“The War Game” (1965)

Peter Watkins’ 1965 docu-drama about the impact of a fictitious nuclear attack on Britain is under 50 minutes long but is perhaps the most disturbing piece of television ever made.  Comissioned by the BBC and then banned by them for the next two decades, “The War Game” draws on studies of mass bombing in World War II together with hard scientific facts about atomic technology and radioactive fallout.

Watkins calmly exposes the inadequacy of Civil Defence planning, public ignorance and the shallow reasoning of state and religious leaders.  Employing a faux documentary technique, complete with hand held cameras, non professional actors and dispassionate narration he sketches out an international scenario in which an attack might occur then traces the consequences from mass evacuation through the dropping of a bomb to eventual societal breakdown in its wake.  The imagery is all the more harrowing for being pared down and minimalist and the entire production is uncompromised by any Hollywood style sentiment.