FUTURE SHOCK
On September 23, 1984, a young Charlie Brooker saw something so terrifying that it would leave its mark on him for life.
At 9.30 on a Sunday evening, Charlie – 13 years old at the time – sat down to watch television. What followed – the apocalyptic war drama Threads – left him slack-jawed and frozen stiff. The BBC show tapped into a collective fear, using the backdrop of Sheffield to show what life would look like if a nuclear bomb were detonated.
“It had a big impact,” says Charlie, now 48 and best known for his own harrowing TV series, . “I was already a worried person and I could not understand at that time – with the world appearing constantly on the brink of nuclear war – why everyone wasn’t running around screaming. It felt like there was a crisis going on and alarm bells should have been ringing
