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When the Wind Blows
Jim Bloggs and his wife Hilda are an aging couple, living in an isolated cottage in rural Sussex, 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 a 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. 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 and civil defence sirens sound, the couple rush to their shelter, just escaping as distant shock waves batter their home. They emerge after a few nights to find all utilities, services, and communications destroyed. Jim (incorrectly) speculates that most have temporarily ceased due to "wartime measures".
The couple remains stoic and tries 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. Fallout dust is visible in the air throughout the house. Jim believes that a rescue operation will soon be launched to help civilians.
The couple 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 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 Soviets 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 arrive. 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 ", whose militaristic and ironic undertones distress the dying Hilda, who weakly asks him not to continue. Finally, Jim's voice mumbles away into silence as he finishes the line, "...rode the Six Hundred..." Outside, the smoke and ash-filled sky begins to clear, revealing the sun rising through the gloom. Towards the end of the credits, a Morse code signal taps out "MAD" - mutually assured destruction.