# Fake BBC nuclear attack broadcast. Thoughts? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 31, 2018, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-bbc-nuclear-attack-broadcast-thoughts/820579 "2018-08-31T16:51:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-bbc-nuclear-attack-broadcast-thoughts/820579/21 "2018-09-04T04:01:43Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > [Here’s an authentic prepackaged attack message.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TTEWRKnRC0) (The description mentions the specific person who made the never-aired message available.) And there’s a link where they show him on his last day, before he retired, with the cartridge of that announcement. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-bbc-nuclear-attack-broadcast-thoughts/820579/22 "2018-09-04T05:47:42Z")
It is too calm and scripted-sounding to be convincing enough. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-bbc-nuclear-attack-broadcast-thoughts/820579/23 "2018-09-05T01:27:37Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > OK, I watched it in the meantime. It appears to be some kind of template or training exercise, and it too is obviously not “real” because all the events that take place during the video just couldn’t happen all at once, not in real time, anyway. Well, hindsight is 20/20. Naturally none of us in this thread were taken by the ruse, because we have numerous sources of information telling us that nothing is going on. Personally, IMO, having never seen a real BBC emergency broadcast, and being willing to suspend disbelief just a tiny bit for artistic reasons, I find it at least as scary as _The Day After_ or _Threads_. Of course this is an emotional response, not a rigorous strategic evaluation. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-bbc-nuclear-attack-broadcast-thoughts/820579/24 "2018-09-05T01:40:07Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > I used to watch those youtube videos all the time. It was a channel attributed to Ben Marking, who used to also have a lot of 1980s nuclear war films on his channel. He’d make a slight variation of the original video featuring an introduction set in the USA and Australia. I assume the BBC sent him a very nasty legal notice. Interesting that it’s attributed to “Ben Marking”, which bears some similarity to “Benchmarking Assessment Group”. > [@](#): > > I guess some people could be confused, but to me they always seemed like an amateur version of an update to the first part of Threads. Anyone paying close attention can notice all the stock footage. The interesting thing to me is that I’ve seen a lot of stock footage, I can even tell you a lot of the shot codenames by visual identification, and none of this was familiar to me. > [@](#): > > They have nothing to do with Trump, I think the earliest version still had David Cameron as Prime Minister and John Kerry as Secretary of State. Well, I didn’t suggest it was to do with Trump. I think I first saw this right before he was elected. It was especially scary back then, back when I thought he was a madman willing to destroy the world, before I realized that with such a craven self-preserving coward like Trump commanding the US nuclear arsenal, we’re probably safer than we’ve ever been. But I digress. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-bbc-nuclear-attack-broadcast-thoughts/820579.md?page=1)