Radio Plays - Miners
1970? Richard Hughes - Danger ( a coal mining disaster)
1972 Alan Plater - Close the Coalhouse Door
1994 Tom Holland - Underground
1995 David Pownall -Under the Table
1995 David Edgar - That Summer
1996 Joe Turner - The Great Subterranean Adventure
1997 Greg Cullen - Tower
2000 The Secret Parts - Eve Brook
2003 M. Gallie - The small mine
2004 Michael Samuels - The duel (the story of the miners' strike)
2013 Graham Fife - Misfortune at Seaham (R4Extra)
NOTES
CLOSE THE COALHOUSE DOOR....1972
You won't believe this - a musical about coal mining. It was popular, too.
UNDERGROUND....1994
Shady goings-on below ground level in the city of London ...
Under the Table....1995
By David Pownall 6 May 95, Saturday Playhouse. http://www.suttonelms.org.uk/DP.HTML
That Summer....1995
By David Edgar. Monday Play 15 May 95. Set during the miners' strike in 1984. Two teenage girls, whose father is a striking Welsh miner, are invited on a summer holiday by a well-meaning middle-classs couple.
THE GREAT SUBTERRANEAN ADVENTURE....1996
A theme park built inside a disused coal mine. They should have known better...
TOWER....1997
A South Wales colliery dispute ... amd very imaginatively done ...
Secret Parts....2000
By Eve Brook. R4, Aft, 29 May 00. More about local government and politics but an excellent thriller involving murder and corruption.
The small mine....2003
M.Gallie-Welsh mining story in the 60s
*THE DUEL, by Michael Samuels....2004
R4, 1430-1600, 3 Apr 04. This play is based on the conflict between Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the miners' leader, Arthur Scargill, 1983-1985. Miners went on strike in protest at pit closures, stayed out without a ballot, and supported Scargill right until the end. Ultimately he was defeated by the better tactics of his opponent. This was a wonderful piece of drama; David Threlfall played Scargill and Patricia Hodge was Margaret Thatcher; Jeremy Howe and Isobel Eaton directed. More on Writers page - click Radio Plays - Writers - Others, 2004.
MISFORTUNE AT SEAHAM....2013
R4 Extra, 16 Apr 13; by Graham Fife. Story of an explosion in a coal mine in 1880, Seaham, Durham, based on true events. With Nigel Anthony and Paul Copley. 45m.
Michael Toft also wrote a number of plays about the plight of the coal miners in the 70s and 80s. See Michael's page.
Nigel Deacon / Diversity website
Most of the above known to exist in VRPCC collections
