- Title: Strike: When Britain Went To War
- Date: 24th January 2004
- Summary: This is the story of the moment that an old Britain died and a new one was born. In 1984, Britain stood on the brink of massive change. The way people made, and spent, money was changing, the era of the yuppy was arriving. A new, vibrant music scene was emerging, and in sport, Torvill and Dean had imbued Britain with a new confidence. The Ethiopian famine spawned a new sense of global consciousness, and of charity. It was a vibrant, fluid, controversial time of change. And in the midst of it all was the Thatcher revolution, and the miners' strike. In March 1984, the government announced plans to close 20 coalmines, with the loss of 20,000 jobs. Union leader Arthur Scargill led his workers out on strike. What followed was the ultimate left versus right showdown, a colossal battle for the political heart of a nation, an epoch-making, era-defining moment of social significance unparalleled since World War II. It was also a year-long struggle that changed lives, made and broke reputations, and saw former colleagues, friends and even families irrevocably split by a mutual loathing. This extraordinary, feature-length documentary uses extensive archive footage and the recollections of an eclectic mix of the key players from both camps, including politicians, policemen, comedians, pop stars and, of course, miners and their wives, to recount the events of this unique and formative period in modern domestic history: the year Britain went to war. When Arthur Scargill and Margaret Thatcher clashed, irresistible force met immovable object: neither would give an inch. But nobody could have known how long the Mexican stand-off would last. The arch-free-marketeer Thatcher was intent on closing many of the nation's 170 mines, at the cost of many of the 180,000 mining jobs. The Marxist Scargill was intent upon not just saving the mines, but also changing the political map of Britain forever. In the early, heady days of the strike, Thatcher was a year into her second term, Britain was still dogged by industrial unrest, and the miners - the mythical heroes of the working class - looked like they might just snatch victory and turn back the tide of Thatcherism. The programme looks at the extreme tactics adopted by each side, from the flying pickets and vicious intimidation used by the striking miners, to the draconian use of riot police and denial of civil liberties by the government. Policemen and miners alike recall the early confrontations and skirmishes, and how they began to escalate, culminating in the violent, pitched battles that defined the strike in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire particularly. The strike also brought together an unlikely collection of bedfellows. Middle class University students, gay organisations, and even the Sikh community in the West Midlands, all aligned themselves with the miners. While some female students worked their way through the delegations of hunky miners who visited their campuses, the Metropolitan police, too, flush with their extra pay and away from home, were enjoying similar success with local women in Notts. The film features testimony from the miners who took to the picket lines - and those "scabs" who stayed at work. Neil Greatex's family in Nottingham endured frightening abuse and intimidation as he worked to keep his pit open. His actions meant that his father never spoke to him from the strike until the day he died. Also interviewed is a Sun journalist who infiltrated the picket lines and nearly lost his life when he was rumbled. The key moments of the year-long strike are all recalled by those involved, from the strike of print workers at The Sun to the murder of a Nottinghamshire taxi driver, from Scargill's firebrand rhetoric to the massive showdown at the Orgreave coking plant in Yorkshire, the beginning of the end for the miners. Scargill's refusal to negotiate, Thatcher's indomitability after the Brighton bomb, and images of famine in Ethiopia all contributed to the erosion in public support for the miners. In March 1985, with strikers returning to work in their thousands, the NUM voted to end the strike. Thatcher had won, Scargill and the miners were defeated. Many recall their heartbreak at the news, the emotion as fresh today as it was two decades ago. The programme ends with a summary of the strike's lasting impact on British life, and how the lives of our contributors were changed forever. For some, like Neil Greatrex, who still feels resentment at the way his young family was threatened, "it never really ended". For others, like Welsh miner Arthur Rossiter, the sad fact was that it ended too soon, and in defeat. The slow death of British mining had begun in earnest. Britain's economy was changing from industry to service-based, and the social repercussions were on an unimaginable scale.
- Description:Those interviewed in this powerful and emotive film include Neil Kinnock, Tony Benn, Bernard Ingham, Tim Bell, John O'Farrell, Boris Johnson, Anne Scargill, Phil Woolas, Matthew Parris, Kelvin MacKenzie and Midge Ure.
- Collection: Channel 4
- Transmission Date:24/01/2004
- Decade: 2000s