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i saw this 18 years ago when it was last (first?) broadcast and it has haunted my imagination ever since.

the moment when a woman pees down her legs in terror upon seeing in the distance the rising cloud of dust which foretells her own, imminent death, should have been number one in channel 4's '100 scariest moments' show over the weekend. i don't think it even made the cut.


for more awestruck commentary go here:

Yes, it's brilliant and shouldn't be missed. Making 'pissed out my mind and right underneath it' the best option really nails it home. One of the few things that makes me envious of youth is they have never (yet?) been put through the prospect of this event as a reality.

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"Let's do it..."

I remember Bowie's 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' scene where he goes into alien mode and the chambermaid sees him and pisses down her leg.

I assume you are not on satellite or terrestrial digital then.

i have the same trouble with ch 5 now

unless they happen to be indian or pakistani, that is...

having watched it again, i can say that the passage of time has done nothing to diminish it's impact. the warping of ruth's destiny from that of an optimistic, albeit pragmatic, prospective young mother, to one devoid of love, hope or humanity, is related without a hint of sentiment but is moving beyond words.

True, of course. But I was thinking of the texting/traipse-along, monosyllabic gibbons fouling up the pavements of this fair isle specifically.

True again - hadn't lost it, had it.

--
"Let's do it..."

I only saw Threads when it was first broadcast, but it's stuck with me. Frightening stuff then, when the Thatcher government was happily allowing the US to house weapons here and use our airbases, and just before the thawing of the cold war. With Reagan and Thatcher in power in the west, and with who knew who pulling the strings in Moscow (it didn't help having that evil bastard Honnecker in charge in East Germany), nuclear war didn't seem an unlikely prospect. By concentrating on a few families in one British city, and showing the consequences, it brought the debate from the pages of The Guardian to the public.

Maybe some of it is the rose-coloured spectacles syndrome, but back then the BBC wasn't afraid to commission strong, well-written dramas that questioned our role and our stance on the world stage. It'd be nice to see a return to that kind of creative decision making, rather than the continual dumbing down process involving Celebrity Fame Idol Brother wank.

As for the 100 scariest moments, some good choices---but some ridiculous omissions. The opening to David Lean's Great Expectations, some of the BBC's celebrated ghost stories of the early 1970s, the supreme psychological horror that was The Haunting (1960s version) and the Nigel Kneale adaptation of The Woman In Black, which resulted in a hurried visit to the toilet by this poor soul.