SPEECH FOR LONDON SOCIALIST FILM CO-OPERATIVE
Hello everyone,
I am delighted to be here as part of this event, albeit on Zoom…
Miners have always been important in my life…
When I was a teenager I went down a Kent mine with a small group of Labour Party women – including my mother, a lifelong member. I never forgot it! It was like a scene from a Victorian age – dusty, hot, rather scary. Ever since I have had nothing but respect for the men that risked their lives to dig the coal to keep us warm…
Roll on a number of years, when I graduated from Kingston Poly, I applied for a job with the BBC’s Community Programme Unit (CPU) which I got! The editor was Mike Fentiman, a principled man.
I was thrilled…but circumstances changed when I was blacklisted, due to my past membership of the Workers Revolutionary Party, which I had left many years before. I was told I couldn’t be employed…I was devastated.
Finally – after a long struggle - in 1984 I was taken on by Mike Fentiman, and got my break into broadcast TV, producing my first documentary.
Taking Liberties was very important. I made it for the CPU. We went to Yorkshire during the miner’s strike. At 35 I'd seen a bit of life, and liked to think I knew what was going on in the world. I was a political woman, but I was really shocked when I went to Yorkshire and saw the extent of the police state we were living under. Literally dozens of police vans drove into this small pit village, disgorging hundreds of police –
and I must admit I was scared.
One of the important things about Taking Liberties was the sequence when the crew was in a van. We decided to take a couple of miners, who were going picketing, across the border to Nottingham from Yorkshire. We were stopped by the police and forced to turn round. There was no freedom of movement, nor freedom of association then!
Another lesson for me was when the BBC hierarchy threatened Mike and Tony Laryea, (his assistant editor), with closure of the whole unit, over the film. The BBC did not like the doc. It was very political, it was very damaging to the police, and they said you can’t put this out. Mike & Tony fought them, but I wasn’t allowed to be there. Tony came back and said you’re going to have to cut some sequences. I absolutely refused – and the film went out as we had edited it! It’s a lesson. The Producer’s job is to fight for your documentary and what you believe in!
The night it was transmitted I received a phone call from Jim Allen – a comrade & wonderful scriptwriter – he said “I’ve got someone here who wants to speak to you”. It was Ken Loach! My first broadcast documentary and he said “well done, comrade…an excellent piece of work”. We still keep in touch…
The Battle for Orgreave
A few years later I sat through the 48 day trial of the 15 miners charged with riot, after picketing at Orgreave, which was a coking plant in Yorkshire. There had been terrible scenes at a mass picket as the police were out in force. Miners were charged by mounted police and battered by snatch squads wielding long and short truncheons. Many were seriously wounded. The full force of the state went into action, in the form of police assaults, unlawful arrests and some miners being thrown into jail for 3 weeks, with the humiliation of strip searches and more violence. Then the courts, dealing with 95 miners, with the horrifying charges of riot hanging over them, put them through more stress, facing life imprisonment.
It was only due to the commitment of great lawyers that the defendants walked free…
It inspired me to tell the real story of Orgreave, asking the defendants to re-create their experiences of 18th June 1984. It was a big ask for them, because they had been really traumatised – so much so that many are still suffering flashbacks… 40 years on.
To hear participants’ personal stories is very important in documentary making – but it’s not enough. I decided that the economic context and the historical context were really important too, as you will see…
I am still in touch with some of the miners and their wives – and count them as my dear friends.
I was able to make a Sequel because they trusted me…I am so proud of this work. Thank you for inviting me…
