt." Then, couple of years later, a guy at work just dropped a copy on my desk one lunchtime.....

Wish I hadn't given it back!
 
There was also a 1970s Public Information advert informing citizens of what to do in the event of Nuclear War. Not sure if it was actually shown on TV - but it is on one of those "Public Information Programmes from the 1970s" videos - which also includes the "Charlie Says....." adverts.

I have watched this (my brother owns the video) and the main advice seemed to be that you should hide in the cupboard under the stairs.

Brilliant.
 
When the Wind Blows

Went to see the full length animated film at the the cinema when it came out back in, ooh, 1987?

What a fun evening out that was!

That film, together with Threads and The War Game should be compulsory viewing.

I seem to recall that The War Game was shown on telly at about the same time as they made Threads.

Mind you, the horror of the film Threads is mitigated somewhat by the fact you get see Sheffield nuked.:D
 
DerekH said:
That's the one!

I remember when it came out, thinking "Bloody stupid idea for a comic book, load of mince, no doubt." Then, couple of years later, a guy at work just dropped a copy on my desk one lunchtime.....

Wish I hadn't given it back!
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i cant read it myself it just rips my heart out and flings it away. He also quite recently did a comic book about his father and mother, how they met and how his mum died. Its homely style made fermilier by "Father Christmas" etc makes it all the more poiniant...
 
alb said:
Raymond Briggs - 'When The Wind Blows'.
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Hmm. They gave us that to read at school...:shudder: A helluva thing to give to depressed teenagers.
 
You'll know it's really serious, when they issue the Boy's Brigade and the Boy Scouts with surplus, bolt action, Lee Enfields! :b
 
Inverurie Jones said:
Hmm. They gave us that to read at school...:shudder: A helluva thing to give to depressed teenagers.
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That's interesting. We read a book in highschool called "Alas Babylon" which was a 'what-happens-to-us-after-they-drop-the-bomb' horror story. Such obvious salting of class room curriculum in this day and age! Speaking of IJ's time of course. When I was at school, the history teachers were just beginning to nervously admit that once upon a time, we had been involved in a little police action called Viet Nam. :rolleyes:
 
Hmm. It was that and Z for Zachariah. There was a short story by Ray Bradbury, too. Of course, those of us who had read up on nuclear weapons outside school knew that the aftermath would be much, much worse than any of these books make out.
Preaching to the choir, really.
 
what is it about school curriculums that makes people think its a good idea to give teenagers post-apocalyptic scenario novels to read? We had to read a book called "Brother in the Land" at age 15. I think we also had a book called April something or a bout a character called April who survives a nuclear attack. And another one about a girl who survives a nuclear war living in a welsh valley which isnt touched by the fallout. She eventually gets company from a rogue scientist with a new radiation proof suit who tries to "continue the species" with her and gets told where to go.
 
Not me, I was completely naieve and before the books I worried that I wouldn't survive a nuclear war. After the books I worried that I would.
 
barndad said:
And another one about a girl who survives a nuclear war living in a welsh valley which isnt touched by the fallout. She eventually gets company from a rogue scientist with a new radiation proof suit who tries to "continue the species" with her and gets told where to go.
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Z for Zachariah.
 
There was also a reference to the "Protect and Survive" manual in The Young Ones back in the 80s. "I'm painting myself white to deflect the blast!" And Neil makes a fallout shelter out of a sheet and a table... :D
 
Douglas Adams' H2G2, the barman - something like:
Ford Prefect: "The world's about to end"
Barman: "Aren't you meant to put a paper bag over your head, or something?"
FP: "If you want"
Barman: "Will it help?"
FP: "No."
Barman "Last orders, please..."

And the old gag - when the 4 minute warning sounds, put your head between your legs, and kiss your ass goodbye...

4 minute warnings - a wiring fault meant that the sirens went off in Edinburgh some years back. A friend of mine, 3 miles away, was awakened by it. The one he heard is apparently about 200 yards from my flat. I never heard a thing. (But it's how I'd want to go - totally oblivious, and at ground zero!)

(OT- the following day, at work, we discussed what we'd do if it were for real. Several standard replies - get laid, get pissed - Boss, a non-smoker for 12 years, said "Time for a ciggie - it can't kill me now!")
 
When I was at College back in the early 80's, there was a guy living in our hall who, reading such books and watching such videos, became so convinced that nuclear war was inevitible ( He went on about it so much you got the impression he almost wanted it to happen) that he decided to build himself a shelter in the basement. He was delighted to discover rolls of thick ruberised material with a metalic foil-like backing - he cut these up to line his shelter and made himself very cosy.
Turns out they were the brand-new indoor practice mats the Cricket club had just shelled out several thousand quid to purchase.
Popular chap, as you can imagine.
 
I really don't want to be in a small gaffer-tape sealed room with my family who are eating nothing but cold tins of baked beans.

I think I'd rather die.
 
There might be a 9mm round out there with my name on it, reserved for when the sirens sound.

'Brains, this is Wallpaper, Wallpaper, this is Brains.'

Or of course I could gather together a band of like minded individuals and haul humanity up by it's boot straps to reclaim it's former glory...I haven't decided.
 
Tecknicly if you want to make a fall out shelter all you nead is a celler and some 5cm thick lead sheets it'ts faily expensive but coat your celler includeing the roof with the lead, remeber not to lick it and put an air filter of some sort in, as 5cm of lead 'll stop most gama rays you see, don't bother farring around with doors etc, they won't stop anything more powerful than an ant's fart.
 
Of course, two feet of concrete has the same effect and is cheaper...
 
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