Movies - Protect and Survive

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	Movies - Protect and Survive

Protect and Survive was the title of a series of booklets and a Public information film series produced by the British government during the late 1970s and early 1980s dealing with emergency planning for a nuclear war. The phrase also referred to a wider programme of national civil defence.

Purposes

The purpose of the programme was to provide members of the British public with instructions on how to protect themselves and survive a nuclear attack. If such an attack had been deemed likely by the Government during any period of international crisis, a copy of the main "Protect and Survive" booklet would have been distributed to every home in the UK whilst the films would have been transmitted on domestic television. The booklet and the films detailed a series of steps to be undertaken by the citizens of the UK to improve their chances of survival during a Soviet nuclear attack, including the recognition of attack warning, fallout warning, and all-clear signals, the preparation of a home "fallout room" (fallout shelter) and the stockpiling of food, water, and other emergency supplies. The films, narrated by actor Patrick Allen, were similar to the pamphlets, detailing the same instructions using voice-over narration, sound effects, and simple animation. All of the "Protect and Survive" PIFS were produced by Richard Taylor Cartoons, which also created the well-known "Charley Says" films for UK TV.

Social Impact

The "Protect and Survive" documents were simply designed, easy to understand, and in keeping with the advice of most other emergency planning authorities of the time. In the opinion of some contemporary critics, however, the films of the "Protect and Survive" series were deeply and surprisingly fatalistic in tone. This created some impact upon the popular culture of the era: the animated film When the Wind Blows
referenced "Protect and Survive", and the BBC telefilm Threads
quoted directly from two of the series' films, Action After Warnings and Casualties. Narrator Allen was also featured in the song "Two Tribes" by the UK pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, saying "Mine is the last voice you will ever hear. Do not be alarmed" in a tone similar to that used by him in the PIFs. The leaflet series became an easy target for anti-nuclear campaigners (such as E. P. Thompson), who produced Protest and Survive.

Rock band Jethro Tull recorded a song called "Protect And Survive" on the 1980 album, "A", also criticizing the program.

Protect and Survive was also the title of a song by the hardcore punk band Discharge.

Alan Moore's landmark 1985 graphic novel, Watchmen, makes a reference to civil-defence pamphlets similar to the "Protect and Survive" pamphlets, including the oft-cited material on disposal of dead bodies.

It was also lampooned by television series The Young Ones in the episode "Bomb"

Quotes

"If anyone dies while you are kept in your fallout room, move the body to another room in the house. Label the body with name and address and cover it as tightly as possible in polythene, paper, sheets or blankets. Tie a second card to the covering. The radio will advise you what to do about taking the body away for burial. If however you have had a body in the house for more than five days, and if it is safe to go outside, then you should bury the body for the time being in a trench, or cover it with earth, and mark the spot of the burial. " (Casualties)

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