Characters / Threads

A listing of the characters appearing in the 1984 BBC docudrama Threads (1984). As many character tropes rely on events happening late in the film, all entries will be unmarked for spoilers — read at your own risk.

The Kemp Family

Jimmy Kemp

Played By: Reece Dinsdale

A young adult working for a sawmill near Sheffield in the United Kingdom, Jimmy is one of the many frontline observers as a nuclear war breaks out over the U.K.

• Apathetic Citizens: Subverted; he does tell Bob about his concerns regarding the situation in Iran, but Bob tells him not to worry about because there's nothing they can do.
• Auto Erotica: With Ruth and, later, an unnamed girl in the back of a car.
• Bait-and-Switch: The first third of the film centers around his concern over getting married to Ruth and becoming a father, and his infidelity due to wanting to enjoy his remaining time as a single man. That all goes out the window once the threat of nuclear war starts to become more apparent.
• Bystander Syndrome: He seems to be largely unaware (or unwilling) to confront the reality of a possible nuclear war, despite showing some interest in the news involving Iran. Bob even tells him to ignore the news and enjoy himself.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': He attempts to have sex with an unnamed woman (that he met at a bar) in the back of his car... only to be impeded when the pair are interrupted by the passing of army vehicles carrying supplies and troops in the dead of night.
• Determinator: As the attack unfolds, he attempts to make his way back to Ruth's house, running through the streets all the while. It does him no good, as this occurs right before the second atomic blast.
• Developing Doomed Characters/Doomed Protagonist: Given his level of focus, it can be initially presumed that he'll be a survivor, but he doesn't appear past the halfway point of the film, last being seen running in Ruth's general direction (and presumably being killed by the second bomb).
• False Reassurance: He attempts to calm down Ruth (who's shown starting to freak out over the potential attack), telling her that everything will be alright... the night before the attack.
• Friend to All Living Things: He maintains an aviary at the Kemp household, and the birds are shown being attracted to him.
• Hope Spot: Pretty much the stereotypical "Sheffield lad", who's shown in an abbreviated "growing up" plotline that sees him deciding to marry Ruth and get an apartment together... just days before the bombs fall.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: In-universe, Jimmy's father sympathizes with Jimmy's concern over his impending marriage to Ruth, and tacitly approves of his son wanting to enjoy what little time he has left as a single man.
• Uncertain Doom: It's heavily implied that Jimmy is killed in the second nuclear strike, though (unlike the rest of the Kemps) his body is never actually shown on-screen. It's also possible that he might be the scarred man who appears fleetingly in the final scene, but it's never confirmed either way.

Mr. Kemp

Played By: David Brierly

The patriarch of the Kemp family, who is often tasked with dispensing advice to his children and preparing them for possible danger. As the film opens, he becomes increasingly concerned with the dangers of nuclear armaments, and tries to prepare his family for a bad situation.

• Developing Doomed Characters: The audience gets to see a bit of his relationship with the rest of his family, but this all gets tossed out the door (literally) when the bombs drop on Sheffield.
• Dies Wide Open: The last time he's seen (in the photo montage), he's looking upwards amidst what's presumed to be a mass grave.
• Five-Finger Discount: Like the rest of the shoppers in the local supermarket, he follows an older woman's lead and flees the store when a resident tells the crowd that the Russians and Americans have started fighting.
• Gallows Humor: When one of the Kemp's neighbors decides to flee from Sheffield, he makes a comment that they don't want to see "the whole street blowing up while you're away!"
• Incurable Cough of Death: He develops it shortly after the bombs fall, reduced to a sputtering mess (who can barely drink the alcohol he trades cigarettes for) before he presumably dies.
• Ominous Hair Loss: Showcasing the stages of radiation sickness, his hair becomes increasingly disheveled for the first few days after the attack, before several clumps have already fallen off on his head when he's next shown several weeks later.
• Tragic Keepsake: Briefly, as he's shown playing with Michael's handheld digital game amid the ruins of Sheffield shortly before his death.
• Trauma Conga Line: Like the rest of the Kemp family, he's witness to a series of horrifying tragedies, including the initial attack, the discovery of Michael in the rubble, the death of his wife (with Ruth seeing her partially wrapped in a garbage bag, implying he was present when she died) and his failed attempt to get food from the army checkpoint. The last time he's seen, he has a breakdown while holding his son's digital game.
• Urine Trouble: He's on the toilet when the first bomb falls, forcing himself to zip up and complain about the situation (and providing the only moment of Bathos in the high-stakes situation).
• You Can't Go Home Again: It's implied by the garbage bags partially covering Mrs. Kemp and her presence in the ersatz fallout shelter that Mr. Kemp had permanently left the family home knowing that he'd probably never be able to return - assuming that he hadn't decided to abandon the house altogether. Sure enough, he is only seen afterwards protesting against the Army and sitting in a graveyard with other survivors (and implied to have died alongside them) for his remaining scenes.

Mrs. Kemp

Played By: Rita May

The matriarch of the Kemp family.

• Cruel and Unusual Death: Having suffered the dual effects of third if not fourth-degree burns and radiation sickness, she dies in agony over the course of the next few days. Like her husband, her body is left to the elements, and Ruth finds her two weeks after the attack, having been left in the Kemp shelter slouched against a wall, partially wrapped in a garbage bag.
• Man on Fire: She manages to make it through the first bomb relatively unscathed, but the second impact leads her to suffer significant burns while Mr. Kemp frantically tries to douse the flames. The resulting injuries end up killing her.
• Outliving One's Offspring: She survives the initial attack, albeit horribly burned, but her son Michael does not and it's implied that her other son Jimmy is also killed. A girl who closely resembles her daughter Alison is later (by which time Mrs Kemp has died from her injuries and/or radiation sickness) glimpsed among the inmates of a makeshift detention camp set up to contain looters, but the identity of this girl is never confirmed.
• Two-Faced: She suffers significant burns to one half of her body during the initial attack, and left in poor shape (coupled with radiation sickness).

Michael Kemp

Played By: Nicholas Lane

The youngest member of the Kemp family, Michael is the brother of Jimmy and Alison.

• Children Are Innocent: Used to emphasize how completely unprepared and unaware children are about nuclear weaponry. When the bombs start falling, he flees to the aviary where Jimmy keeps his pet birds and huddles on the floor, sobbing with fright. He is one of the first fatalties shown on-screen.
• A Good Way to Die: Invoked, in that Michael is one of the few members of the cast to avoid the awful fate of survival . Mr. and Mrs. Kemp find his body buried in the collapsed ruins of their house, and later can be heard sobbing that they wish they could change places with him - clearly wishing that they were dead just as much as they wish their son hadn't been killed.
• Innocent Inaccurate: He seems to be completely naive and unaware of the dangers of an imminent nuclear attack, instead stating how building a makeshift shelter will be like "going camping".
• Kill the Cutie: He's a cute kid of around eight to ten years old, who gets killed in the nuclear blast when Jimmy's aviary collapses on top of him.

Alison Kemp

Played By: Jane Hazlegrove

Jimmy and Michael's sister, Alison is in her early teens when the nuclear bombs drop.

• Flat Character: She is a student whose few scenes show her either listening to gossip from the rest of the family or studying while listening to news reports in the background.
• Uncertain Doom: It's possible that she may be one of the looters rounded up and detained by the remnants of the Army several weeks after the attack, but it's not confirmed, and we never see what happened to her after the attacks. Her last confirmed appearance has her heading off to get supplies for her family.

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The Beckett Family

Ruth Beckett

Played By: Karen Meagher

Born into a well-off family, Ruth is Jimmy Kemp's girlfriend and a supporter of anti-nuclear efforts. As the film opens, she learns that she is pregnant with Jimmy's child, and plans to marry him and move to an apartment together.

• A Fate Worse Than Death: Implied via Foreshadowing, as she laments that she doesn't want her unborn child to grow up in a world now filled with destruction and danger. As the plot continues, she is shown to have been correct in that fear — she is reduced to near-animalistic behavior just to survive and eventually succumbs to radiation sickness and cancer, while her daughter resorts to stealing to survive, winds up with a Teen Pregnancy and gives birth to a stillborn child, implying humanity's days are numbered.
• Auto Erotica: The film implies that Jane was conceived by Ruth and Jimmy in the back of a car.
• Away in a Manger: Not by choice, but Ruth is forced to give birth in a stable — on Christmas Day, no less — after her efforts to break into a farmhouse are impeded by an Angry Guard Dog.
• Break the Cutie: As the events of the second half of the plot play out and the attack occurs, Ruth is reduced to a near-mute mess of a person, barely speaking due to the traumas she's witnessed and largely left on her own to try and raise a child in a post-nuclear world. This culminates in her having a breakdown as she futilely tries to grind up some grain stolen from a food stock in Buxton.
• Casting Gag: One sequence shows Ruth attending a rally held by the "Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament" — an organization the actress who plays her, Karen Meagher, was involved with at the time of production.
• Despair Event Horizon: The destruction of her neighborhood (which causes her to wander among the ruins of Sheffield) functionally does this to her, as she more-or-less shuts down emotionally for the rest of the film.
• Disaster Scavengers: At one point, she is seen alongside another person stealing a large supply of grain from a foodstock in Buxton (amid the shouts of officers and gunfire in the background) in order to feed herself and Jane.
• Doomed Protagonist: As a result of radiation exposure and cancer, Ruth dies ten minutes before the end of the film, having become too infirm to work in the fields.
• Empathy Doll Shot: Jimmy's book of birds, which Ruth finds in the ruins of the Kemp family home. She keeps it, and it gets one last nod when it's shown beside her deathbed as Jane leaves for good.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Despite all the challenges she faces (giving birth in a barn, keeping the child alive through potential starvation and harsh winters), Ruth manages to raise Jane until she's a young teenager (in seemingly good health, albeit stunted due to a lack of education) before succumbing to radiation poisoning.
• The Lost Lenore: It becomes clear that Jimmy is this for her, as she continues to have bad dreams about him for weeks and months after the attack, and keeps a Tragic Keepsake of him (his bird handbook) to the end of her life.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Emphasized at one point several weeks after the attack, as Ruth wakes up in the ruins of a blown-apart building suffering from nightmares about Jimmy and the woman with the deceased child she saw in the ruins of Sheffield.
• Rapid Aging: When the plot picks back up with her after the years-long Time Skip, she's shown to have prematurely aged due to radiation exposure and harsh UV rays caused by years working in the fields, along with cataracts.
• Reduced to Ratburgers: One of the scenes in the third act suggests that Ruth traded sexual favors to another survivor for some (giant) dead rats.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once she sees her now-deceased grandmother being carted up the stairs by her parents, the resulting trauma and shock leads her to flee the house in terror.
• Sex for Services: A scene in the third act implies this, as Ruth is shown swatting away people trying to talk to a street vendor who's selling rats, and trying in vain to get him to trade for her meager possessions. In the next scene, the same man is shown holding her and being intimate before giving her three of the rats, suggesting this trope is in play.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: By the time she gives birth to Jane, Ruth has lapsed into this, staring blankly ahead on Christmas Day while sheltering with other survivors.
• Tragic Keepsake: Upon arriving at Jimmy's house weeks after the attack, the only thing she finds (alongside the bodies of Mrs. Kemp and Michael) is his book on birds, which she takes along with her. She ends up keeping it for the rest of her life, as it's shown by her bedside when she passes away.
• Trauma Conga Line: In the post-attack period, Ruth easily gets it the worst of the characters shown on-screen. Her trauma begins with her witnessing the death of her grandmother, and goes downhill from there. She walks among the ruins of Sheffield, passing numerous corpses and traumatized survivors, tries to get help from a hospital (only to witness the desperate and horrid conditions)... and it just keeps getting worse.
• What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Early in the film, she reassures Jimmy that their future will be bright despite the threat of nuclear war, stating that "it will be lovely." And then the bombs fall, and things go From Bad to Worse.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: Exemplified in a scene where she's shown attempting to pawn several items she's collected/owned in the past to a man selling rats, with him refusing her offers while she shoves away other interested passersby. The next scene suggests she traded Sex for Services, as he gives her three dead rats after momentarily being intimate with her.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Subverted; Ruth tries to do this several weeks after the attack, only to find the remains of her grandmother (now being picked at by rats) still where the family left it just after the attack — and the remains of her parents in the basement. Ruth looks on in shock and horror before fleeing the house for good and joining the exodus of survivors out of Sheffield.
• Younger Than They Look: By the final reel of the film, Ruth (who should be in her early thirties by this point) looks like she's in her seventies instead, having prematurely aged due to years of harsh UV rays and radiation exposure. Even earlier, in the wake of Jane's birth, she looks visibly haggard and stressed, in a way she wasn't seen to have been up to that point.

Mr. and Mrs. Beckett

Played By: Henry Moxon and June Broughton

The parents of Ruth Beckett.

• Death by Irony: Unlike many other families, the Becketts are far better positioned to survive the immediate attack — they're in a sturdy house with some supplies, so they can hold out for longer... except that they have no security whatsoever, and after Ruth leaves, they're killed by looters.
• Gory Discretion Shot: After some looters are shot while raiding their house, security forces note that they have both died recently, with Mr. Beckett's head battered in, though their bodies are never shown.
• Oh, Crap!: A weakened Mr. and Mrs. Beckett hear looters in the house, and realize there are now more dangers than just radiation or starvation. Some time later, it's revealed that Mr. Beckett was likely bludgeoned to death by looters, with Mrs. Beckett's cause of death unknown.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: Both parents seem to be increasingly naive about what's happening post-attack, as she tries to tell Ruth to have hope and be optimistic (telling her to eat for the sake of her health and the baby). Ruth rails at her for being idealistic, and flees the household soon afterwards.
• Tempting Fate: Mrs. Beckett is initially dismissive of the threat of nuclear war, telling Ruth (who is growing increasingly concerned) that the situation will only last for "a week or two". She says this half an hour before the bombs start dropping.

Jane Beckett

Played By: Victoria O'Keefe

Ruth's teenage daughter, who comes of age as the U.K. is attempting to get itself back on its feet with primitive agriculture and technology.

• Children Are Innocent: She has very little understanding of the world; what little education she has comes from videotapes salvaged and used as part of an impromptu curriculum, and she is forced to scavenge and hunt on her own in order to survive.
• Death of a Child: Despite being conceived just prior to a nuclear attack, gestating through the aftermath, being born in a barn and growing up in a world where death is around every corner, Jane survives in good health and is seen to have no immediate impacts from radiation. But then...
• Hope Spot: For a few moments, it seems that Ruth and Jane have cultivated some form of normalcy, helping other workers cultivate the fields near Buxton to get agriculture moving over a decade after the attack... then Ruth dies due to cancer, Jane is forced to fend for herself, and she eventually becomes pregnant and gives birth to a stillborn child in the final moments of the film.
• Please Wake Up: She attempts to rouse her dying mother just before the ending, imploring her to "work... work... up!"
• Rule of Symbolism: Born on Christmas Day, scant months after the attack, in a rural setting designed to invoke Away in a Manger; the symbolism is of the bleakest and darkest possible interpretation, as rather than be a sign of humanity's Christ-like salvation, the fact that her only child is stillborn in the ending is presented as possible evidence that humanity is doomed to further failure or even outright stagnation.
• Screaming Birth: Subverted; it's only after she gives birth and sees the end result that she starts screaming.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She only appears (as a teenager) in the last ten minutes of the film, but her actions provide a great deal of symbolism regarding the future of the human race (or at least, the future of the U.K.).
• Teen Pregnancy: As a result of a fellow looter who raped her during a fight over food.
• Tragic Keepsake: Pointedly subverted; when Ruth dies, Jane ignores the book of birds that Ruth had treasured for the last thirteen years, along with anything else of sentimental value. Instead, she takes Ruth's scarf and hair comb before she leaves their house for good, as they are both simple, practical items that can be easily carried - another sign that the human race is losing its humanity.
• Tragic Stillbirth: The ending of the film heavily implies that her child has suffered from this, combined with a mutation. The production team for the film used a doll to represent the stillborn child.
• Trauma Conga Line: Despite only appearing in the last ten minutes of the film, she gets put through the wringer, coming of age as the U.K. is desperately trying to get back on its feet, losing her mother, being forced into a life of theft just to survive, being raped shortly after seeing one of her companions get shot to death on the street, having to suffer through pregnancy in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, and being forced to give birth at a dingy makeshift hospital — before she finds out the child is stillborn.
• You No Take Candle: As a result of the near non-existent education system, Jane can barely string two words together, only responding with extremely basic syntax as she tries to convey what she means. When Ruth dies, she responds with her mother's name and the words "work" and "up", and later, when she rushes to the makeshift hospital, the only words she knows regarding the imminent pregnancy are "babby ^note a dialect word for "baby" used in the north of England is coming".

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Other Characters

Clive Sutton

Played By: Harry Beety

A government employee who is given emergency powers just prior to the nuclear attack on the U.K., and attempts to function as controller for a group working out of a secure underground shelter.

• Actually Pretty Funny: Despite being trapped in a shelter with dwindling air, he does crack a smile when a fellow worker responds to another person's request for a pack of smokes as being, "Bad for your health, you know."
• Closest Thing We Got: As the threat of nuclear war rises, he's called upon by the U.K. Parliament to serve as a government controller in the event of a widespread attack. He's one of several controllers called to various bunkers in the hours before the bombs fall.
• Fatal Family Photo: During an early scene, he's shown looking at a picture of his wife in his office shortly before the bombs fall. Later, in the bunker, the realization that his wife died in the attack is framed with the same picture in the foreground, sitting on his desk.
• Field Promotion: He's a mid-level government manager who is automatically bumped up to a position of power in order to maintain continuity of the U.K. Parliament.
• The Lost Lenore: Midway through the film, the realization hits him that his wife died in the nuclear attack. When the Army officers finally locate his body weeks later, he's collapsed over his desk — with the Fatal Family Photo of his wife near his head, implying that he was looking at it right up to the moment when he finally expired.
• Not So Stoic: As a lifelong government bureaucrat, he does his best to deal with the situation calmly and professionally. However, when it becomes clear that an area where his wife lives has been destroyed in the bombing, he can be seen staring in shock, lip trembling as he realizes that his wife is dead.
• Refusal of the Call: Discussed — his wife tells him he could refuse the responsibility of government controller, but he tells her that there might not be anyone else to "pick up the pieces" if he refuses, citing this trope.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: For all his attempts to provide continuity of government, he's trapped in a bunker with several other people, they have limited communication with the outside world, and by the time the rescue team makes it to the bunker, he and the other government employees have long since suffocated to death.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Fond of dressing in a suit, to the point that his wife packs extra dress shirts for him before he leaves for the bunker. It does him little good, as he ends up trapped within said bunker.

Bob

Played By: Ashley Barker

One of Jimmy's fellow employees at the lumber mill, who maintains a close friendship with him.

• Apathetic Citizens: Like most of the other residents in Sheffield, he doesn't seem to pay the news any mind, even going to work (at the lumber mill) as normal when the bombs finally drop.
• Dumb Struck: The moment the bombs start dropping, all he can say is, "They've done it..." over and over while biting his thumb. He has the same response a few weeks later when he runs into Ruth — they share a meal, but say little to each other before going their separate ways.
• Masochist's Meal: As a result of food stocks drying up and limited options, both he and Ruth are forced to cut open a sheep and eat the meat inside... despite Ruth pointing out that the animal is likely radioactive, given how it somehow managed to die without succumbing to the cold.
• Shipper on Deck: He decides to play matchmaker with a pair of women in a local pub for both himself and Jimmy, who he encourages to have fun and enjoy the single life.
• Still Sucks Thumb: He resorts to this (likely as a coping mechanism) when he sees the first bomb going off near Sheffield.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The last time the audience sees him, he elects to cut off a sheep's fur in order to stay warm, but as Ruth separates from his company and he's not seen afterwards (he is not shown when the other residents flee from Sheffield), his chances don't look good.

Spike and Gaz

Played By: Lee Daley and Marcus Lund

A pair of young thieves who ally with Jane to loot various foodstores in Buxton, over a decade after the nuclear attack that ravaged the country.

• Bait the Dog: Of the two, Gaz seems to be the nice one, given that he actually bothers to introduce himself and his friend to Jane and tries to seem friendly while Spike just shouts at her. Then, while he and Jane are getting their breath back after a raid on a foodstore, he gets into a fight with her for the food and apparently rapes her.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Right after stealing pieces of bread from a foodstore in Buxton, Spike is immediately gunned down by an officer as he attempts to flee.
• Only One Name: The duo only identify themselves to Jane by their first names, and are never shown to have a surname nor any other family members. It's never made clear if they're brothers or from different families, either.
• Small Role, Big Impact: They appear in a grand total of two (three for Gaz) scenes, but their actions set up the final scene and the fate of Jane's child.
• Teens Are Monsters: The duo are largely-uneducated looters with no apparent prospects of any kind, whose contribution to the plot involves harassing a teenage girl for food, stealing from a police-protected foodstock, and the surviving member fighting with the girl over food (to the point that it's implied he rapes her). Monsters, indeed.
• You No Take Candle: Like Jane, they have an extremely tenuous grasp on English, using broken syntax to try and convey to her that they're interested in the animal she's caught and trying to convince her to join them on a looting run.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: While Spike is killed during the theft in Buxton, Gaz's whereabouts are never shown after he rapes Jane in the barn.

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