The War Game

1966 48 min ★ 7.7 War, TV Movie

A docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain. After backing the film's development, the BBC refused to air it, publicly stating "the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting." It debuted in theaters in 1966 and went on to great acclaim, but remained unseen on British television until 1985.

▶ Watch Trailer

Cast

Michael Aspel

Commentator

Kathy Staff

Interviewee (uncredited)

Peter Watkins

Documentist (uncredited)

Peter Graham

Commentator

Details

Director

Peter Watkins

Tagline

"BBC TV's film about a nuclear attack on Britain"

Status

Released

Original Language

EN

Production

BBC

Reviews

G

Gimly

April 5, 2020

★ 6/10

Great, genuinely hard to watch, eminently memorable and absolutely no fun at all. But that's really important I think, so much media really tries to sort of paint this candy-coated filter over subjects like war, when in reality, war, especially nuclear war, is pretty fucked. There's nothing wrong with making those other movies, the ones where the heroes win the day and good guys triumph, those wil...

C

CinemaSerf

August 2, 2025

★ 7/10

I couldn’t decide which was the scarier prospect from this docu-drama? Finding somewhere safe to shelter from the eye-watering megatonnage of uranium enriched warheads or to emerge afterwards to a society that is truly dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest, with no power or food or water or just about anything else - except, perhaps, some semblance of a military dictatorship run by the few lucky en...