I spent the first half of my life living in the shadow of the Cold War, so a spot of nuclear war planning is always a jolly trip down memory lane, particularly when set in that very memorable period of economic and social disintegration, the 1970s.
This session was another one of Russells games set around planning for nuclear war in 1975 against a background of social unrest and Soviet subversion. This time we were the senior editorial staff at the BBC, tasked with coming up with 72 hours of programming to be broadcast on a loop from distributed remote locations after ‘the day’.
The Radio Times is brutally hacked up. What a load of great programmes.
I was Head of Childrens Programming, which also encompassed educational TV, of which there was a fair bit in the 60s and 70s. The main constraint was that we had a very short window to prepare the schedule, so it wouldn’t be possible to commission new programmes.
Our main resource was a pile of photocopies of copies of the Radio Times from the mid 1970s, along with a large timetable to put the programmes on. What a treasure trove of great TV! Doomwatch, The Survivors and The Changes were all apparently on as well as ‘The Genesis of the Daleks’ on Dr Who and Softly Softly, but sadly no Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet as they were ITV.
Our main resource was a pile of photocopies of copies of the Radio Times from the mid 1970s, along with a large timetable to put the programmes on. What a treasure trove of great TV! Doomwatch, The Survivors and The Changes were all apparently on as well as ‘The Genesis of the Daleks’ on Dr Who and Softly Softly, but sadly no Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet as they were ITV.
The finished programme schedule.
By and large each editor focussed on their own areas of programming, but as the game progressed broader questions of scheduling arose - would it be better to band types of programmes together at regular times to provide some predictability, and how did we avoid some things being buried at 2am, never to be watched. In the end we came up with a cunning scheme to offset the running by shaving six hours off, so as the 66 hour loop ran, the programmes would appear at different times. This also raised the question of when exactly the loop would start, but the government assured us that there would be some delay in initiating TV broadcasts as national infrastructure was rebuilt.
In the end we came up with a programme of mainly cheery, morale boosting stuff, although we did slip in the Xmas episode of Survivors. The session ended with a sobering discussion on the expected damage from a mid 70s nuclear attack, with a rather improbable initial casualty estimate of 38 million, although given the vast numbers of Russian IRBMs in service at the time, perhaps not so improbable. The whole thing was finished off with a rendering of ‘We’ll Meet Again’ led by the cabaret from the plenary game.
What a great session, very immersive and involving. I really think everyone in the room was doing their best to come up with a sensible schedule by the end.
In the end we came up with a programme of mainly cheery, morale boosting stuff, although we did slip in the Xmas episode of Survivors. The session ended with a sobering discussion on the expected damage from a mid 70s nuclear attack, with a rather improbable initial casualty estimate of 38 million, although given the vast numbers of Russian IRBMs in service at the time, perhaps not so improbable. The whole thing was finished off with a rendering of ‘We’ll Meet Again’ led by the cabaret from the plenary game.
What a great session, very immersive and involving. I really think everyone in the room was doing their best to come up with a sensible schedule by the end.
I hope you had a Blue Peter episode where Valerie Singleton explains how to make a fall out shelter from detergent bottles and sticky back plastic! :-)
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