Discover
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Val Guest
Director -
Beatrice Dawson
Costume Design -
John Aldred
ADR Mixer -
Wolf Mankowitz
Writer -
Tony Sforzini
Makeup Artist -
Peter Mullins
Scenic Artist -
Stanley Black
Original Music Composer -
Bernard Williams
Third Assistant Director
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CinemaSerf 5/9/2024 7:38:34 AM
Newspaper editor "Bill" (Leo McKern) is trying to keep his team focused on churning out the Daily Express whilst the Russians and the Americans are detonating nuclear devices all over the shop. When two of them explode simultaneously and knock the Earth out of it's orbit, things really do start to heat up and his reporter "Stenning" (Edward Judd) and feisty switchboard worker "Jeannie" (Janet Munro) have to try to get to the bottom of things. Just imagine the red tape involved as the government officials put up all sorts of barricades to him finding out anything - possibly because they don't really know a great deal more themselves. What now ensues is a mixture of romance coupled with some increasingly exasperating investigative journalism as we appear to be heading straight into the path of the sun. Might there be a way to arrest this inevitability? More bombs perhaps? We'll have to tune into the Prime Ministerial broadcast at 9pm... Made when the cold war was alive and well, this is quite an interesting story that when you strip it back offers us quite a potent look at the futility of nuclear weapons. The drama here doesn't politicise anything, but it does use the buzzing dynamic of the newsroom to present us with a story of mankind's own stupidity and bloody-mindedness. There's a solid supporting cast and a welcome bit of sarcasm in the dialogue and it's at the better end of the apocalyptic drama genre.
Michael Caine
Checkpoint Policeman (uncredited)Guy Standeven
Man at Funfair (uncredited)Renée Asherson
AngelaLeo McKern
Bill MaguireMarianne Stone
Miss Evans (uncredited)Timothy Bateson
Printer (uncredited)John Barron
1st Sub-Editor (uncredited)Peter Butterworth
2nd Sub-Editor (uncredited)