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

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?!
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The Tripods maybe? Definitely has the low synth and YA's trekking through woods.
 
I wouldn’t be the1979 Quatermass series? It had kids called wandering and gathering in specific places and the score relied heavily on synth.
 
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.
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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.)
 
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.
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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 genome.ch.bbc.co.uk
 
I've watched Tripods series 1 and 2 previously, and although it was some time ago it doesn't sound familiar at all.
 
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.
 
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.
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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
 
Venusian Broon said:
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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OMG I remember this. There was something about the kids not eating rabbit for some reason about it being toxic. I can't remember what it was called and have been driven crazy trying to find the name of it - not Threads.
 
Does anyone have access to the Radio/TV Times of this era? As there were only 4 channels at that time, a quick look at the listings for December 1988-1990. Given that most programmes had a brief summary of what it was about should give the answer.
 
paranoid marvin said:
Does anyone have access to the Radio/TV Times of this era? As there were only 4 channels at that time, a quick look at the listings for December 1988-1990. Given that most programmes had a brief summary of what it was about should give the answer.
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I posted a link to the Radio Times archives here a while ago:

Issues - BBC Programme Index

genome.ch.bbc.co.uk genome.ch.bbc.co.uk

Issues for 1988 - BBC Programme Index

genome.ch.bbc.co.uk genome.ch.bbc.co.uk

Issues for 1989 - BBC Programme Index

genome.ch.bbc.co.uk genome.ch.bbc.co.uk
 
This might give the a way into ITV listings - which were much more fragmented than the BBC's - what was shown at any particular time varied from company to company rather than from larger region to region.

The Television & Radio Database - Search

Search The Television & Radio Database for Radio or TV Listings from the twentieth century
tvrdb.com
 
uffda999 said:
OMG I remember this. There was something about the kids not eating rabbit for some reason about it being toxic. I can't remember what it was called and have been driven crazy trying to find the name of it - not Threads.
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Found this thread while looking for that very film - looked as if it was filmed in the Lake District with a large pool and natural water slide. Younger children had to abide by the rules e.g. no meat or killing of animals but the older teenagers only pretended to do so. Did anyone find the name of it? Vague chance the word 'water' MAY have been in the title - could be wrong.
 
Venusian Broon said:
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.
Click to expand...
DARK ENEMY 1984, it's on YouTube. The British Fim Institute told me when I asked them if they could identify it as it was bugging me for decades.
 
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