The winter of 1984-5 saw Britain's beleaguered mining communities torn apart as Arthur Scargill's National Union of Mineworkers waged war with the Thatcher government. As striking miners fought with their working counterparts, pickets locked horns with police in some of the most violent confrontations in British industrial history. Five young men from a Yorkshire village were thrown into the mayhem and this documentary follows the five "flying pickets" through their year of living dangerously. Capturing the huge passions aroused by the strike, the film also examines its irrevocable impact on Britain's future.
Contains strong language.

Documentary The Miners' Strike 9.00pm BBC2
Following Saturday's C4 documentary on the 1984 miners' dispute, this one is more evocative and harder-hitting. Based on the recollections of five men from the Yorkshire mining village of Hatfield, it has interviews with those on both sides of the picket line and news footage that brings home the excitement, fear, desperation, strain and horror of the clashes. You'll have your own views on the rights and wrongs of the strike, but the tales of violence still shock. And it's no bad thing to remember the hardship suffered by many families. An engrossing and illuminating piece of social history reportage. JR

TV Insider
A bitter battle The Miners' Strike (9.00pm BBC2) is a reminder of a time when industrial disputes polarised Britain. "This is the final chapter in the story of British involvement in heavy industry. People lived different lives and worked in different jobs - all that is gone," says producer Steve Condie. "The people in the villages near Doncaster that we focused on now work in call centres and shops, or in computers and stationery. It's a different country, almost."
What surprised Condie while making the film in one of the strikers' heartlands is the continuing bitterness: "There's still a hatred for people who worked during the strike. You're talking to nice guys and when the subject of 'scabs' comes up, it's clear they'd still consider doing them damage now. Twenty years on, and they still feel betrayed by them."