This film is part of Free
Mining Review 6th Year No. 5
An intriguing blast from soccer's past: Wrexham meet Beighton Miners Welfare in FA Cup First Round.
Overview
Action highlights of a 1952-53 FA cup first round match form the centrepiece of this fine edition of the cinemagazine Mining Review. It's an intriguing blast from soccer's past: the days when a miners welfare team (from Beighton, S. Yorks) could face a third division club (step forward, Wrexham FC). An zealously even-handed commentary stresses that despite Wrexham's 3-0 victory, Beighton put up a highly respectable defence. Not only that - Wrexham's goal-scorers are fellow coalminers!
In a characteristic Mining Review mix, the football story is bookended by a 'technical' opening item, and a 'social' closing piece, part of the series' ongoing sequence of pit 'Profiles'. The opener, from Lanarkshire, re-packages footage from an internal technical training film, 'Surface Mechanisation (Kingshill Colliery)', as the peppy and pleasurable 'Rope Trick'. The Profile, meanwhile, is of the NCB's East Midlands Area medical officer, based at Thorseby (later, incidentally, among the very last UK pits to close, in 2015). It's framed as a family story: the doctor and his brothers, all university graduates, are sons of a miner who's worked 43 years underground (i.e. since 1910!). It's a touching illustration of the social mobility, resulting from social reform, that marked the last century.
Related
Miner Miner
Documentary 1950 36 mins Silent Location: Featherstone
Absorbing overview of coalmining in the early years of nationalisation.
Thud and Blunder in Knock off Time Thud and Blunder in Knock off Time
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1964 2 mins
Miners' safety training - marked by stylish animation and gallows humour.
Energy Energy
Advert 1935 42 mins Silent Location: Cardiff/Caerdydd
Coal, between the world wars, makes the industrialised world go round and Cory Bros & Co Ltd, with collieries in south Wales and oil refineries across the globe, is a major player.
Big Pit Big Pit
Industry sponsored film 1978 7 mins Location: Blaenavon
Memories of Blaenavon Colliery, Monmouthshire, as it nears its end.
Guilty Chimneys Guilty Chimneys
Documentary 1954 18 mins
Elegiac sponsored film imploring viewers to "allow the sun to penetrate the haze of ignorance" and relieve British cities of pollution.
People Will Always Need Coal People Will Always Need Coal
Advert 1975 1 mins
Deliriously kitsch recruitment ad for the implausibly glamorous world of coalmining.
Sky Peals - Exclusive Q&A Sky Peals - Exclusive Q&A
Short interview 2024 30 mins
Sky Peals director Moin Hussain and lead actor Faraz Ayub talk to Tomisin Adepeju about their magic realist drama.
Inside the Archive: The Early Films of Michael Powell Inside the Archive: The Early Films of Michael Powell
Documentary 2024 42 mins
Documentary exploring the BFI National Archive’s role in rediscovering and remastering the early films of Michael Powell.
Inside the Archive: The Riviera Revels Inside the Archive: The Riviera Revels
Short documentary 2024 12 mins
Bryony Dixon, curator of silent film at the BFI national archive, explores the origins of a series of comic travelogues, and Michael Powell's involvement in making them.
New Perspectives: Oldboy New Perspectives: Oldboy
Short documentary 2024 4 mins
Discover why Luke Bean of Northumbria University believes everyone should experience Oldboy at least once.
New Perspectives: Wings of Desire New Perspectives: Wings of Desire
Short documentary 2024 4 mins
Samantha Arnold of Northumbria University offers fresh insight into why Wings of Desire remains essential viewing.
Horace Ové on Pressure Horace Ové on Pressure
Inside Film 2005 36 mins
The acclaimed director discusses his landmark film in this interview from 2005.