The Great Money Trick

“Mum, dad, they’re making a film about the miner’s strike” Ellen shouted as she burst into the room. “It’s gonna be brilliant. I’ve met the director, David Something. The BBC’s paying for it. It’s to be shown next year around the 20th anniversary. You two might be able to get in it as well; they’re going to need lots of extras.” “Slow down. Start at the beginning and keep it simple “John said, putting down the crossword he’d been doing and smiling at his excited daughter. ‘25 year old and still jumping up and down like a child’ he mused. ‘I hope she never grows up.’ Ellen laughed and sat down to explain. She had been out with her friends in the village; deciding where to go and someone had mentioned a film that was going to be made locally. Auditions were on that night in the pub at the top of pit lane. They’d gone along for a laugh but it had turned out to be interesting. Ellen couldn’t remember much about the actual miner’s strike; she’d only been about 5 but she’d been brought up hearing stories about the great battle that the miners had fought to keep their jobs; she’d grown up with the harsh reality of watching her village change as more and more jobs were lost in the area, the pit closing, shops shutting down. Half her mates had never had a ‘proper’ job. The pit had opened again under a private contractor but only employed about 200 men instead of the 2000 before the strike. The director had been brilliant; he’d explained that the BBC was funding the film about the strike and that he wanted it to be as realistic as possible. There seemed to be a lot of ex-miners in the group and the director had got them talking about how it had been. They’d done some bits of play acting around different scenes suggested by the old miners, reflecting actual happenings from the strike and been filmed while they did it. Grace, Ellen’s mother asked about the people who were there; maybe she knew some of them from her time in the miners kitchen during the strike. Ellen was a bit vague about names; she’s recognised some faces but urged her mum to join her next week for ‘rehearsals’ but Grace was reluctant. “I can’t just turn up I’d look stupid” she said but Ellen assured her that all the people who had turned up were urged to get others to join them; “especially people who had been active in the strike like you and dad”. Grace and John talked about it that night; talked about the strike and the things they’d done; it brought it all back and hesitantly they decided to go along just for a look. Grace was sure that the true story of the miners’ strike would not be told by the film; she’d never forget the way the media had ‘stitched up the miners’ even changed the sequence of the ’battle of Orgreave’ and made out the miners had been the aggressors instead of the police. She could remember John coming home that day. He looked grey; he said he’d never been as scared in his life. “They are determined to smash the strike” he’d said as he walked through the door. His jeans were torn, he was filthy, a gash on his forehead still seeping a bit of blood. He didn’t stop for breath. He was more upset than angry at first; although that soon changed in the following weeks. They both decided to go along and Tony their eldest joined them. Tony was three years older than Ellen and he could remember more about the strike; the ‘soup kitchen’ where his mum worked most days during the strike, the demonstrations, coach rides to London. He’d been at school during the day but often ended up at the kitchen watching his mum and her friends prepare the meal for the next day. He’d enjoyed the strike; it gave him more freedom; he’d been allowed to stay at different friend’s houses when his mum was away raising funds for the strike. He remembered the massive Christmas party they’d had, at the end of the party Ellen had said “Will you go on strike every year dad, this is brilliant”