Penderecki / Britten – Q.E.D.: A Guide to Armageddon (1982) [FLAC]

On 26th July 1982, the BBC broadcast “A Guide to Armageddon” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb7EO1e62IQ) as part of the QED documentary series which ran between 1982 and 1999. The programme was written and produced by Mick Jackson and is clearly an early blueprint for Threads… The programme was 30 minutes in length and was a detailed investigation into the effects of a nuclear weapon exploding over a large city, London being the chosen example. It theorised what effect a 1 megaton airburst weapon would have… – Fallout Warning (http://falloutwarning.wordpress.com/2014/01/06/qed-a-guide-to-armageddon-bbc/)

For me, this lovely bit of television – watchable at the link above – was even worse a steel-gloved fist punch to the solar plexus than Threads. (Which, if you’ve seen the latter, you’ll know is really saying something.) The ending in particular uses Britten’s "Agnus Dei" movement to unforgettable and horrifying effect.

Krzysztof Penderecki – Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima

1. Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (10:01)

Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra
Krzysztof Penderecki, conductor

Benjamin Britten – Missa Brevis in D major, op.63

2. I. Kyrie eleison (1:58)
3. II. Gloria in excelsis Deo (2:45)
4. III. Sanctus…Benedictus (3:09)
5. IV. Agnus Dei (2:25)

Roger Parker, treble
Michael Pearce, counter-tenor
Brian Runnett, organ
The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge
George Guest, conductor

Please PM for link.

HI can i have the link for Penderecki / Britten – Q.E.D.: A Guide to Armageddon (1982) [FLAC] ?
Thanks

nice one!!

Curious… is this a self made soundtrack and, if so, what were the sources that can be sited for making it? As best that I can tell no original music was written for this episode.

Thanks! – ST

Boy, do I remember those days when loony Ronnie Rambo was just itching to have a limited nuclear war with USSR over Europe. America was sure that "With Enough Shovels", to pile dirt around its main manufacturing plants and power plants, it would survive a nuclear war with very limited damage to its manufacturing capability. The only human losses would be about 20% of its excess population and Europe. Win/win, I guess they were thinking. Then Carl Sagan and the TAPPS group pointed out that even a limited nuclear war would result in a nuclear winter and destroy much of life on earth as we knew it. The US gov’t lit the biggest man-made fire in US history, checked out it’s effect on the environment, and that was the end of that plan. Sagan and company may have saved the world. Good old Ronnie caused us some pretty grim movies at the time, though, like The Day After and Testament. I’ll have to check this film out. Thanks for posting.

Thank you for this music!

PM received, thank you!