I hope the thread remake is just as shocking as the original

Believing you shouldn't tamper perfectly, I refuse to watch the father's army in the 2016 film.

I loved the kids on the railway, but I have no interest in their return, nor are I interested in the updated version of St. Trinian.

But there's one film, and the original was vibrant and irreplaceable – it was really outstanding – I'm right behind the remake.

The movie is a thread. Part of the documentary, the film is written by Barry Hines of Kess' fame, and depicts a nuclear attack on Sheffield. It sets the scene elsewhere in the world, while tensions between superpowers rise, while the daily lives of ordinary people do their business – as today.

But it escalates, and the everyday scenes of local families having breakfast, starting work and shopping suddenly fight for battle for those unlucky enough to be alive after the warhead.

I saw the film when it first aired in 1984, and I could imagine a few decades later a little boy exploding and screaming at a local supermarket. And an elderly couple hiding in their basement hears an intruder roaming the bombed house.

The thread didn't need the special effects of the Hollywood blockbuster – this is hopeful that it's missing from the remake. So it was even more believable.

The film has been aired twice more since then. Once in 1985, it celebrated its 40th anniversary again in 2024. There is not enough space. I'm reminding us that I've written about threads previously in this column, and how I believe it should be screened regularly not only in the UK but around the world, how close we are to nuclear annihilation, and how it can change instantly.

Nuclear bomb explosion

The world needs constant reminders and never approaches the original's influence, but a remake of a thread can only help the cause. It might even force people to watch Barry Hein's movies. The threat of nuclear war requires people to be shaken up to nuclear weapons.

When the thread first aired, there was greater opposition to the threat of nuclear war. In the early 1980s, I participated with student friends on various anti-war marches, including major sites for research, development and production of British nuclear warheads, including a massive protest in Aldermaston, Berkshire. Almost all students wore CND (Nuclear Disarmament Campaign) badges and carried CND bags. It's rarely seen now.

The very fact that the world is full of weapons that can end the world is frightening in itself. The nation says they are deterrents, but there is no way some countries can parade them through their cities, just as carnival floats stimulate confidence.

Any war is bad enough. The Ukraine and Gaza scenes are terrifyingly painful. However, nuclear war is on another level. It's off the scale. Modern nuclear weapons are far more powerful than the bombs used in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with explosive yields hundreds or thousands of times greater.

Knowing what nuclear weapons can do, you have to ask yourself: Is humanity stupid enough to unfold something that could cause its own extinction? Sadly, the answer is yes.

The remake of the 1980s British film will not stop this incident, but will surprise us to become more active in opposition to nuclear bombs.