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The War Game
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Premise: A bleak 1965 television drama documentary depicting the preparations for and the after effects of nuclear war on Britain. Written, directed, and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC’s The Wednesday Play anthology series, the BBC deemed that it was “too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting”, so it was never shown on TV until 1985. It did, however, have some film distribution, and won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 1966.
Stylistically, it is uncompromising, never straying from it documentary approach to artificially create a story. It’s a mix of f aux newsreel, talking heads interviews, vox pops, reportage and explanatory graphics.
Best in-joke: Well, nuclear was is not exactly joke fodder, but The War Game has a nice line in low key irony; juxtaposing po-faced old ladies claiming that there’ll never be a war, with images of people dying. The ultimate irony is that the po-faced old ladies were right… so far!
Best line:
Deadpan voiceover: “At this distance, the heatwave is sufficient to cause melting of the upturned eyeball, third degree burning of skin, and ignition of furniture.”
Verdict: Utterly, utterly chilling. God knows how it would have come across in the 1960s, but watched today, it is so convincing that it looks like a piece of genuine history rather than a play. It’s all so matter of fact, so deadpan, so BBC, you have to keep reminding yourself that Russia didn’t lob a few nuclear missiles our way back in the ’60s. It’s also totally gripping. There may not be a conventional narrative but it keeps your attention throughout its 46 minute running time.
The BBC tried to pull off the trick again in the 1984 with Threads , another part-mockumentary about a nuclear attack on Britain – Sheffield this time. But it was more of a standard narrative play with documentary elements and news narration provided by BBC journalist Paul Vaughan. It was a cultural phenomenon at the time – surely one of the greatest pieces of water-cooler TV ever – but judged in retrospect, it can’t hold a candle to The War Game .
So what have we missed? Which post-modern classics of the genre deserve mention in our list? Have your say in the comments below…
