# The BBC's nuclear attack radio script



## Brian G Turner (Nov 3, 2015)

The BBC website, reporting on the death of radio newsreader, Peter Donaldson, publish - and include an audio excerpt - of the radio announcement the BBC would make in the event of a nuclear war:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34711497

Chilling.



> This is the Wartime Broadcasting Service. This country has been attacked with nuclear weapons. Communications have been severely disrupted, and the number of casualties and the extent of the damage are not yet known. We shall bring you further information as soon as possible. Meanwhile, stay tuned to this wavelength, stay calm and stay in your own homes.
> 
> Remember there is nothing to be gained by trying to get away. By leaving your homes you could be exposing yourselves to greater danger. If you leave, you may find yourself without food, without water, without accommodation and without protection. Radioactive fall-out, which follows a nuclear explosion, is many times more dangerous if you are directly exposed to it in the open. Roofs and walls offer substantial protection. The safest place is indoors.
> 
> ...


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 3, 2015)

Do people believe now?
a) It won't happen
Or
b) The reality would be so bad that any preparation or procedures are irrelevant

The Swiss still believe in fall out shelters.
The Israelis still believe in conventional bomb and fall out shelters (for Atomic, Chemical or Biological).


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## Dave (Nov 10, 2015)

I think that is probably reasonable advice to survive the fallout, but if you live in a major city you won't be around to hear it. We've had a thread discussion on this before concerning survival but I can't remember if it was better or worse than I had previously thought/feared. One thing I would say is what happens after that? We couldn't eat lamb after Chernobyl and that is over 1400 miles away. You couldn't eat Brazil nuts after the sixties weapons tests. Followed by a nuclear winter due to the dust in the atmosphere. There will be hunger and starvation on a scale we have never seen.


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## Ray McCarthy (Nov 10, 2015)

Dave said:


> There will be hunger and starvation on a scale we have never seen.


Yes.
The Lamb and Brazil nuts  though was a precaution. The increase in cancers would have been hardly noticeable. In contrast you are talking about ARS, "walking ghost syndrome" for many people and death within days to a month. But the majority of people might starve if there was a Nuclear Winter (no-one knows for sure how much stuff has to be set off to cause that).


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