TENSIONS between President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un are rising to a critical level.

The prospect of a nuclear war is again a terrifying possibility and so this is the perfect time for cautionary tale, When The Wind Blows, to return to our screens.

Raymond Briggs, who was famously behind The Snowman, created this hard hitting story to show how utterly unprepared the UK was for a nuclear bomb and the subsequent fallout.

BFI has released this remastered version of the animated film which enters the lives of middle-aged couple James (John Mills) and Hilda (Peggy Ashcroft) in the days before and after a nuclear strike.

Jimmy T Murakami’s animation has not particularly aged well – although that partly gives the movie its charm – but its message has. When The Wind Blows sees James ardently sticking to government advice in how to prepare for the bomb while Hilda is in denial and thinks nuclear war can be survived with little more than a stiff upper lip.

But what is really shocking about the darkly satirical film is that the booklet James follows, Protect and Survive, was a real, official guide at the time.

It advised ridiculous things like painting the windows white and building a shelter out of doors and pillows.

What also gives the film its power is the contrast between James and Hilda’s humdrum life of small talk and eating meals together to the couple’s painfully naive optimism that ‘everything will be alright’ when the blast destroys their rural home and radiation starts to make them sick. Hilda’s concern for the state of the house while facing an apocalyptic situation will stay with you long after the credits roll.

And the genuine sense of affection between James and Hilda becomes a representation of our way of life which could be lost in an instant with the push of a button.

It makes for a heartwarming and heartbreaking watch all at the same time and although harrowing it is a powerful, timely reminder not to take anything for granted.

RATING: 7/10

DAVID MORGAN