When the Wind Blows (1986 film)

Jim Bloggs and his wife Hilda are an elderly couple, living in an isolated cottage in rural Sussex, in southeast England. Jim frequently travels to the local town to read newspapers and keep abreast of the deteriorating international situation regarding the Soviet–Afghan War, which is threatening to escalate into an all-out nuclear conflict between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union. Hearing a radio news report stating that a war may be only days away, Jim follows the instructions outlined in the government-issued Protect and Survive pamphlets to build a fallout shelter, including covering the windows with white paint and readying sacks to lie down in when a nuclear strike hits. Despite apprehension, Jim and Hilda are confident they can survive, as they did the Second World War, and that a Soviet defeat will ensue.

As a radio transmission warns of an imminent ICBM strike, the couple rush to their shelter, just escaping as distant shock waves batter their home. They emerge after a few nights to find that all utilities, services and communications have been destroyed. Jim and Hilda remain stoic and try to resume their daily routine, preparing tea and dinners on a camping stove, noting numerous errands they will have to run once the crisis passes, and trying to renew their evaporated water stock with rainwater. Jim believes that a rescue operation will soon be launched to help civilians. They venture outside where radioactive ash has blocked out the sun and caused heavy fog. They are oblivious to the dead and dying animals strewn across the landscape, the destroyed buildings of the nearby town and the scorched vegetation outside their cottage. Their initial optimism begins to fade due to the prolonged isolation, lack of food and water, growing radiation sickness, and absence of communication from the authorities.

Jim worries that the Soviet military will soon invade, experiencing a vision where a Soviet soldier breaks into their house. Hilda, whose symptoms are worsening, encounters a rat in the dried toilet, which traumatises her. Coupled with her worsening symptoms - bloody diarrhea, bleeding gums - she begins to lose hope. Jim tries to comfort her, still optimistic that he may be able to get medications for her from the chemist. After a few days, the Bloggs are practically bedridden, and Hilda is despondent when her hair begins to fall out. Jim clings to his belief that emergency services will eventually arrive. Near death, Hilda suggests they lie down in the paper sacks. Jim, now resigned to their fate, agrees. As they crawl into the sacks Jim tries reciting prayers, including Psalm 23, but, forgetting the lines, starts to read "The Charge of the Light Brigade." The dying Hilda weakly asks him not to continue.

Outside the shelter, the smoke and ash-filled sky begins to clear, revealing the sun rising through the gloom. As the credits end, a Morse code signal taps out "MAD" - mutual assured destruction.

• Peggy Ashcroft as Hilda Bloggs
• John Mills as Jim Bloggs
• Robin Houston as Radio 4 Announcer
• James Russell as Additional Voice
• David Dundas as Additional Voice
• Matt Irving as Additional Voice

The film was Briggs' second collaboration with TVC, after their efforts with a special based on another work of his, The Snowman, in 1982. It was distributed by Recorded Releasing in the UK, and by Kings Road Entertainment in the United States. A subsequent graphic novel by Briggs, Ethel and Ernest (1998), makes it clear that Briggs based the protagonist couple in When the Wind Blows on his own parents.

When the Wind Blows is a hybrid of traditional and stop-motion animation. The characters of Jim and Hilda Bloggs are hand-drawn, as well as the area outside of the Bloggs' house, but their home and most of the objects in it are real objects that seldom move but are animated with stop motion when they do. The stop motion environments utilised are based on the style used for the Protect and Survive public information films. "Protect And Survive" is also featured as the booklet that Jim takes instructions from to survive the nuclear attack.

The soundtrack album features music by David Bowie (who performed the title song), Roger Waters, Genesis, Squeeze, Hugh Cornwell and Paul Hardcastle.

When the Wind Blows received positive reviews, currently having an 88% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 8 reviews.[4] Critic Barry Lappin called it "Absolutely brilliant.... It was very subtly done but the message more than gets through well". He explained that the scenes are "more than touching" and encouraged people to watch it to the very end.

Colin Greenland reviewed When the Wind Blows for White Dwarf #85, and stated that "The story of Jim and Hilda Bloggs preparing for the Bomb and trying to get back to normal afterwards is heavy-handed, especially at the end, and would have been better shorter; there are odd continuity problems between the pictures and the dialogue. But it is powerful, ludicrous and shocking. It gets to you. As it ought to."[5]

Originally, David Bowie was supposed to contribute several songs to the soundtrack for the film, but decided to pull out so he could focus on his upcoming album Never Let Me Down, and instead only submitted the title track. Roger Waters was brought in to complete the project instead.[6]

When the Wind Blows
Soundtrack album by Various artists, Roger Waters and The Bleeding Heart Band
Released	16 May 1986
Recorded	Winter 1985
Length	45:36
Label	Virgin Records
Producer	Roger Waters David Bowie Hugh Cornwell Peter Hammond Paul Hardcastle Squeeze
Roger Waters chronology
The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking (1984) When the Wind Blows (1986) Radio K.A.O.S. (1987)
Singles from When the Wind Blows
"When the Wind Blows" Released: 27 October 1986

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]

The film was released on VHS in the United Kingdom by CBS/Fox Video after its theatrical run, and later on laserdisc. After a short theatrical run in the United States in one theatre and grossing $5,274 at the box office in 1988, it was released on VHS by International Video Entertainment and on laserdisc by Image Entertainment. It was released on DVD in 2005 by Channel 4, with 0 region coding: the official UK DVD is still PAL format. The film was re-released on DVD in September 2010, again by Channel 4, it is formatted in NTSC and All region coding. In the United States it was released on Blu-ray on 11 November 2014 by Twilight Time in a limited edition of 3000,[9] and in the United Kingdom, a dual-format release containing both the DVD and Blu-ray version was released on 22 January 2018 by the BFI. Severin Films released another Blu-ray and a DVD of the movie in the United States through their Severin Kids label on 21 April 2020.[10]

• List of animated feature-length films
• List of nuclear holocaust fiction
• The War Game (1965 film)
• The Day After (1983 film)
• Threads (1984 film)

Wikiquote has quotations related to When the Wind Blows (1986 film).

• Toonhound pages on original graphic novel and animated film
• When the Wind Blows at AllMovie
• When the Wind Blows at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• When the Wind Blows at IMDb
• When the Wind Blows at Rotten Tomatoes