Protect and Survive

Protect and Survive was a public information series on civil defence produced by the British government during the early 1980s. It was intended to inform British citizens on how to protect themselves during a nuclear attack, and consisted of a mixture of pamphlets, radio broadcasts, and public information films. The series had originally been intended for distribution only in the event of dire national emergency, but provoked such intense public interest that the pamphlets were authorised for general release.

Origins

Protect and Survive had its origins in civil defence leaflets dating back to 1938, titled The Protection of Your Home Against Air Raids. These advised the homeowner on what to do in the event of air attack. This evolved as the nature of warfare and geopolitics changed, with the leaflets concurrently updated into "Advising the Householder on Protection against Nuclear Attack" in 1963. The leaflets were accompanied by a series of public information films produced in 1964, called Civil Defence Information Bulletins. These films were intended to be broadcast in a state of emergency. Leaflets similar to those prepared briefly appeared in Peter Watkins' controversial BBC Docudrama The War Game, in a scene where they were distributed to people's homes.

Wartime Broadcasting Service Script

During the early 1970s, the BBC and the Home Office produced a radio script advising the public of what to do in the event of nuclear attack. This was eventually published in October 2008 on the BBC's web site(PDF), with the full correspondence made available to the public via The National Archives. The script used very similar language and style to the later Protect and Survive series. In particular, it emphasised the need for citizens to remain in their homes, and not to try and evacuate elsewhere.

During the exchange of correspondence between the BBC and various government departments, several letters seem to suggest that a booklet for public consumption was already being discussed. In letter from the Central Office of Information, dated 12 March 1974, a request for information from The Home Office about a proposed booklet read as follows:

Meanwhile I should be grateful if you could let me have a copy of your revised advice to the householder. I will assume that this will form the text of the Official Announcement and that what Probert is discussing with your Information Division is the production of a booklet on public advice."

This was replied to on the 15th March 1974 by the Home Office, clearly stating that such a booklet was being produced, and that they were also targeting the same information at television:

It seems likely a basic booklet will be produced...we expect rather more attention to be paid to the dissemination of this advice through other media, in particular television."

Both letters are contained within HO 322/775 at The National Archives.

Publication of the Pamphlet

Protect and Survive was formally published in May 1980, but had come to the public's attention before that via a series of articles in The Times newspaper in January 1980 . This wave of interest had been preceded by numerous letters to The Times in December 1979 questioning what Civil Defence arrangements were in place in the UK.

This was then followed by a Times leader on 19 Jan 1980 which noted that: "In Britain, a Home Office booklet "Protect and Survive" remains unavailable." Following this unexpected publicity for Protect and Survive, The Minister of State at the Home Office, Leon Brittan, told parliament that:

This was not a secret pamphlet. There was no mystery about it. It had been available to all local authorities and chief police and fire officers. It had not been published for the simple reason that it was produced for distribution during a grave international crisis when war was imminent. It was calculated that it would have the most impact then. Just over 2000 copies were printed and only a few remain.

The Minister then went on to say the Home Office had received over 200 letters from the public on Civil Defence. It seems extremely likely that from pressure inside and outside parliament, Protect and Survive was then published by the Government in May 1980. There is little to suggest that the Government ever intended the pamphlet to be made available for general sale had it not attracted this much attention. The Foreword in the published pamphlet itself states[1]:

If the country were ever faced with an immediate threat of nuclear war, a copy of this booklet would be distributed to every household as part of a public information campaign which would include announcements on television and radio and in the press. The booklet has been designed for free and general distribution in that event. It is being placed on sale now for those who wish to know what they would be advised to do at such a time. May 1980

Media

The purpose of the programme was to provide members of the British public with instructions on how to protect themselves and survive a nuclear attack. If such an attack had been deemed likely by the Government during any period of international crisis, information would have been disseminated via print and broadcast media: a copy of the "Protect and Survive" instructional booklet would have been distributed to every home in the UK, whilst instructional films and radio broadcasts would have been transmitted from domestic stations. The contents of the booklets would also have been printed in national newspapers. The booklet, recordings and films detailed a series of steps recommended to be undertaken by the citizens of the UK to improve their chances of survival during a nuclear attack.

Print: The primary booklet was released in May 1980:

• Protect And Survive

Companion Booklets Two companion booklets to Protect and Survive were produced in 1981:

• Domestic Nuclear Shelters This booklet detailed techniques for shelter building at home:
• Domestic Nuclear Shelters - Technical Guidance detailed methods for building semi-permanent and permanent fall-out shelters. These were much more elaborate designs than the basic techniques shown in Protect and Survive.

Explanatory Booklet

• Civil Defence: Why We Need It This booklet was produced by the Home Office following extensive criticism of Protect and Survive and was their rejoinder to it.

Television: Twenty short Public Information Films for colour television transmission were produced for the Protect and Survive by Richard Taylor Cartoons, creators of the well-known "Charley Says" child safety films and the Crystal Tipps and Alistair children's cartoon series. The films were brief, animated instructional programmes intended for broadcast during various stages of a nuclear crisis. These were:

The Protect And Survive end credit seen at the end of each film accompanied by an electronic musical phrase and circle animation.

1. Nuclear Explosions Explained (1:35) Effects of atomic weapons
2. The Warnings (2:53) Attack, fall-out and all-clear warnings
3. What To Do When the Warnings Sound (2:28) “Immediate action” drill
4. Stay at Home (1:40) Techniques for sheltering in place
5. Choosing a Fall-Out Room (2:06) Choosing a safe room
6. Refuges (3:54) Building an “inner refuge”
7. Materials To Use For Your Fall-out Room And Refuge (1:55) Radiation shielding materials
8. Make Your Fall-out Room and Refuge Now (4:42) Preparing for an attack
9. What To Put In Your Fall-out Room (3:03) Essential supplies
10. Action After Warnings (4:13) Detailed “immediate action” drill
11. Water and Food (2:41) Provisions for 14 days
12. Sanitation (1:33) Makeshift toilet arrangements
13. Fire Precautions (2:02) Expedient firefighting techniques
14. The Importance Of Your Radio (1:20) Portable radio as a vital aid
15. Life Under Fall-Out Conditions (2:51) Survival during an attack
16. What To Do After An Attack (2:29) Post-attack actions
17. Sanitation Care (2:40) Essential hygiene
18. Water Consumption (1:28) Safeguarding and rationing water
19. Food Consumption (1:40) Rationing food
20. Casualties (1:27) Expedient casualty care and mortuary actions

The films, narrated by the actor Patrick Allen, were similar to the pamphlets, detailing the same instructions using voice-over narration, sound effects, and simple (if somewhat kitsch) animation. Each one closed with a memorably unsettling electronic musical phrase.

Radio: A collection of recordings for radio transmission were produced as part of the programme. These differed slightly from the films in that the voice was provided not by Patrick Allen but by both male and female voices. In addition, certain portions of the instructional copy were changed slightly. A small portion of these recordings is heard in Threads during the scene where Bill Kemp is discussing removing internal doors to use for their shelter.

Cultural impact

The programme created a substantial impact upon the popular culture of the UK of the early 1980s, most notably in music. Film series narrator Patrick Allen was featured in certain early remixes of the song "Two Tribes" by the UK pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, saying "Mine is the last voice you will ever hear. Don't be alarmed." in a tone similar to that used by him in the PIFs.

A promotional tape produced for an early BBC digital radio service, Five Live Sports Plus, used Two Tribes as backing music with Patrick Allen (or a sound-alike) explaining the new service using sport as conflict metaphor - in a parody of the parody, the tape ended with the phrase "Mine is the last analogue voice you will ever hear. Don't be alarmed." in a tone similar to that used in Two Tribes and the PIFs. A copy of the promotion can be found on the Vintage Broadcasting website at http://www.zen77094.zen.co.uk/vintagebroadcasting/audio/72.mp3.

Rock band Jethro Tull recorded a song called "Protect And Survive" on the 1980 album A, also criticising the initiative. The title of a song by the hardcore punk/D-beat band Discharge featured a play on words ('"Protest And Survive"), a reference to E. P. Thompson's anti-nuclear manifesto (see below). Heavy metal band Wolfsbane's self-titled album contains a song called "Protect And Survive". The Scottish rock band Runrig released a song entitled "Protect and Survive", which has an apocalyptic theme, on their 1987 album, The Cutter and The Clan.

Also in 1987, Irish folk group The Dubliners released a song entitled "Protect And Survive" on their album 25 Years Celebration. The song is a witty comment on Protect And Survive from an Irish point of view.

In print, Raymond Briggs' graphic novel When the Wind Blows (later adapted as an animated film, radio and stage play) obliquely mentions various aspects of the Protect And Survive programme, and the BBC play Threads featured two of the series' films: Action After Warnings and Casualties. The leaflet series became the subject of detailed and scholarly criticism from anti-nuclear authors (such as E. P. Thompson), who produced a counterargument entitled Protest And Survive. The children's novel Children of The Dust refers to one of the inner refuge designs mentioned in the leaflets, public information films and radio tapes.

On television, Protect And Survive was thoroughly lampooned in the television series "The Young Ones" episode "Bomb". The Protect And Survive booklet appears on-screen during the episode.

In the video game Fallout 2 intro, there was a parody of Protect And Survive information on what to do when leaving the shelters. The manual for Introversion Software's video game Defcon parodies Protect And Survive.

There is a parody of Protect And Survive in Chapter 3 of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The threat is not nuclear weapons but Death Eaters.

In a Channel 4 poll of the 100 scariest moments, Protect and Survive came 89th, just above Todd Browning's 1931 Dracula.

Quotes

"If anyone dies while you are kept in your fallout room, move the body to another room in the house. Label the body with name and address and cover it as tightly as possible in polythene, paper, sheets or blankets. Tie a second card to the covering. The radio will advise you what to do about taking the body away for burial. If however you have had a body in the house for more than five days, and if it is safe to go outside, then you should bury the body for the time being in a trench, or cover it with earth, and mark the spot of the burial. " (Casualties)

See also

• Fallout Protection
• Preparing for Emergencies
• Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom
• Survival Under Atomic Attack
• Duck and Cover (film)
• Bomb (Young Ones episode)
• The War Game (film)

External links

• Protect and Survive - Action After Warnings. Video from the National Archive
• Protect and Survive - Casualties. Video from the National Archive
• Advising The Householder: a series of Public Information Films that were a precursor to Protect and Survive
• Protect and Survive Youtube Channel : A complete collection of the protect and survive series.