As I write this the government has released some secret documents under the 30 years rule and one of the secret documents involves a broadcast the Queen was to make after World War 3 had broken out misuse of technology had brought the sad state of affairs and that we were to help the lonely and the homeless . Stuff that because the worst thing about the bomb dropping would be everyman for themselves and survival of the fittest . The early 1980s were a scary time and I don't mean the hairstyles and while never being at the forefront of everyones' minds the bomb feature at a cultural level . Be thankful the Cold War has ended
PROTECT AND SURVIVE was a series of public information films produced by the government warning the population what they should do in order to prepare for a nuclear war . The films were never broadcast but did enter the public consciousness down to the fact that clips were always shown a Cold War documentary was broadcast , or a nuclear holocaust drama like THREADS . In fact a rearranged sample was used on Frankie Goes To Hollywood's track Two Tribes which was number one forever in 1984 , so even though no one has seen PROTECT AND SURVIVE in its entirety everyone of my generation is probably convinced it was shown on TV very frequently in the 1980s
The films themselves are laughably optimistic and tell the British subjects how to build a nuclear fall out shelter . Apparently the best place to be during a nuclear attack is in a basement
" Hold on Theo suppose you live in a tower block ? "
You don't think the government of the day would be stupid enough to forget that ? What you're supposed to do is kindly knock on someone's door on the lower levels and ask if you can come in to their nuclear fall out shelter
" Suppose they don't want you to Theo ?"
Hmmmm well the government haven't actually given it much thought . Obviously they don't expect anyone to be turned away . Wife swapping was very popular when this film was produced in 1976 and nearly every BBC personality was a bit of paedo so I'm guessing no one would be turned away from neighbours and BBC television centre could be used as a fall out shelter for the under 16s
There's a slightly repetitive air to the films that reiterate that if you find a fire in the house you should put it out as soon as possible to stop it spreading and you can understand this since you can never over estimate the stupidity of the Great British public . One interesting thing I noticed is a line of dialogue that doesn't feature in Patrick Allen's narration is when talking about casualties he doesn't mention " IF your grandmother or any other member of your family should die in the fall out shelter .... " which featured in a remix version of Two Tribes so must have been recorded specifically for that remix
As it stands PROTECT AND SURVIVE is a dubious and gloomy nostalgia trip for people who remember concepts like the Cold War and Mutually Assured Destruction . Thankfully these days have ended and now in 2013 all we've got to worry about is extinction events like asteroid strikes , supervolcanoes , plagues and viruses destroying all serial crops . Here's to the future
