Ten years ago, the Nottinghamshire miners were about to face their greatest crisis when they decided to break away from the NUM, to defy the miners' strike and return to work. Now the breakaway union that they formed (the Union of Democratic Mineworkers) is witnessing the slow death of the coalfields, watching promises being broken and traditions collapsing.
Charles Stewart and Malcolm
Hirst, the team who observed Lewisham Council in the fly-on-the-wall Town Hall series, spent a year in Nottinghamshire filming the plight of the miners. In
Blackmail, the first programme in this new six-part series, the workers at Clipstone and Rufford collieries face redundancy, while UDM president Neil Greatrex tries to secure a future for his members.
"When Greatrex took over in 1992, he was handed a poisoned chalice, says Charles Stewart. "He's effectively presiding over the death of an industry, but he's afraid of nobody and determined to get the best deal he can." Executive producer Paul Hamann
Produced by Partners in Production for BBCtv
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