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: 8. Defeat

8. Defeat

BBC Radio 4 - Strike Boy, 8. Defeat

"I were put in the lowest rated job, in the isolated part of the pit. We were victimised."

"I were put in the lowest rated job, in the isolated part of the pit. We were victimised."

Mark was about to turn 12 when his dad finally returned to work down the pit after a whole year out on strike. Talking to his mum, his dad, and a miner who worked through the strike, he finds out about the abuse handed out on both sides and how raw their emotions still are.

Mark also meets a history professor to hear about the quest for justice after the strike and discovers a battle from the strike that’s still being fought even today.

Archive: 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

8. Defeat

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