I saw Threads when it was first broadcast. I would have been 21, just out of uni. I grew up in Sheffield, which probably added a bit more to the horror of the film.

As you say, we had all grown up with the ever-present threat of nuclear war. The popular view was that we would get a 4 minute warning. Not sure if that was really true, or how much use it would have been.

The film terrified me. The world seems more dangerous at the moment than it has been for a while, but I am not sure the risk is quite as high as it was in he 70s and 80s.