In reality, however, there were two sides to the pit community.
David Morrissey as Ian St Clair and Robert Glenister as Kevin Salisbury (Photo: BBC/House Productions/Matt Squire)Įach film was entirely sympathetic to the striking miners’ cause. The film’s rousing climax involved hundreds of pitmen joining the 1985 Gay Pride Parade in a show of unity. Pride in 2014 fictionalised the true story of how a group of lesbian and gay activists from London set out to support striking Welsh miners. Some of this might have been lost on American audiences, however, where Brassed Off was promoted as a romcom involving McGregor and Tara Fitzgerald’s Coal Board representative.
Based on the travails of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, it ended with the musicians winning a national competition and Ewan McGregor’s rousing speech about how “this bloody government has systematically destroyed an industry… our industry”. The 1996 comedy-drama Brassed Off followed the troubles of a Yorkshire colliery brass band as its pit faced closure.
