The Price of Coal

The Price of Coal is a series of television plays first broadcast in 1977, written by Barry Hines and directed by Ken Loach. The plays are set in the fictional Milton colliery, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire. The plays contrast "the efforts made to cosmetically improve the pit in preparation for a royal visit (part one) and the target-conscious safety shortcuts that precipitate a fatal accident (part two)."^[1] The plot bears some similarities to the disaster at Houghton Main Colliery in 1975, after which Energy Minister Tony Benn said, "It might remind people, as it reminded me, that there is still a very high price in human life to be paid, for the coal we get in this country."^[2]

The two plays take place almost entirely in Yorkshire dialect. There is one character with a north-eastern accent, which is a reference to the large-scale migration in the 1960s of displaced colliers from the run-down coalfields in Durham and Northumberland to the richer Yorkshire coalfield.

The first part, Meet the People, is a comedy-drama dealing with the preparations for an official visit to the colliery by Prince Charles. The humour revolves around the expensive and ludicrous preparations that are required when there is an official visit from a member of the Royal Family. Some of the workers recognise this and cannot take it seriously. Management recognises it but has to 'play the game'. Special toilets must be constructed "just in case" and then destroyed after the visit. A worker is instructed to paint a brick holding up a window. On the eve of the visit the slogan "Scargill rules OK" is painted on a wall. The manager comments "When I find out who did that I'll string him up by his knackers". In one scene, an argument takes place in a pub between some colliers who are opposed to the expenditure on the visit and who feel that the colliery was chosen because its union officials were relatively conservative, and other colliers who are looking forward to the visit.

The second part, Back to Reality, takes place one month after the events of the first and deals with an underground explosion at the colliery which kills several miners and follows the attempts to rescue others that remain trapped.

Production

Several of the cast were stand up comedians from the Yorkshire working men's club circuit, including Duggie Brown, Bobby Knutt, Stan Richards and Jackie Shinn.^[3][4] The plays were filmed around the disused Thorpe Hesley colliery near Rotherham, South Yorkshire.

Hines grew up in the mining community of Hoyland Common, Barnsley, and had himself been a coal miner when he first left school. He later recollected that when a neighbour saw him at the coalface and chided him "Couldn't tha find a better job than this?" he was inspired to return to full-time education and trained to be a teacher.^[5]

References

External links

• IMDB entry for part 1