Threads: Film's traffic warden found after plea by documentary makers

The image of the traffic warden has been described by viewers as "harrowing" and "nightmarish"

The identity of a man who played a "nightmarish" traffic warden in a post-apocalyptic 1980s drama has been revealed after a plea to find him.

Documentary makers wanted to track down the warden from BBC film Threads, which was aired on BBC2 for the first time 40 years ago this September.

Now aged 84, Michael Beecroft was an actual traffic warden who dabbled in a bit of work as an extra at the time.

He said filming was "just a day's work" and was unaware of the image's impact.

Michael Beecroft said he hadn't given much thought to the part he played in the film

Written by Kes author Barry Hines, the film showed in graphic detail the unrelenting impact of a thermonuclear blast on ordinary people in Sheffield.

Mr Beecroft, who has lived in Barnsley all his life, said at the time he was on the club scene, travelling around Yorkshire and the north of England for gigs.

But work was "drying up" so he took on a job as a traffic warden for South Yorkshire Police as well as doing extras work.

Then aged 44, he recalls it was a "very cold, wet, sleety February Sunday" when he went along to filming.

The drama depicts the grim reality of the impact of a thermonuclear blast on Sheffield

The nuclear blast sees streets in Sheffield reduced to rubble

He said: "My agent rang me up and said there's this job available so I went down and was picked out and made up as a traffic warden.

"I didn't do anything other than the 30 second shot of me with the rifle shouting some swear words.

"Afterwards, they took some pictures of me and I went home and didn't think anything else of it. It was just a day's work as far as I was concerned."

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Mr Beecroft said he didn't think anything else about the day until he got another call from his agent several months later asking if it was his picture in the Radio Times.

He recalls: "I said I don't know, but then when I looked I realised it was me.

"I didn't think it was that important. I suppose you don't at the time."

The image, used to publicise the film's release, depicts Mr Beecroft as an injured traffic warden - the injuries were in fact stuck on cornflakes - whose job was to keep the desperate people seeking medical help or food contained in tennis courts.

The documentary makers said meeting Michael Beecroft had "blown their minds"

Craig Ian Mann, who is working on a documentary about Threads to accompany its release on Blu-ray in the US, said the picture had "become the iconic image of the film" and made a plea to trace the then-unknown traffic warden to speak to him about the role.

However, unbeknown to Mr Mann and his co-writer Robert Nevitt, BBC Radio Sheffield managed to track down Mr Beecroft with the three men meeting for the first time on the breakfast show on Thursday.

Mr Beecroft said he was unaware people were trying to find him and was "gobsmacked" by the interest in his role.

He said over the years, he had not spoken much about the part he played, other than to a few of his friends who had known about it.

Asked by Mr Mann whether he had any idea how iconic his character had become and the fact he had been made into an action figure, he replied: "Wow, I didn't know that. I'm totally amazed at the reaction people have had over it."