Protect and Survive

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The front cover text reads: "This booklet tells you how to make your home and your family as safe as possible under nuclear attack".
The front cover text reads: "This booklet tells you how to make your home and your family as safe as possible under nuclear attack".

Protect and Survive was a programme of national civil defence put into effect by the British government during the late 1970s and early 1980s which used booklets, radio broadcasts, and public information films to instruct British citizens on how to protect themselves during a nuclear attack.

Contents

[edit] Origins

Protect and Survive had its origins in the civil defence leaflets dating back to 1938, titled The Protection of Your Home Against Air Raids. These advised the owner on what to do in the event of air attack. This evolved as the nature of warfare and geopolitics changed, with the leaflets concurrently updated into "Advising the Householder on Protection against Nuclear Attack" in 1963. The leaflets were accompanied by a series of public information films produced in 1964, called Civil Defence Information Bulletin, that, like Protect and Survive, would be broadcast in a state of emergency (they could be seen as a precursor). The leaflets were famously referred to in the controversial BBC Docudrama, The War Game in a scene where they were distributed to people's homes. Hence, these leaflets and public information films were an evolution and continuation of what preceded it, reflecting the state of warfare and geopolitics at the time of going to print.

[edit] Media

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, information would have been disseminated via print and broadcast media: a copy of the "Protect and Survive" instructional booklet would have been distributed to every home in the UK, whilst instructional films and radio broadcasts would have been transmitted from domestic stations. The contents of the booklets would also have been printed in national newspapers. The booklet, recordings and films detailed a series of steps recommended to be undertaken by the citizens of the UK to improve their chances of survival during a nuclear attack.

Print: Five instructional booklets were produced for the programme:

ISBN 0903723123

Television: Twenty short Public Information Films for colour television transmission were produced for the programme by Richard Taylor Cartoons, creators of the well-known "Charley Says" child safety films. The films were brief, animated instructional programmes intended for broadcast during various stages of a nuclear crisis. These were:

  1. Nuclear Explosions Explained (1:35) Effects of atomic weapons
  2. The Warnings (2:53) Attack, fall-out and all-clear warnings
  3. What To Do When the Warnings Sound (2:28) “Immediate action” drill
  4. Stay at Home (1:40) Techniques for sheltering in place
  5. Choosing a Fall-Out Room (2:06) Choosing a safe room
  6. Refuges (3:54) Building an “inner refuge”
  7. Materials To Use For Your Fall-out Room And Refuge (1:55) Radiation shielding materials
  8. Make Your Fall-out Room and Refuge Now (4:42) Preparing for an attack
  9. What To Put In Your Fall-out Room (3:03) Essential supplies
  10. Action After Warnings (4:13) Detailed “immediate action” drill
  11. Water and Food (2:41) Provisions for 14 days
  12. Sanitation (1:33) Makeshift toilet arrangements
  13. Fire Precautions (2:02) Expedient firefighting techniques
  14. The Importance Of Your Radio (1:20) Portable radio as a vital aid
  15. Life Under Fall-Out Conditions (2:51) Survival during an attack
  16. What To Do After An Attack (2:29) Post-attack actions
  17. Sanitation Care (2:40) Essential hygiene
  18. Water Consumption (1:28) Safeguarding and rationing water
  19. Food Consumption (1:40) Rationing food
  20. Casualties (1:27) Expedient casualty care and mortuary actions

The films, narrated by the actor Patrick Allen, were similar to the pamphlets, detailing the same instructions using voice-over narration, sound effects, and simple (if somewhat kitsch) animation. Each one closed with a memorably unsettling electronic musical phrase.

Radio: A collection of recordings for radio transmission were produced as part of the programme. These differed slightly from the films in that the voice was provided not by Patrick Allen but by both male and female voices. In addition, certain portions of the instructional copy were changed slightly. Samples of these recordings are shown in Threads, with credit to Allen given by mistake in the closing roll.

[edit] Impact

The programme created a substantial impact upon the popular culture of the UK of the early 1980s, most notably in music. Film series narrator Patrick Allen was featured in certain early remixes of the song "Two Tribes" by the UK pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, saying "Mine is the last voice you will ever hear. Don't be alarmed." in a tone similar to that used by him in the PIFs. A promotional tape produced for an early BBC digital radio service, Five Live Sports Plus, used Two Tribes as backing music with Patrick Allen (or a sound-alike) explaining the new service using sport as conflict metaphor - the tape ended with the phrase "Mine is the last voice you will ever hear. Don't be alarmed." in a parody of the parody.

Rock band Jethro Tull recorded a song called "Protect And Survive" on the 1980 album A, also criticising the initiative. The title of a song by the hardcore punk/D-beat band Discharge featured a play on words ('"Protest And Survive"), a reference to E. P. Thompson's anti-nuclear manifesto (see below). Heavy metal band Wolfsbane's self-titled album contains a song called "Protect And Survive". Irish folk group The Dubliners recorded a song entitled "Protect And Survive" on their 1987 album 25 Years Celebration. The song is a witty comment on Protect And Survive from an Irish point of view. There is also a song entitled "Protect and Survive" on the Runrig album, "The Cutter and The Clan", which has an apocalyptic theme.

In print, Raymond Briggs' graphic novel When the Wind Blows (later adapted as an animated film, radio and stage play) obliquely mentions various aspects of the Protect And Survive programme, and the BBC play Threads featured two of the series' films: Action After Warnings and Casualties. The leaflet series became the subject of detailed and scholarly criticism from anti-nuclear authors (such as E. P. Thompson), who produced a counterargument entitled Protest And Survive. 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, but it is unclear whether Moore was specifically referring to Protect And Survive. The children's novel Children of The Dust refers to one of the inner refuge designs mentioned in the leaflets, public information films and radio tapes.

On television, Protect And Survive was thoroughly lampooned in the television series "The Young Ones" episode "Bomb". The Protect And Survive booklet appears on-screen during the episode.

In the video game Fallout 2 intro, there was a parody of Protect And Survive information on what to do when leaving the shelters. The manual for Introversion Software's video game Defcon parodies Protect And Survive.

There is a parody of Protect And Survive in Chapter 3 of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The threat is not nuclear weapons but Death Eaters.

[edit] 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)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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