The 1980s and 'The Edge Of Darkness'...

[max_tranmere]

Does anyone remember the series The Edge Of Darkness back in the 1980's? It was on BBC1 and was, and still is, described as one of the best dramas ever made. It was also a book, and a film starring Mel Gibson was made of it recently. The recent film was an updated version (now, rather than during the Cold War, and set in the USA).

Back in the 1980's (I was a teenager then) there was a lot of talk of World War 3, what would happen, how we would 'survive' a Nuclear Winter and so on. Programmes like that famous QED documentary (QED was a bit like Panorama but on ITV) all about this frightened the life out of people.

'The Edge Of Darkness' was, if recall rightly, about a young woman who stumbles across a huge nuclear storage facility hidden in a remote mountain area of Britain. She is then assassinated and her father goes looking for the truth.

I remember thinking at the time that something like this could actually happen. There were always rumours then that huge sites existed in remote baron areas of the UK, that were top secret, places that would have had interiors many times bigger (in terms of cubic-footage) than that of Earls Court arena in London, for building and storing nuclear weapons, and no one knew where they were.

What intrigues me is that these places would obviously still exist, although they would be empty, and I wonder what their function is now. Their locations are still top secret and there is every likelihood that if you are out treking in the Breckon Beacons, Snowdonia, or some remote moorland in Yorkshire, that you may stumble across a door in a hillside that is the entrance to such a place.

I know that some of the facilities where the Government would have relocated to and where people were supposed to go and live in the event of an attack have been revealed but not these huge secret facilities.

They are all still here, and only a tiny handful of people would know where they are.

Intriguing to say the least...

[andy ide]

Ahh. The great Bob Peck. Taken from us way too early.

[Arginald Valleywater]

Saw him with the RSC, superb actor. Edge of Darkness is still one of my all time faves. Awesome Eric Clapton soundtrack and excellent support from Ian McNeice, Joe Don Baker and the stunning Joanne Whalley.

[andy ide]

I saw him with the RSC too, AV. Caliban in The Tempest. And also at the NT with Michael Gambon in A Chorus of Disapproval. One of my favourite British actors.

[spider]

Bob Peck in the TV Version, Mel Gibson in the Big Screen Version.

That's a bit like comparing a diamond with a turd isn't it?

[Robches]

The programme certainly gave me a crush on Joanne Whalley.

There was rather an odd scene if you remember when Bob Peck finds his dead daughter's vibrator and gives it a kiss. Not something you want to see when you're watching telly with your mum and dad!

[Nob3y]

Yea I remember seeing it too.
Was a good series.Was still at school then!!

[andy ide]

I had one like that as well, Robches. I was 11 or 12, it must have been 1975 or 76, and I was watching telly with my mum. Dad was away, my younger brother had gone to bed. Get Carter came on, Britt Eckland and all. However I got see the whole movie that night (which I did) is still a mystery to me to this day.

[Robches]

I bet you are thinking of the bit where Carter is talking dirty on the phone to Britt Ekland, who is writhing topless on the bed. Phone sex was different then, he had to do it in the sitting room with the landlady listening, not exactly Babestation!