Miners’ Strike: A Frontline Story review – storytelling so vivid that 40 years melt away in an instant

The workers involved in the 1984 strike that changed Britain for ever get to have their say – without spin. It’s a lively, gripping tale that ranges from jollity and humour to heart-stopping tales

Miners’ Strike: A Frontline Story opens with a cliche. Like almost every oral-history documentary these days, we start with an outtake – an interviewee preparing to be interviewed, chatting casually with the film-makers as lights are set and cameras adjusted. “Let’s crack on,” says former South Yorkshire miner Dave Roper. But as Roper moves on to talking about why he has decided to participate, he says something that is not incidental at all. “My history [with the] media, especially the BBC, is they tend to twist what we say … it’s all about what they want, not what I want to put across.”

This programme puts that right. A Frontline Story lets miners tell the long tale of the 1984 strike, and they leave us in no doubt as to why the dispute occurred or how the result of it has reshaped Britain. The storytelling is vivid and immediate: anecdotes drawn from the memories of those who were there, without any historian, politician or journalist to smoothly, coldly contextualise them, makes the 40-year gap between then and now melt away.

Miners’ Strike: A Frontline Story aired on BBC Two and is available on BBC iPlayer.