Four minute warning
Encyclopedia
The four minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War
and operated between 1953 and 1992 when the system was dismantled after the cold war ended. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile attack against the United Kingdom
could be confirmed and the impact of those missiles on their targets. The population was to be notified by means of air raid sirens
, television
and radio
, and urged to seek cover immediately. In practice the warning would have been more likely to have been three minutes or less.
s and aircraft targeted at the United Kingdom. Early in the Cold War, Jodrell Bank
was used to detect and track incoming missiles alongside its astronomical research remit. From 1958 to 1963, the radio telescope was used to give early warning of a Soviet attack. Plainclothes Royal Air Force officers even worked alongside scientists, engineers and undergraduates with only the director, Bernard Lovell
, and the Air Ministry
knowing who they were. Lovell was angry at this arrangement, saying:
Throughout the Cold War, there was a conflict between the RAF and the Home Office
over who was in charge of the warning system. This was not for any practical or technical reason, but more a case of who would receive blame if a false alarm was given or an attack occurred without warning (which could have been as little as thirty seconds from launch to impact on a target). By the 1980s the warning would be given on the orders of a Warning Officer from the Home Office
stationed at RAF High Wycombe
.
From the early 1960s initial detection of attack would be provided primarily by the RAF
BMEWS station at Fylingdales
in North Yorkshire
. There, powerful radar
s would track the inbound missiles and allow confirmation of targets. In later years the first indication of any imminent attack would likely come from infrared
detectors aboard the United States
Defense Support Program
(DSP's) satellites. However, BMEWS would still play an important role in tracking and confirming the destination of any launches.
(UKWMO) at the United Kingdom Regional Air Operations Centre (UK RAOC) located at the Strike Command Operations Centre at High Wycombe to alert the nation to an imminent air attack. Once an alert was initiated the national and local television
and radio
networks would break into transmissions and broadcast a warning (rather, the warning message would be transmitted from an emergency studio in BBC
Broadcasting House
in London). Simultaneously the national air raid siren system would be brought into service. A system, which used the same frequency on normal telephone lines as the peacetime speaking clock
, was employed for this whereby a key switch activation alerted 250 national Carrier Control Points or CCPs present in police station
s across the country. In turn the CCPs would, via a signal carried along ordinary phone lines, cause 7,000 powered sirens to start-up. In rural areas around 11,000 hand powered sirens would be operated by postmasters, rural police officers, or Royal Observer Corps personnel (even parish priests, publicans, magistrates or people in similar roles could be involved in some areas).
Linked into the system were the twenty five Royal Observer Corps
(ROC) group controls, also with direct links to the carrier control points. In the event of subsequent radioactive fallout local fallout warnings could be generated from the group controls on a very localised basis over the same carrier wave system.
The national warning system saw many changes over the years. During the 1960s and 1970s much of the local authority civil defence planning in the United Kingdom became outdated, although the WB400/WB600 warning system was maintained and kept serviceable along with updating of ROC instrumentation and communications. The system's main problem was that many of the telephone lines it needed had to be manually switched in times of pre-war tension by Post Office telephone engineers. Additionally, the links were not hardened against the effects of EMP
. In the late 1970s and early 1980s heightened fears and tensions led to a resumption of contingency planning and the upgrading of many systems. The outdated WB400/WB600 systems were replaced with brand new WB1400 equipment, communications links were made permanent and hardened against EMP disruption.
had always retained a secondary role of "general warning", particularly for imminent flooding. In some towns, they were also used to summon part time firemen. However, a telephone based system was found to be generally more appropriate in this scenario and of course cheaper in most parts of the country. Additionally the Government retains an ability to break into local and national television and radio for purposes of alerting the general public. Indeed, the government has the legal power to take over editorial control of the BBC
during a national emergency under the BBC Charter
and the Broadcasting Act 1980
.
By the end of the Cold War
in the late 1980s and early 1990s the national siren system was largely dismantled. The British Government cited the increasing use of double glazed windows
, which make sirens harder to hear, and the reduced likelihood of air attack as reasons to eliminate the siren system in most parts of the country. Some coastal areas still retain and regularly test the sirens as part of the flood warning defences. Also, Broadmoor Hospital
retains its siren to warn of escaped inmates, which is tested every Monday morning at 10am. The Broadmoor siren was also linked to the warning broadcast system and used to warn of air attack in the event of war during the Cold war
.
, chief continuity announcer for BBC Radio 4
:
and the fear of nuclear attack permeated pop culture up until the 1990s. Examples include Four Minute Warning as the name of a 1980s hardcore punk
band from England, the poem 'Your Attention Please' by Peter Porter
, as well as the name of a solo song
by Take That
singer, Mark Owen
, "Four Minutes" by Roger Waters
(of Pink Floyd
fame) on his 1987 solo album Radio K.A.O.S.
. John Paul Jones
has a song entitled "4-Minute Warning" on the 1988 Brian Eno
album Music for Films III
, the 2008 Madonna
track "4 Minutes
" and the name of a 2007 Radiohead
song, on the second disc of their album In Rainbows
.
The four minute warning was a central plot and narrative device in dramas (both on stage and screen) and novels, often being the motor force of plays, films, novels and cartoon strips. The BBC drama Threads
, about how society decays after a nuclear holocaust, which focuses on an attack on Sheffield
. The War Game
also portrays the four minute warning, pointing out the warning period could be even less. The narrator, Michael Aspel
, says it could even be two minutes between issuing the warning and impact on a target. The film adaptation of Raymond Briggs
's satirical and blackly comic
cartoon strip, When the Wind Blows, has the warning message as part of the script, which triggers arguing between Jim and Hilda Bloggs. Although this is not Peter Donaldson
's pre-recorded warning (which was not available on grounds of national security and for copyright reasons), this was a fictional announcement written on grounds of artistic licence
. It was read by Robin Houston, a voiceover artist who was known in London as a newsreader for Thames Television
(who played the role of newsreader in the film).
The adult humour comic Viz ran a photo strip in its issue 107 called "Four Minutes to Fall in Love", where a boyfriend and girlfriend cram a whole relationship into the four minutes before a nuclear attack. The Four Minute Warning had become the inspiration for many jokes and sketches in comedy programmes in Britain, in the same way that the Emergency Broadcast System
had in the United States (see nuclear weapons in popular culture
). In one episode of Only Fools and Horses
, "The Russians Are Coming
," Delboy and Rodney Trotter
sell fallout shelter
kits and have an attack drill. Driving towards their shelter, they are stopped by the police for speeding and asked: "You just heard the four minute warning?" After being sent on their way, Rodney points out: "We died forty-five seconds ago." Around the same time, a sketch on the BBC Scotland
programme Naked Video
had a mock announcement warning of an attack with a punchline of "...except for viewers in Scotland
."
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and operated between 1953 and 1992 when the system was dismantled after the cold war ended. The name derived from the approximate length of time from the point at which a Soviet nuclear missile attack against the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
could be confirmed and the impact of those missiles on their targets. The population was to be notified by means of air raid sirens
Civil defense siren
A civil defense siren is a mechanical or electronic device for generating sound to...
, television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, and urged to seek cover immediately. In practice the warning would have been more likely to have been three minutes or less.
Basic details
The warning would be initiated by the detection of inbound missileMissile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
s and aircraft targeted at the United Kingdom. Early in the Cold War, Jodrell Bank
Jodrell Bank
The Jodrell Bank Observatory is a British observatory that hosts a number of radio telescopes, and is part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester...
was used to detect and track incoming missiles alongside its astronomical research remit. From 1958 to 1963, the radio telescope was used to give early warning of a Soviet attack. Plainclothes Royal Air Force officers even worked alongside scientists, engineers and undergraduates with only the director, Bernard Lovell
Bernard Lovell
Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell OBE, FRS is an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.-Early Life:...
, and the Air Ministry
Air Ministry
The Air Ministry was a department of the British Government with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964...
knowing who they were. Lovell was angry at this arrangement, saying:
'It was known only to a very few people that I had been approached by the Chief of the Air Staff, who told me we had the only instrument in the world that could detect a Soviet missile. I simply wanted to do research, but events wouldn't allow me to.'
Throughout the Cold War, there was a conflict between the RAF and the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
over who was in charge of the warning system. This was not for any practical or technical reason, but more a case of who would receive blame if a false alarm was given or an attack occurred without warning (which could have been as little as thirty seconds from launch to impact on a target). By the 1980s the warning would be given on the orders of a Warning Officer from the Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
stationed at RAF High Wycombe
RAF High Wycombe
RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. Its purpose is to serve the needs of the RAF Air Command, situated on the site. It is also the headquarters of the European Air Group...
.
From the early 1960s initial detection of attack would be provided primarily by the RAF
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
BMEWS station at Fylingdales
RAF Fylingdales
RAF Fylingdales is a Royal Air Force station on Snod Hill in the North York Moors, England. Its motto is "Vigilamus" . It is a radar base and part of the United States-controlled Ballistic Missile Early Warning System...
in North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
. There, powerful radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
s would track the inbound missiles and allow confirmation of targets. In later years the first indication of any imminent attack would likely come from infrared
Infrared
Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
detectors aboard the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Defense Support Program
Defense Support Program
The Defense Support Program is a program of the U.S. Air Force that operates the reconnaissance satellites which form the principal component of the Satellite Early Warning System currently used by the United States....
(DSP's) satellites. However, BMEWS would still play an important role in tracking and confirming the destination of any launches.
UKWMO and the ROC
It was the responsibility of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring OrganisationUnited Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation
The United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organisation was a British civilian organisation operating between 1957 and 1992 to provide the authorities with data about nuclear explosions and forecasts of likely fallout profiles across the country in the event of war.The UKWMO was established and...
(UKWMO) at the United Kingdom Regional Air Operations Centre (UK RAOC) located at the Strike Command Operations Centre at High Wycombe to alert the nation to an imminent air attack. Once an alert was initiated the national and local television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
networks would break into transmissions and broadcast a warning (rather, the warning message would be transmitted from an emergency studio in BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London.The building includes the BBC Radio Theatre from where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience...
in London). Simultaneously the national air raid siren system would be brought into service. A system, which used the same frequency on normal telephone lines as the peacetime speaking clock
Speaking clock
A speaking clock service is a recorded or simulated human voice service, usually accessed by telephone, that gives the correct time. The first telephone speaking clock service was introduced in France, in association with the Paris Observatory on 14 February 1933.The format of the service is...
, was employed for this whereby a key switch activation alerted 250 national Carrier Control Points or CCPs present in police station
Police station
A police station or station house is a building which serves to accommodate police officers and other members of staff. These buildings often contain offices and accommodation for personnel and vehicles, along with locker rooms, temporary holding cells and interview/interrogation rooms.- Facilities...
s across the country. In turn the CCPs would, via a signal carried along ordinary phone lines, cause 7,000 powered sirens to start-up. In rural areas around 11,000 hand powered sirens would be operated by postmasters, rural police officers, or Royal Observer Corps personnel (even parish priests, publicans, magistrates or people in similar roles could be involved in some areas).
Linked into the system were the twenty five Royal Observer Corps
Royal Observer Corps
The Royal Observer Corps was a civil defence organisation operating in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 December 1995, when the Corps' civilian volunteers were stood down....
(ROC) group controls, also with direct links to the carrier control points. In the event of subsequent radioactive fallout local fallout warnings could be generated from the group controls on a very localised basis over the same carrier wave system.
The national warning system saw many changes over the years. During the 1960s and 1970s much of the local authority civil defence planning in the United Kingdom became outdated, although the WB400/WB600 warning system was maintained and kept serviceable along with updating of ROC instrumentation and communications. The system's main problem was that many of the telephone lines it needed had to be manually switched in times of pre-war tension by Post Office telephone engineers. Additionally, the links were not hardened against the effects of EMP
Electromagnetic pulse
An electromagnetic pulse is a burst of electromagnetic radiation. The abrupt pulse of electromagnetic radiation usually results from certain types of high energy explosions, especially a nuclear explosion, or from a suddenly fluctuating magnetic field...
. In the late 1970s and early 1980s heightened fears and tensions led to a resumption of contingency planning and the upgrading of many systems. The outdated WB400/WB600 systems were replaced with brand new WB1400 equipment, communications links were made permanent and hardened against EMP disruption.
Sirens
The national siren system left over from World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
had always retained a secondary role of "general warning", particularly for imminent flooding. In some towns, they were also used to summon part time firemen. However, a telephone based system was found to be generally more appropriate in this scenario and of course cheaper in most parts of the country. Additionally the Government retains an ability to break into local and national television and radio for purposes of alerting the general public. Indeed, the government has the legal power to take over editorial control of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
during a national emergency under the BBC Charter
BBC Charter
The BBC Charter established the BBC . An accompanying Agreement recognises its editorial independence and sets out its public obligations in detail....
and the Broadcasting Act 1980
Broadcasting Act 1980
The Broadcasting Act 1980 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It was repealed by the Broadcasting Act 1981, though the provisions of the Act remained in force....
.
By the end of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
in the late 1980s and early 1990s the national siren system was largely dismantled. The British Government cited the increasing use of double glazed windows
Insulated glazing
Insulated glazing also known as double glazing are double or triple glass window panes separated by an air or other gas filled space to reduce heat transfer across a part of the building envelope....
, which make sirens harder to hear, and the reduced likelihood of air attack as reasons to eliminate the siren system in most parts of the country. Some coastal areas still retain and regularly test the sirens as part of the flood warning defences. Also, Broadmoor Hospital
Broadmoor Hospital
Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton...
retains its siren to warn of escaped inmates, which is tested every Monday morning at 10am. The Broadmoor siren was also linked to the warning broadcast system and used to warn of air attack in the event of war during the Cold war
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
Sample script
The following is a script that would have been broadcast in the event of an attack, available from the BBC. It was recorded by Peter DonaldsonPeter Donaldson
Peter Ian Donaldson is a main newsreader on BBC Radio 4.He was born in Cairo, Egypt and moved to Cyprus in 1952 at the time of the overthrow of King Farouk. He was a frequent listener to the BBC World Service and the BFBS....
, chief continuity announcer for BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
:
Cultural impact
The cold warCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and the fear of nuclear attack permeated pop culture up until the 1990s. Examples include Four Minute Warning as the name of a 1980s hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
band from England, the poem 'Your Attention Please' by Peter Porter
Peter Porter
Peter Porter is the name of:* Peter Buell Porter , U.S. political figure and soldier* Peter A. Porter , U.S. political figure and grandson of Peter Buell Porter* Peter Porter , Australian-born British poet...
, as well as the name of a solo song
Four Minute Warning (song)
"Four Minute Warning" is the first single to be released from Take That band member Mark Owen's second solo studio album, In Your Own Time. The single was released on August 4, 2003. The single peaked at #4 on the UK Singles Chart...
by Take That
Take That
Take That are a British five-piece vocal pop group comprising Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams. Barlow acts as the lead singer and primary songwriter...
singer, Mark Owen
Mark Owen
Mark Anthony Patrick Owen , is an English singer-songwriter. He is a member of pop band Take That. The band were hugely successful during the 1990s and have enjoyed even more success since their reunion in 2005...
, "Four Minutes" by Roger Waters
Roger Waters
George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...
(of Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
fame) on his 1987 solo album Radio K.A.O.S.
Radio K.A.O.S.
Radio K.A.O.S. is a 1987 concept album by former Pink Floyd bassist, singer songwriter Roger Waters. It is his second solo album.-Storyline:The concept is based around a 23-year-old disabled man from Wales named Billy....
. John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones (musician)
John Paul Jones is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, arranger and record producer. Best known as the bassist, mandolinist, and keyboardist for English rock band Led Zeppelin, Jones has since developed a solo career and has gained even more respect as both a musician and a...
has a song entitled "4-Minute Warning" on the 1988 Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
album Music for Films III
Music for Films III
Music for Films III is the third entry in Brian Eno's "Music for Films" series. It features tracks by Brian Eno, Roger Eno, Michael Brook, and Harold Budd among others....
, the 2008 Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
track "4 Minutes
4 Minutes (Madonna song)
"4 Minutes" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her eleventh studio album Hard Candy. It was released as the lead single from the album on March 17, 2008, by Warner Bros. Records. The song's development was motivated by a sense of urgency to save the planet from destruction, and...
" and the name of a 2007 Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
song, on the second disc of their album In Rainbows
In Rainbows
In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital download self-released, that customers could order for whatever price they saw fit, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during the last week of 2007. The...
.
The four minute warning was a central plot and narrative device in dramas (both on stage and screen) and novels, often being the motor force of plays, films, novels and cartoon strips. The BBC drama Threads
Threads
Threads is a British television drama produced by the BBC in 1984. Written by Barry Hines and directed by Mick Jackson, it is a documentary-style account of a nuclear war and its effects on the city of Sheffield in northern England....
, about how society decays after a nuclear holocaust, which focuses on an attack on Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
. The War Game
The War Game
The War Game is a 1965 television documentary-style drama depicting the effects of nuclear war on Britain. Written, directed, and produced by Peter Watkins for the BBC's The Wednesday Play anthology series, it caused dismay within the BBC and in government and was withdrawn from television...
also portrays the four minute warning, pointing out the warning period could be even less. The narrator, Michael Aspel
Michael Aspel
Michael Terence Aspel, OBE is an English television presenter, known for his reserved demeanour and rich speaking voice. He has been a high-profile TV personality in the United Kingdom since the 1960s, presenting programmes such as Crackerjack, Aspel and Company, This is Your Life, Strange But...
, says it could even be two minutes between issuing the warning and impact on a target. The film adaptation of Raymond Briggs
Raymond Briggs
Raymond Redvers Briggs is an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist, and author who has achieved critical and popular success among adults and children...
's satirical and blackly comic
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
cartoon strip, When the Wind Blows, has the warning message as part of the script, which triggers arguing between Jim and Hilda Bloggs. Although this is not Peter Donaldson
Peter Donaldson
Peter Ian Donaldson is a main newsreader on BBC Radio 4.He was born in Cairo, Egypt and moved to Cyprus in 1952 at the time of the overthrow of King Farouk. He was a frequent listener to the BBC World Service and the BFBS....
's pre-recorded warning (which was not available on grounds of national security and for copyright reasons), this was a fictional announcement written on grounds of artistic licence
Artistic licence
Artistic licence is a colloquial term, sometimes euphemism, used to denote the distortion of fact, alteration of the conventions of grammar or language, or rewording of pre-existing text made by an artist to improve a piece of...
. It was read by Robin Houston, a voiceover artist who was known in London as a newsreader for Thames Television
Thames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
(who played the role of newsreader in the film).
The adult humour comic Viz ran a photo strip in its issue 107 called "Four Minutes to Fall in Love", where a boyfriend and girlfriend cram a whole relationship into the four minutes before a nuclear attack. The Four Minute Warning had become the inspiration for many jokes and sketches in comedy programmes in Britain, in the same way that the Emergency Broadcast System
Emergency Broadcast System
The Emergency Broadcast System was an emergency warning system in the United States, used from 1963 to 1997, when it was replaced by the Emergency Alert System.-Purpose:...
had in the United States (see nuclear weapons in popular culture
Nuclear weapons in popular culture
Since their public debut in August 1945, nuclear weapons and their potential effects have been a recurring motif in popular culture, to the extent that the decades of the Cold War are often referred to as the "atomic age."-Images of nuclear weapons:...
). In one episode of Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...
, "The Russians Are Coming
The Russians Are Coming
"The Russians Are Coming" is an episode of the BBC sit-com, Only Fools and Horses. It was first screened on 13 October 1981, as the final episode of series 1.-Synopsis:...
," Delboy and Rodney Trotter
Rodney Trotter
Rodney Charlton Trotter is a fictional character in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, played by Nicholas Lyndhurst.-Personality:Rodney's personality was based on the experiences of series creator John Sullivan, who also had an older sibling and, like Rodney, claimed to have been a dreamer and...
sell fallout shelter
Fallout shelter
A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War....
kits and have an attack drill. Driving towards their shelter, they are stopped by the police for speeding and asked: "You just heard the four minute warning?" After being sent on their way, Rodney points out: "We died forty-five seconds ago." Around the same time, a sketch on the BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
programme Naked Video
Naked Video
Naked Video was a BBC Scotland comedy series, broadcast between 1986 and 1991 on BBC2, the series was created by Colin Gilbert who also created A Kick Up the Eighties and Naked Radio.-Naked Radio:...
had a mock announcement warning of an attack with a punchline of "...except for viewers in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
."
See also
- Peter DonaldsonPeter DonaldsonPeter Ian Donaldson is a main newsreader on BBC Radio 4.He was born in Cairo, Egypt and moved to Cyprus in 1952 at the time of the overthrow of King Farouk. He was a frequent listener to the BBC World Service and the BFBS....
, the BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
continuity announcer who recorded the warning message. - Protect and SurviveProtect and SurviveProtect and Survive was a public information series on civil defence produced by the British government during the late 1970s and 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,...
- Civil Defence Information BulletinCivil Defence Information BulletinCivil Defence Information Bulletin were a series of seven public information films dealing with civil defence measures individuals and families could take in the event of a nuclear attack on Great Britain. They produced for the Home Office and the Scottish Home and Health Department by RHR...
, a precursor to Protect and Survive - Emergency Broadcast SystemEmergency Broadcast SystemThe Emergency Broadcast System was an emergency warning system in the United States, used from 1963 to 1997, when it was replaced by the Emergency Alert System.-Purpose:...
- Emergency Alert SystemEmergency Alert SystemThe Emergency Alert System is a national warning system in the United States put into place on January 1, 1997, when it superseded the Emergency Broadcast System , which itself had superseded the CONELRAD System...
- CONELRADCONELRADCONELRAD was a method of emergency broadcasting to the public of the United States in the event of enemy attack during the Cold War. It was intended to serve two purposes; to prevent Soviet bombers from homing in on American cities by using radio or TV stations as beacons, and to provide...
- HANDELHANDELHANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
- Arthur GodfreyArthur GodfreyArthur Morton Godfrey was an American radio and television broadcaster and entertainer who was sometimes introduced by his nickname, The Old Redhead...
, an American television presenter who, like Peter Donaldson, recorded the official message warning of a nuclear strike on The United States - Wartime Broadcasting ServiceWartime Broadcasting ServiceThe Wartime Broadcasting Service was a service of the BBC that was intended to broadcast in the United Kingdom either after a nuclear attack or if conventional bombing destroyed regular BBC facilities in a conventional war ....
A broadcasting service run by the BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
that would operate after a nuclear attack or if conventional bombing had destroyed conventional broadcasting systems. - Transition To WarTransition To WarTransition to war is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization military term referring to a period of international tension during which government and society move to an open war footing...
External links
- UKWMO Communications chain - message dissemination
- Nuclear secrets of 1975 revealed, (Link), BBC News, 29 December 2005.
- Peter DonaldsonPeter DonaldsonPeter Ian Donaldson is a main newsreader on BBC Radio 4.He was born in Cairo, Egypt and moved to Cyprus in 1952 at the time of the overthrow of King Farouk. He was a frequent listener to the BBC World Service and the BFBS....
's 1970's recorded warning message (Real Audio). - The details around Peter Donaldson's warning message
- The script that would have been broadcast in the event of war
- BBC post-attack broadcasting plans in 1955
- Carrier Control Point equipment located at major police stations