This week, I have a chat with the glorious matriarch of Threads: Rita May, who played Mrs Kemp. 

The mother of Jimmy, Alison and Michael, Mrs Kemp is one of the film’s most iconic characters.

For me, watching as a child from comfortable south-west London, she was a revelation. She was bold, working class and Sheffield to her core. Yes, she was a work of fiction, but she felt more authentic than most of the people I’d met in real life.

I chatted with Rita on the phone and she told me about the laughs she had on set, the tears she cried when she first watched the finished film, and the nuclear nightmares she had afterwards.

Jingle: Protect & Survive

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