British TV show from 1970s set after a nuclear war

Question

I vaguely remember watching a British TV show (possibly only one show, but maybe a series), where nuclear war has occurred. A family (maybe in Wales) has survived because they live in a remote valley, where the explosion/fallout missed them because the valley was steep sided.

I think the premise was that the family couldn't leave the valley due to, what they thought was, the radioactive fallout elsewhere. The final part of the show was one of the characters walking out the valley.

(I only remember this because there was a scene where one of the main female characters was nude in the bath, and showed breasts (I was about 7 or 8 at the time, hence why I remember it)).

I want to say there was an actress in it called something like Pippa Hinchley.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

This sounds like an episode of "Play for Today" entitled Z for Zachariah. It was shown in 1984, but possibly the date has drifted a little in the OP's memory.

As in the question, it dealt with life after a nuclear war, where eventually just two characters are left, surviving in a Welsh valley protected by its unusual meteorological conditions. The main character, Ann Burden, was indeed played by Pippa Hinchley.

An entertaining summary at telly301 gives these details:

An adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's posthumous 1974 novel of the same name (albeit with the US swapped for Wales), Z for Zachariah aired under the Play for Today banner during the long running anthology's final year. The screenplay was adapted by Anthony Garner who was most commonly found in the director's chair and would later go on to direct episodes of Auf Wiedersehein, Pet and Soldier, Soldier...

Z for Zachariah received just one airing in February 1984 on a Tuesday evening at 9.35pm with the play running to just under two hours. Although no repeats were forthcoming, the play received constant exposure to a generation of British schoolchildren as O'Brien's novel formed part of the curriculum at the time, so teachers were keen to plonk pupils down in front of this for two hours of additional learning - most of the pupils who watched the play at school recall feeling depressed by the narrative, but tickled pink by the sudden bursts of nudity.