Strike Boy

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

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Mark was 10 when the miners' strike took over his life. Forty years on, he goes back.

Mark Watson was 10 when the 1984 miners' strike took over his life. Forty years on, he wants to know what really happened and how it changed his community - and this country.

Mark Watson was 10 when the 1984 miners' strike took over his life. Forty years on, he wants to know what really happened and how it changed his community - and this country.

Lying in bed one night as a boy, Mark heard a massive roar, like a football crowd. He opened his bedroom window and saw a red glow in the distance where the noise was coming from. He jumped out of his window, onto the kitchen roof, and bolted out the back gate. Just a few hundred yards from his house, he was suddenly confronted with a mass of action - hundreds of police and pickets, shouting and shoving. He was hooked.

The son of a striking Nottinghamshire miner, Mark was caught in the middle of Britain's biggest ever industrial dispute. Ever since, he's wanted to make sense of the deeply-held views on all sides. Travelling the country, hearing tales of violence, desperation, and determination, Mark investigates the conflict that became a battle for Britain's soul - and its consequences today.

Presenter: Mark Watson
Series Producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound mix: James Beard
Production Co-ordinator: Ellie Dover
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

BBC Radio 4 LW

Strike Boy: 2. 'Scabs'

2. 'Scabs'

BBC Radio 4 - Strike Boy, 2. 'Scabs'

'You had to run the gauntlet and I were covered in spit and all sorts.'

“You had to run the gauntlet and I were covered in spit and all sorts.”

Nottinghamshire miner’s son Mark is a Mansfield Town season ticket holder and even today opposing fans chant “Scabs!” at them. It’s an insult thrown because most Nottinghamshire miners didn’t strike in 1984. It’s ironic for Mark, because his dad was one of the minority that did.

But why were miners in Nottinghamshire different? And what was it like to be a working miner opposing the union’s national leadership and crossing picket lines?

Archive: Tom Pike (chanting football fans); Kinolibrary (Arthur Scargill speech); BBC.

Presenter: Mark Watson
Series Producer: Simon Maybin
Editor: Clare Fordham
Sound mix: James Beard
Production Co-ordinator: Ellie Dover
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

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Strike Boy

2. 'Scabs'

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