# Can anyone PLEASE help me identify this '80s British post-apocalyptic thing for the sake of my sanity?!



## Chris L (Apr 14, 2022)

One Christmas (1988? 1989? Somewhere thereabouts) I remember coming downstairs to find my parents watching the end of some British post-apocalyptic thing. A band of ragged kids/YAs were roaming some woods, accompanied by some low synth notes. Were they looking for civilisation, or someone/somewhere in particular? Who knows.

Anyway, eventually they arrive at this abandoned brick building filled with rubbish. Among said rubbish is a baby doll toy, which someone triggers. it says something like "I want my nappy! I want my mummy!", before concluding with an unsubtly cautionary "I want! I want!! I WANT!!!" Cut to closing credits.

I remember that ending so vividly, but no amount of Googling causes me to do anything other than circle back to Threads and Survivors and other things it's patently not. Does anyone have the faintest idea what I'm talking about?!


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## Toby Frost (Apr 14, 2022)

Off the top of my head, the last section of _Threads_ involves some children wandering around a wasteland, and one of them becomes pregnant, but she has a mutated baby rather than a doll. I wonder if the children in _Threads _find a doll? If they do, there would be about 10 minutes of further misery before the credits roll.


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## Mr Cairo (Apr 14, 2022)

Toby Frost said:


> Off the top of my head, the last section of _Threads_ involves some children wandering around a wasteland, and one of them becomes pregnant, but she has a mutated baby rather than a doll. I wonder if the children in _Threads _find a doll? If they do, there would be about 10 minutes of further misery before the credits roll.



Threads was shown to us in an English class back in about 82, Bleak and god-damn terrifying it was easily the most horrifying thing we watched in class since Apaches in Junior school.


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## Chris L (Apr 14, 2022)

Toby Frost said:


> Off the top of my head, the last section of _Threads_ involves some children wandering around a wasteland, and one of them becomes pregnant, but she has a mutated baby rather than a doll. I wonder if the children in _Threads _find a doll? If they do, there would be about 10 minutes of further misery before the credits roll.


Well, I'm planning to subject myself to _Threads_ while the family are out on Saturday night, so I guess I'll find out for sure ("lucky" me), but I really don't think it's that from what you were saying. The "I WANT!!!" was definitely intended as a kind of final, didactic punchline along the lines of "See what your greed/consumerism/capitalism will reap!" _That_ bit is really clear in my mind; the rest, unfortunately, isn't...


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## J-WO (Apr 14, 2022)

If it wasn't for your parents watching it I'd be tempted to say it was a kid's show thing Of the bleak 80s UK kind), such as an episode of Dramarama. The didactic quality you mention and the age of the characters just really screams that to me.


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## Venusian Broon (Apr 14, 2022)

I have a memory of a 'play for the day' sometime in the 1980s, of a post-Apocalyptic community/tribe who live in a green valley, somewhere in England, but they had some very strict rules that the children didn't really understand, like eating animals. But it turned out that the adults, who remembered the times before the nuclear war (I assume) couldn't help it, because they craved such food, so they ate meat they caught secretly. But this slowly killed them all (because of radiation???) and it left the kids by themselves as all the adults succumbed.

I am sure it was _something _like that and could potentially dovetail with the OP ending. But...

...it doesn't quite make sense, as surely everything, including plants would be radioactive - unless they were spinning a 'silent spring' sort of vibe that some animals concentrated the poisons. But all the radioactivity would be building up in the humans as well.

It's not _threads_, I've had a look at the plot summary and the final scene on Youtube.


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## Toby Frost (Apr 14, 2022)

That does sound possible - there was an attempt at more serious drama for older kids later in the afternoon. There was a run of short films for children in the 80s (I think it was the Children's Film Foundation that made them) so it could be one of those, perhaps. If it is Threads, I think it's slightly misremembered - it certainly sounds grim enough, though.


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## Danny McG (Apr 14, 2022)

Vague memories of this.... Moon children rings a bell


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## Dave (Apr 14, 2022)

I've never seen this, but it sounds like it is heavily influenced by PK Dick - underground radiation shelters and Perky Pat Dolls.

It does sound more like a _Play for Today_ than a film, or else an _Outer Limits/Twilight Zone_ type TV drama. If it was late 1980's then it's too late to be any of those. I thought maybe it could be _Tales of the Unexpected_? That ran until 1988. However, looking through the episodes, there is nothing like that: 
Tales of the Unexpected (TV Series 1979–1988) - IMDb


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## J-WO (Apr 14, 2022)

Dave said:


> I thought maybe it could be _Tales of the Unexpected_? That ran until 1988. However, looking through the episodes, there is nothing like that:
> Tales of the Unexpected (TV Series 1979–1988) - IMDb


Can confirm it's none of those. I watched them all last year.


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## paranoid marvin (Apr 14, 2022)

There are a number of British post-apocalyptic dramas; Threads, The War Game, The Bed Sitting Room, The Survivors, The Last Train etc. This doesn't sound like any of them, and it's also unlikely that any of them would be on tv around Christmas time. It does sound more like a 'Play For Today' or similar.

One of the benefits of British tv back then was that there were only 4 channels. And it's more likely that it was a tv programme rather than a movie. So I bet if you could view the Christmas editions of the Radio and TV Times (which covered the 2 weeks of the Christmas period) then you'd find what you were looking for.


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## AE35Unit (Apr 15, 2022)

Hmm, never heard of Threads


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## Chris L (Apr 16, 2022)

Thanks, everyone, for your input so far. Some useful leads, I feel. Have just watched _Threads_:

(1) Bloody hell, that was grim!

(2) What I'm thinking of isn't that.


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## Chris L (Apr 20, 2022)

Further thought: _Play for Today_ looks like it finished its run a shade too early in the '80s, but can anyone remember a _Screen One_/_Screen Two_ film that might fit the bill?


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## JunkMonkey (Jun 7, 2022)

Chris L said:


> Further thought: _Play for Today_ looks like it finished its run a shade too early in the '80s, but can anyone remember a _Screen One_/_Screen Two_ film that might fit the bill?



I just had a quick scroll through all the Screen Ones and Twos on IMDB and didn't see anything that looked likely.








						Screen One (TV Series 1985–2002) - IMDb
					

Screen One: With Mark Chapman, Geraldine James, Alfred Molina, Julie Walters. Anthology of unconnected movies of different genres.




					www.imdb.com


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## Chris L (Jun 7, 2022)

JunkMonkey said:


> I just had a quick scroll through all the Screen Ones and Twos on IMDB and didn't see anything that looked likely.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Oh well, thanks for looking into it. I suspect, like one or two bits of music from that era, this programme is destined to be one that got away...


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## JunkMonkey (Jun 7, 2022)

boo boo


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## Orcadian (Jun 7, 2022)

Just a thought but could this have been  Zero Population Growth (1972)? It has been on TV a couple of times, not sure when. It features animatronic baby-dolls. Right at the end the couple (played by Oliver Reed and. Geraldine Chaplin) do escape the closed society they live in, to reach what they have been told is a post-nuclear hell outside. But it is not, and as I recall (this is 50 years ago!)  the film ends on an optimistic note.


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## JunkMonkey (Jun 7, 2022)

delete that


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## AE35Unit (Jun 8, 2022)

An episode of Sapphire and Steel perhaps?


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## Bren G (Jun 8, 2022)

Chris L said:


> One Christmas (1988? 1989? Somewhere thereabouts) I remember coming downstairs to find my parents watching the end of some British post-apocalyptic thing. A band of ragged kids/YAs were roaming some woods, accompanied by some low synth notes. Were they looking for civilisation, or someone/somewhere in particular? Who knows.
> 
> Anyway, eventually they arrive at this abandoned brick building filled with rubbish. Among said rubbish is a baby doll toy, which someone triggers. it says something like "I want my nappy! I want my mummy!", before concluding with an unsubtly cautionary "I want! I want!! I WANT!!!" Cut to closing credits.
> 
> I remember that ending so vividly, but no amount of Googling causes me to do anything other than circle back to Threads and Survivors and other things it's patently not. Does anyone have the faintest idea what I'm talking about?!


The Tripods maybe? Definitely has the low synth and YA's trekking through woods.


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## Foxbat (Jun 8, 2022)

I wouldn’t be the1979 Quatermass series?  It had kids called wandering and gathering in specific places and the score relied heavily on synth.


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## HareBrain (Jun 8, 2022)

Foxbat said:


> I wouldn’t be the1979 Quatermass series? It had kids called wandering and gathering in specific places and the score relied heavily on synth.


I don't think so -- it doesn't fit the "I want!" cut-to-credits bit, for a start. I'm pretty sure the closing scene is Prof Q at the radio telescope.

(I've been meaning to rewatch this for a while: it's on Britbox.)


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## Ian Fortytwo (Jun 8, 2022)

What about Tripods, which had kids wandering around and evading the tripod creatures. One kid made glasses out of glass and wire.
However I could be wrong.


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## JunkMonkey (Jun 8, 2022)

Ian Fortytwo said:


> What about Tripods, which had kids wandering around and evading the tripod creatures. One kid made glasses out of glass and wire.
> However I could be wrong.



I have Tripods season One on disc I can flip through to the end of each episode and take a look....

Meanwhile, if it was on broadcast Telly in the UK in 1988/9 there is a 50/50 chance it was on the BBC - if it was on the BBC it will be listed in here somewhere:






						Issues - BBC Programme Index
					






					genome.ch.bbc.co.uk


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## paranoid marvin (Jun 8, 2022)

I've watched Tripods series 1 and 2 previously, and although it was some time ago it doesn't sound familiar at all.


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## paranoid marvin (Jun 8, 2022)

I still think the best option here is to look at the Radio and TV Times for November-January of those 2 years. With only 4 channels and likely timeslot, there will be very few programmes that will bear further investigation.


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## JunkMonkey (Jun 8, 2022)

Toby Frost said:


> That does sound possible - there was an attempt at more serious drama for older kids later in the afternoon. There was a run of short films for children in the 80s (I think it was the Children's Film Foundation that made them) so it could be one of those, perhaps. If it is Threads, I think it's slightly misremembered - it certainly sounds grim enough, though.



If it was the CFF it doesn't appear in their catalogue:






						Children's Film and Television Foundation - Film Catalogue Index
					

List of Films, with descriptions and pictures, from the catalogue of Films funded by the CFTF. Part of The Children's Film and Television Foundation website.



					www.cftf.org.uk


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