I think of doing a series as very hard work. But then I've talked to coal miners and that's really hard work.

My mother listened to all the news from the camp during the strike. She said little especially when my father or the men who worked for him were about I remember her instinctive and unhesitating sympathy for the miners.

All too often miners and indeed other trade unionists underestimate the economic strength they have.

The business manager was doing fine back in his office while they were out on the line hungry. And so they started to see a lot of that and there was that maybe the leadership had its own cause. More so than the miners you know it was like a power struggle.

Real popular culture is folk art - coalminers' songs and so forth.