Arthur Scargill

It is approaching an election in the UK when the leader of the Labour party, John Smith, suffers another in a line of heart attacks and dies. With the leadership campaign about to start the clear choice appears to be Gordon Brown, a stanch Scotsman. However Tony Blair is also beginning to appear more likely as he will appeal to Southern voters who would be turned off by Brown. Blair rings Brown to arrange a meeting to discuss which will go for the job. The film flashbacks to the start of their relationship, sharing an office in Westminster on their first seats.

Twenty years ago, Britain went to war - with itself. In March 1984, Mrs Thatcher's government announced plans to close 20 coal mines, with the loss of 20,000 jobs. The Miners' leader, Arthur Scargill, led his workers out on strike. What followed was the ultimate left verses right showdown, a colossal battle for the political heart of a nation, with an epoch-making, era-defining moment of social significance unparalleled since World War II. This feature length documentary tells the story of the year-long struggle that split friends, families and the country apart, led to shocking scenes of violence, and made many fear that George Orwell's nightmare vision of a police state was becoming a reality. After this war, Britain would never be the same again.

This film sketches a very personal and decidedly political portrait of the Iron Lady who left the greatest mark on the UK, alongside Queen Elizabeth II. Archives and interviews are enriched by songs from this period that really help to understand the social atmosphere of that time.

On the 5th of March 1985, a crowd gathered in a South Yorkshire pit village to watch a sight none of them had seen in a year. The villagers, many of them in tears, cheered and clapped as the men of Grimethorpe Colliery marched back to work accompanied by the village’s world-famous brass band. The miners and their families had endured months of hardship. It had all been for nothing. The miners had lost the strike called on March 6th 1984. They would lose a lot more in the years to come. But was it a good thing for the country that the miners lost their last battle?

The inside story of Polmaise Colliery and the miners who were the first to walk out and the last to go back to work during the miners' strike.

Part of BFI collection "The Miners' Campaign Video Tapes."

A look at the 1985 Snooker World Championship final when Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor battled past midnight as over 18 million people watched on television.

Part of BFI collection "The Miners' Campaign Video Tapes."

Brian Glover meets up with locals like Arthur Scargill as he guides us round his home town.

Combines footage of the 100th Durham Miner's Gala held in 1983, with extracts from a miners' weekend school held two months later, to raise the central issues that were of concern to the mineworkers' union during the lead up to the national strike of 1984.