Protect and Survive - Video Scaries

Welcome to Video Scaries... Episode 12

And for this episode we take a look at the prominent string of public information films that warned us Brits all about the threat of nuclear war... its Protect and Survive.

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[AdamMartyn]

*PLEASE NOTE*

Due to a copyright claim, I've had to remove approximately 2 minutes and 30 seconds of footage from this video
This may result in a cut between clips being a little jumpy, due to YouTube's basic editing software, but I hope the video still remains enjoyable.

Every single Protect and Survive video can be found either on YouTube or at other sites

[mubdsAussieMediaArchive]

The fallout warning is the craziest thing. The three whistles or gongs would have been sounded by some poor bastard running down the street whistling or gonging (I am NOT joking) while the highly poisonous radioactive dust settles on the ground around them.

[ARedMagicMarker]

Ah, yes. The synthesizer that still haunts some folks to this day.

Yup, whoever made it *really* knew how to get your attention. Bravo to them, whoever it was. I'm seriously considering using it for a burglar alarm and set extremely loud. That'll send em' running for sure.

[landscapedetective]

I remember there was a parody Protect and Survive that came out sometime in the early 80s. I had a copy of the booklet, but it's long since disappeared. I recall reading advice about how to deal with hysterical relatives: 'A sharp blow to the back of the neck stops blubbering instantly.' Great stuff!

[LucasOliveira-ttll]

In 1982 BBC made a feature on Q.E.D. called "A guide to armageddon" in which describes almost all those measures to be taken and shows a coupe in their fallout shelter drinking tea while a nuke wipes out their home killing them instantly, thus making the shelter quite useless. After that one the aunt beeb produced Threads, that is still the scariest non-scary movie ever made

[AnonymousCaveman]

Normally before nuclear war, there would be a build up of serious tensions so these videos would be sent to the public and broadcasted out weeks or days before an attack.

[melasnexperience]

I'm not British, so my only reference to Protect & Survive was a joke on the Young Ones where it ends with Neil painting himself & his clothes white while he's reading the pamphlet. These videos are nightmarish, not just the trappings of them but also the sense that the people making them probably knew that these were largely placebos to make people feel like they were doing something worthwhile to protect themselves.

[Altoclarinets]

Some things that you seem to have misinterpreted here:
#1. These were never actually shown on TV in the 70s. They were designed for use if tensions ever escalated to a point that UK authorities considered an attack to be imminent in a matter of weeks and thankfully this was never the case. This is also when the creation of a fallout room, stocking up on food and water, prepping the house to avoid fires, and so on was all meant to be done - neither on any random Tuesday nor during the panic of the four minutes' warning, but in those precious few days while global tensions are escalating but the bombs aren't falling YET.
#2. While it's true that a lot of this advice would be essentially futile for anyone situated close to major targets, if you're further from the various ground zeroes a full scale nuclear attack would likely create, getting any kind of cover between you and the explosion could make a major difference. There are some stories from Hiroshima and Nagasaki about people further on the outskirts who managed to survive thanks to very rudimentary protection. (Whether one would actually WANT to continue living in a nuclear war-ravaged Britain is another question; Threads would be another good topic for this series IF you promise to actually do your research on the context and implications instead of just shooting from the hip)
#3. The nuclear blast and the fallout are two different events. They can be considerably separate in time and space (thanks to the wind carrying the dust great distances before it is able to return to Earth) and the advice for avoiding each is conceptually separate - the advice for avoiding blast if you're caught outdoors is not *intended* to be employed against fallout, because the only safe shelter from fallout is physical separation (and if you were still alive after the blast, your first priority should be finding such shelter before a fallout warning comes.) The idea behind the fallout warnings being simpler and quieter is that after a nuclear blast, the giant mast-mounted sirens used to send the attack warnings and the systems to activate them may no longer exist; the fallout warning needed to be something which could be quickly improvised even e.g. on the remaining outskirts of a city whose center was flattened by the bomb or something like that.
#4. I don't know what you mean by "advancements in nuclear technology". There hasn't really been a lot of that since the major test bans of the 20th century came into play; even those nations which are not party to the ban treaties are piggybacking off the existing science, not developing heretofore unheard-of classes of nuclear weapons that revolutionize the implications of a nuclear conflict the way the H bomb did in the 50s. Here in the US our systems still look very much the same as they did 45 or 50 years ago, down to the 8 inch floppies(!) necessary to initiate ICBM launches in many siloes. The rationale is that this older technology, being all very offline and generally low on computer infrastructure, is more difficult or even physically impossible to remotely hack, and thus more secure. It wouldn't surprise me if the Trident subs and other countries' nuclear systems are much the same.

Hope this helps!!

[HJ-juui]

I think the authorities knew these were ludicrous but their main purpose was to provide some sense of safety and give the people at least something to try to survive because, no matter how much people joke around about just putting a law chair outside our human nature is to try to survive no matter how bleak the circumstance that's just how we are

[warprecautions]

24:50 The films were meant to be shown on Tv 3 days before a expected nuclear attack. People were expected to carry out all these tasks during their last few days.

[mistie]

As I recall, these were made assuming a similar power of detonation to the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombs and did not consider the use of multiple warheads and multi-megaton bombs that were frighteningly developing in the 70s onwards.

Also they keep mentioning listening to the radio, ignoring the fact that nearly all radios would be disabled by EMP waves coming from ground zero, always assuming that the people, the radios, the fallout rooms and so forth survived the heat blast and the shock wave.

[blackboardplans]

The book and movie, When the Wind Blows, was made in direct response to how useless the Protect and Survive help is. It's worth a read or watch, and perfectly captures the aesthetic of these videos, using animated characters over miniature sets.

[electragaming]

I think the generally accepted scenario, which featured in both “Threads” and “The Day After”, was the first weapon used would be a high yield one, exploded high in the atmosphere, to create an EMP that would knock out communications; rather than going straight into dropping bombs on tactical or strategic targets.

[hedgethesledge]

Damn you can really see where analogue horror comes from by watching this video

[skellertons]

The narrator is the great Patrick Allen, an actor, from South Africa. Known in as "Crane", and "Brett" in Britain. The voice of Currie Motors, "Nice people to to do business with", . Many modern advertisement narrators actually impersonate him, what a tribute to the great man

[stevenburns]

Oh yes, a little Protect & Survive. Don't worry if theres a bomb, take your doors off and make a inner refuge. What could possibly go from those missing doors letting in the additional radiation & fallout!

If it happens now, I'm getting near a expected epicenter and kissing my butt goodbye, no desire to extend the suffering of the inevitable.

[ridbensdale]

Great video. Who's for a Threads viewing party?

[BenPanced]

Oh, yes. Just the sort of light viewing one needs before dozing off for the night.

[TheGerkuman]

I mean, they knew people within the 5 mile radius were dead. This is for the people whose homes get hit by the blast and only slightly get damaged.

The issue of course is that in a nuclear exchange there's going to be more than one bomb in an area.

Edit: Also, it apparently takes 20 mins for fallout to get from the epicenter to outside the fire zone. Yeah, I'm not sure how they worked that out either

[long_dennis]

1:05 the sound that plays when the words circle around the people make me think of that Caddicarus clip when he pops out of the bin and goes “Hi, I’m Compost”