Thatcher vs. The Miners, the company’s first feature documentary.
The film plans to use new evidence, including the miners’ own footage, along with first-person testimony, archive footage and journalism to explore the conflict between British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government and the National Union of Mineworkers, that occurred nearly 40 years ago.
Cabinet papers obtained for the documentary reveal the enormity of the conflict between Thatcher and union leader Arthur Scargill. The film also features interviews with miners’ leaders and union officials from the time, striking and working miners, and three members of Thatcher’s staff: Lord Robin Butler, Lord Andrew Turnbull and Lord Stephen Sherborne.
Sacred Islands with Ben Fogle will begin production this spring
UK broadcasters BBC1 and BBC Scotland have commissioned a series about the Scottish islands with explorer Ben Fogle, while BBC2 has ordered a second season of Villages by the Sea.
Sacred Islands with Ben Fogle (4×60’) follows the broadcaster and adventurer as he explores each of Scotland’s islands, from the Western and Northern Isles to the Inner Hebrides.
The series will premiere on BBC Scotland first, followed by BBC1 in a daytime slot later this year. Tern Television is producing, with production slated to begin this spring.
Elsewhere, BBC2 has commissioned Objective Media Group’s Manchester-based label Purple Productions to produce season two of Villages by the Sea.
Media release: Ben Fogle makes pilgrimage to Scotland’s islands, in new BBC series
TWENTTY years after Castaway 2000 and the start of his love affair with Scotland and its islands began, Ben Fogle returns to the country he has described “the most beautiful place on Earth” for a new series on BBC Scotland and BBC One Daytime.
In Sacred Islands with Ben Fogle (4×60); the award-winning broadcaster, author and adventurer will explore the beating heart of community and spirituality from the Western and Northern Isles to the Inner Hebrides.
This personal pilgrimage will see him explore what it is about each island that touches his psyche more deeply and what makes each a place of spirituality and sanctuary.