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With several wars raging, powerful countries squaring up and the world seemingly tilting towards authoritarianism, it would seem a challenging time to expose television audiences to a notoriously bleak story of a British city experiencing the fallout from nuclear war.
Yet a UK team of producers behind the global Netflix hit Adolescence believe it is precisely the right time to recreate Threads, a British film from the 1980s that had audiences weeping and horrified at its pitiless storyline.
“It feels really clear that all the news is getting a little scarier,” said Emily Feller, the chief creative officer at Warp Films, the Sheffield-based production company that co-produced Adolescence.
“In the last few years, we’ve seen more wars coming into our lives again … there has been talk over the last couple of years about various nuclear powers, and I think it feels incredibly prescient to be talking about it again.”
The company is developing an episodic TV drama based on the original film, which was made by the British director Mick Jackson and written by the Kes author, Barry Hines.
It proved controversial when it was first broadcast on BBC Two in 1984. Some viewers thought it was a documentary, while others argued its harrowing depiction of post-apocalyptic Sheffield should not have been aired at all.
However, Mark Herbert, Warp’s chief executive, who grew up near South Yorkshire city and remembers the impact Threads had on the country, said he hoped the remake would highlight “the best of humanity and the worst of humanity” – which he regarded as another contemporary talking point.
“I was born in Doncaster,” he said. “I grew up in a mining community, and Sheffield was about 15 miles away. I was 14, and I remember walking into school and everybody had seen it. People thought it was real. It had this real public-safety film vibe to it. They had budget limitations, so they had to use real public service and news footage.
“It’s a different time now – we’re 40 years on – but it feels like the time is right for it. There’s also a bit of what people have brought up about our previous work, like This is England. Even the darkest stuff, it’s got a huge heart to it. And I think there is a huge heart in Threads that we can explore. It feels like enough time has passed that we can take that original and do something a bit bold, original and fresh with it.”
It is early days for the project. No writer, director or cast have been signed up or announced. But the Warp team believe Threads provides echoes of Adolescence, in the story’s ability to display authenticity and heart in the most desolate of situations.
With increasing concerns that British stories may be squeezed out of TV drama as broadcasters search for hits that work worldwide, the Warp team also believe Threads can be another project set in a British city capable of drawing global audiences.
“The way the original film was written and made, it absolutely had that voice of Sheffield,” Feller said. “And I think that’s the kind of place, again, where you find that very rounded heart to the storytelling.”
There is no doubt taking on the project is a challenge. Jackson, who also produced the original film, said he suspected Threads was not enjoyable for most viewers – and should not have aimed to be. “I feel very strongly that it shouldn’t be entertaining,” he said. “To use something as important as nuclear war as a vehicle for entertainment is quite, quite wrong.”
Herbert said projects focusing on realistic characters in a recognisable urban setting would attract and challenge viewers. “It’s that authenticity,” he said. “It really has to come from the page, from the characters. It’s a bit like my favourite gangster series, Gommorah, which is so specifically Naples. Yet it’s just mind-blowing – and then has characters that are different.
“I’m quite attracted to slightly outsider stories. For us, it’s trying to think: how do we surprise someone next?”
