This film is part of Free
Protect and Survive
One of a series of animated films designed to provide instructions on how to survive a nuclear attack.
Overview
One of a series of twenty animated films designed to provide the public with precise instructions on how to improve their chances of surviving a nuclear attack. The helpful hints include recognising warning sirens; choosing the best place for a fall-out space; improvising toilet facilities with a dining chair and bucket; limiting fire hazards, name-tagging dead family members and digging trenches in which to bury them. Each film starts and ends with the same pithy electronic theme tune over an animated mushroom cloud.
Had an attack been deemed imminent by the government, the films would have been transmitted on domestic television and the accompanying Protect and Survive booklets posted to every home in the UK. Thankfully, no such situation arose and the films and booklets were never distributed. Protect and Survive is a fascinating, if decidedly unsettling, document of a time when the fear of annihilation was part of everyday life. This government film is a public record, preserved and presented by the BFI National Archive on behalf of The National Archives, home to more than 1,000 years of British history.
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