'Most horrifying film ever made' that was full of future Coronation Street and Emmerdale stars

It's nearly 40-years since what's been called the most 'horrifying' and 'disturbing' film ever made was first aired in the UK. At 9pm on Sunday 23 September, 1984, families in the UK sat down together to watch a drama-documentary so disturbing it became known as 'the night the country didn't sleep'.

The film didn't contain any gratuitous violence or sexual content, instead, the BBC film Threads was a terrifying warning on the horror of nuclear war, portrayed with a gritty realism. What made the film so unsettling for many was that it was its unremarkable setting in the north of England, being both filmed and set in Sheffield.

Threads was written by Barry Hines, who also wrote A Kestrel for a Knave, the novel he helped adapt for Ken Loach's film Kes in 1969. And while it might seem more of a distant possibility now, back in 1984 - towards the end of the Cold War when the film was first broadcast - the threat of nuclear conflict was still a real fear.

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The arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, and their respective allies during the Cold War, only heightened geopolitical tensions and fear for the general public. This would not end until 1991 when the Soviet Union's power and influence diminished and its Communist regime imploded.

For anyone born in the last 30 years, it's hard to truly understand the fears surrounding nuclear war people experienced even into the 1980s. It was a time when public information broadcasts on what to do in the event of an attack would appear on TV, and even children were aware of the serious conversations