The miners’ strike of 1984-5 had a profound impact on Britain’s politics, economy and society. For those on strike, and their families, it felt like an existential struggle to save not only their jobs, but their communities, and the life they knew.
Jonny Owen was just 13 and growing up in Merthyr Tydfil when it began. As it was kicking off, his parents told the family that they were going to give a substantial share of their wages to the striking miners for the duration of the dispute. His father and grandfather had worked underground.
Jonny couldn’t understand how anyone could argue with the decision to strike – after all, they just wanted to keep their jobs.
The miners lost their fight, and today, the South Wales Valleys suffer deep-seated problems – low skills, unemployment, and high sickness rates.
Jonny, a filmmaker, now lives in Nottingham – an area that could not have been more different from South Wales during the strike, with nine out of ten miners going to work throughout the dispute. His friendships cross the divide between the men who went on strike and those who didn’t – and the scars are still deeply felt forty years on.
In this series, he talks to people who were at the heart of the strike – on both sides – as he tries to make sense of what happened and why.
The conflict was bitter, the battle lines were stark, but the old certainties seem to shift like sand beneath his feet. Join him on his journey into the heart of one of the most tumultuous events in 20th-century Britain.
Strike is a Bengo Media Production for BBC Sounds.
Presenter: Jonny Owen Series Producer: Clare Hudson Executive Producer: Steve Austins Assistant Producer: Ffion Clarke Development Producer: Branwen Davies Sound Designer: Meic Parry Sound Editor: Adam Whalley Composer: Richard Llewellyn Series Consultant: Dr Ben Curtis Commissioning Editor: Bridget Curnow
The miners’ strike of 1984-5 had a profound impact on Britain’s politics, economy and society. For those on strike, and their families, it felt like an existential struggle to save not only their jobs, but their communities, and the life they knew.
Jonny Owen was just 13 and growing up in Merthyr Tydfil when it began. As it was kicking off, his parents told the family that they were going to give a substantial share of their wages to the striking miners for the duration of the dispute. His father and grandfather had worked underground.
Jonny couldn’t understand how anyone could argue with the decision to strike – after all, they just wanted to keep their jobs.
The miners lost their fight, and today, the South Wales Valleys suffer deep-seated problems – low skills, unemployment, and high sickness rates.
Jonny, a filmmaker, now lives in Nottingham – an area that could not have been more different from South Wales during the strike, with nine out of ten miners going to work throughout the dispute. His friendships cross the divide between the men who went on strike and those who didn’t – and the scars are still deeply felt forty years on.
In this series, he talks to people who were at the heart of the strike – on both sides – as he tries to make sense of what happened and why.
The conflict was bitter, the battle lines were stark, but the old certainties seem to shift like sand beneath his feet. Join him on his journey into the heart of one of the most tumultuous events in 20th-century Britain.
Strike is a Bengo Media Production for BBC Sounds.
Presenter: Jonny Owen Series Producer: Clare Hudson Executive Producer: Steve Austins Assistant Producer: Ffion Clarke Development Producer: Branwen Davies Sound Designer: Meic Parry Sound Editor: Adam Whalley Composer: Richard Llewellyn Series Consultant: Dr Ben Curtis Commissioning Editor: Bridget Curnow
A miner and two photographers remember the violent events of June 18, 1984 at Orgreave. Thousands of police and thousands of miners arrived at the coking works in Rotherham for a set-piece confrontation.
The miners wanted to stop the coke from getting to a steelworks, and they were surprised that the police waved them through rather than, as they normally did, trying to prevent them from forming a picket line. What followed is seared on the memories of those who were there, and left hundreds injured. And the version of what happened on the news that night was wrong: the police attacked the picketers BEFORE they attacked the police.
Scores of men were charged with Riot and Unlawful Assembly, which could have resulted in heavy sentences. But all their cases were later dropped.
We also hear about how roadblocks were used to prevent flying pickets from travelling to pits in Notts, and what the pickets did to try to avoid them. A lawyer - who is now a member of the Welsh Senedd - says this is the closest peacetime Britain ever came to being a police state.
And a former South Wales police chief tells us how he came under pressure from the Home Office to change his low-key approach to policing and be more confrontational. He says in South Wales police and miners were part of the same community and would have to live alongside each other afterwards - and he directed his officers with that in mind. Officers from other forces who were bussed in to deal with picket lines - did not have the same mindset he says.
Strike is a Bengo Media Production for BBC Sounds.
Presenter: Jonny Owen Series Producer: Clare Hudson Executive Producer: Steve Austins Episode Producer: Ffion Clarke Development Producer: Branwen Davies Sound Designer: Meic Parry Sound Editor: Adam Whalley Composer: Richard Llewellyn Series Consultant: Dr Ben Curtis Commissioning Editor: Bridget Curnow