The BBC is marking the 70th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima with a season of programmes about the atomic age.
BBC Four Goes Nuclear launches this weekend with a documentary by Mark Cousins called Storyville: Atomic – Living in Dread and Promise, which uses only archive film to tell its story with a new musical score by Mogwai.
The BBC says: “Atomic shows us an impressionistic kaleidoscope of our nuclear times: protest marches, Cold War sabre rattling, Chernobyl and Fukushima, but also the sublime beauty of the atomic world, and how X-rays and MRI scans have improved human lives. The nuclear age has been a nightmare, but dreamlike too.”
Check out the trailer on YouTube only and watch it on BBC Scotland on August 8 at 9pm or BBC 4 on August 9 at 9pm. Catch up on iPlayer after broadcast,
This is the latest soundtrack venture from Mogwai, following their work on French TV drama Les Revenants and their score for Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait – read FACT’s 2013 interview about the band’s film music [via Pitchfork]