“Oh sure, now they want to read about the filthy self-destructive force humanity carries around in its rotten belly – now, when it’s too late!”

This recently released documentary 1961 British sweaty sci-fi film follows Peter Stenning, a chewed-up, alcoholic journalist (played by a jaded, cynical Edward Judd) who investigates a horrifying government cover-up; that experimental nuclear super-bomb testing has pushed the Earth off its axis and sent it hurtling towards the sun.

As Stenning and his fellow journalists at the Daily Express report the cataclysmic events of the next three months, humanity declines into apocalyptic despair as the rivers run dry and the heat inexorably rises.

It’s a great film shot mostly on location in London, has a wonderfully ambiguous ending (well, the original does – United States distributor Universal felt a cosier one was better suited to American tastes), and is available on YouTube.

Stay cool and take care, Avocadians!