Has anyone got or know of a good film portraying the 1984/85 miners strike?
My son watched Billy Elliott the other night with my cousin and was asking lots of questions about it.
My Dad was a miner and a millitant supporter of the cause as was my husband but they have both since passed away and can't tell him anything.
I was 14 when the strike was on and know a bit but not enough to make him understand what the men and families went through.
I thought if there was a good film he could watch ( not brassed off cos we've got that!) he may appreciate his heritage. Thanks x

It's totally inappropriate but your post reminded me of the old Comic Strip presents film The Strike :D Lol it was a send up of hollywood doing the minerstrike story. They had Jennifer Saunders playing Meryl Streep playing Arthur Scargill's love interest and Peter Richardson (i think) playing Al Pacino playing Arthur Scargill :)

Hmm, there was something on the telly for orgreave's anniversary. Have a look if it got a mention in this thread (http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7571&highlight=orgreave)

Did you miss the bbc drama in feb this year called faith.
About the miners strike.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/march/12/newsid_3498000/3498166.stm.

also there were two films called coal not dole and scab.
(1985)
And not forgetting the one directed by ken loach named the miners strike, which was incidentally, banned by the thatcher government.

Wasn't the film "Brassed Off" a film portraying the Miners Strike

Originally posted by IanMitchell
Wasn't the film "Brassed Off" a film portraying the Miners Strike

Originally posted by LisaMarie
Has anyone got or know of a good film portraying the 1984/85 miners strike?

I thought if there was a good film he could watch ( not brassed off cos we've got that!) he may appreciate his heritage. Thanks x

Brassed off is set after the strike, showing the affects it had on the community. If you've not seen it you ought to, it beats Full Monty hands down for the best film set in Yorkshire! Strike that cos Kes is brill!

lol sorry I didn't realise you had it :blush:

I should start reading things more

The 1984 miners strike - probably the worst leadership since Kitchener sent a quarter of a million men to their deaths in 1915.

Scargill did more to destroy an industry than Thatcher ever did.

Anyway, there are a few threads around the forum - perhaps you should do a search.

There was once a film on C4 back in the late 80's, I can't remember the name but the plot was about a boy looking for a panther on the moors somewhere north west of Barnsley or thereabouts.

The style of the film was very much like 'Kes'.

Anyway, the subplot of the film was his dad was a striking miner.

I see Tony is as much of an expert on the miners strike as he was on the other years bus strike.

Trying to blame the demise of the coal industry on Scargill simply for leading a fight against its destruction that failed is plainly illogical. Thatcher wanted to destroy it all full stop and her successors did so, no amount of being 'respectable' in objecting to it would have worked. It would have been like trying to stop a juggernaut with a lollipop stick.

This view also reflects the media personality led reporting of the day that revolved around one man. It was much easier to demonise than explain the full facts properly in the blatantly biased/barefaced lying media then and it is the same now. However the former editor of the Mirror publicly apologised for his smears a few years back blaming an M.I.5 sting, that gives you an idea how clouded the man's image is.

There was a TV film in the late 1970s called 'The Price of Coal', not about the strike, but very much about miners. It was written, I believe, by Barry Hines who wrote Kes. I'm sure Bobby Knutt was in it.

If you could get this on DVD/video it will give an insight into what life was like in a mining community then.

Scargill never honestly represented the miners, he was too busy with his crusade against capitalism and the Torys. He used and abused his own members. A terrible man.

There's an episode of Our Friends In The North - currently having a re-run on BBC4 on Wednesdays - which deals with the Miners' Strike. It looks at it from the side of the striking miners and from the side of the police, both local constabulary and the Met. It's very brutal but based on actual events, supposedly Orgreave. It should be on in a week or two as they are almost at 1984 now, but the whole series is well worth watching as it's got to be one of the very best things that has ever been on TV. :thumbsup:

EDIT: Just checked me Sky planner and it's on this Wednesday. A must see show.

Scargill never honestly represented the miners, he was too busy with his crusade against capitalism and the Torys. He used and abused his own members. A terrible man.

I have heard this a few times but no one has yet explained how he was going to destroy capitalism.

He was re elected in 1988 and the ex strikers still supported him in the recent documentaries, even Inspector Nesbitt who arrested him at Orgreave said "Arthur was right" 9 years on.

The majority of the executive voted for all actions and Scargill as chair usually did not even use his vote. All areas that struck had their own votes and the strike was started by a spontaneous movement from below that eventually converged on Sheffield at NUM HQ demanding strike action, not the other way round.

The fact that he could see the bigger political picture is nothing to be criticised for. Better than saying, "well lads its just the way it is and I'll get you the best redundo deal possible, how's about that eh?"

There's an episode of Our Friends In The North - currently having a re-run on BBC4 on Wednesdays - which deals with the Miners' Strike. It looks at it from the side of the striking miners and from the side of the police, both local constabulary and the Met. It's very brutal but based on actual events, supposedly Orgreave. It should be on in a week or two as they are almost at 1984 now, but the whole series is well worth watching as it's got to be one of the very best things that has ever been on TV. :thumbsup:

EDIT: Just checked me Sky planner and it's on this Wednesday. A must see show.


yup, bbc 4, 10pm tomorrow night (weds)

The episode shown last week, was 1979 and showed Thuggy Thatcher, the milk-snatcher, getting into power.

OFITN is a brilliant piece of drama, well acted, and well written. Should have been repeated LONG before now!

PT