What was claimed
A video captured the BBC interrupting its programming to alert the UK to a nuclear attack.
Our verdict
The original video shown on the screen is not real. It was made “just for fun”.
This video does not show a real nuclear attack alert
9 January 2020
A video claiming to show the BBC interrupting programming to warn of an imminent nuclear attack has been viewed 21,000 times on Facebook.
However, this is not a real alert and has never actually been broadcast. The video has been taken from a YouTube edit that was created by someone who said it was “just for fun”. The edit includes footage of a BBC newsreader and of a countdown clock.
The footage of a newsreader that appears to be from the BBC is real footage taken from a news broadcast in 2017, during which the presenter struggled to find his positioning in the studio
We don’t know the details of how exactly the government would warn the public in a crisis scenario, but it would likely involve a cross-media effort.
It should also be noted that if this video was real, the UK would have at the time of publication experienced an attack. This has not happened.