John Hersey’s Hiroshima DVD 20 minutes
Film of the book. Nuclear warfare on the personal level
The film of the book. This 20 minute film contains the essentials of the book. Being made soon after the war, the picture quality does not compare with today’s productions.
Containing a detailed description of the bomb's effects, the article was a publishing sensation. In plain prose, Hersey described the horrifying aftermath of the atomic device: people with melted eyeballs, or people vaporized, leaving only their shadows etched onto walls. It was an immediate best seller and sold out at newsstands within hours. Many requests for reprints were received by the magazine's offices. The ABC Radio Network preempted regular programming to broadcast readings of the complete text by well-known actors in four half-hour programs.
Hersey introduces the six characters: two doctors, a Protestant minister, a widowed seamstress, a young female factory worker and a German Catholic priest.[27] It describes their mornings before the bomb was dropped. Through the book, the lives of these six people overlap as they share similar experiences. Each chapter covers a time period from the morning of the bombing to one year later for each witness.
• DVD SALE PRICE £19.50
• The Megaton Bomb: A Guide to Armageddon
DVD 1985 30 Minutes
The probable result of a one megaton bomb detonated over St Paul’s in London.
Using U.S. Congress and British Home Office official data, this programme shows what would actually happen if a one megaton warhead burst a mile above St Paul’s cathedral in the centre of London. Within 30 seconds houses six miles away would be reduced to rubble, winds of 80 - 90 miles per hour would toss objects pell-mell, and shatter windows, sending shards of glass through the air at 120 feet per second, slicing skin. Paper and other light material would ignite spontaneously. Those in sight of the light would suffer severe third degree burns, charring skin to black carbon and causing permanent retinal burns. Two couples carried out civil defence measures to see how effective these measures would be. For ten days they lived in temporary constructions following government guidelines. The film looks at how they fared, but suggests that after an actual explosion it is highly unlikely they would emerge at all.
This programme can be rented on our Video on Demand system for £1.63. For this you can view as often as you like within a 48 hour period of your own choosing.
DVD Sale price £16.30 plus postage