Strike: When Britain Went To War (C4): THE opening resembled one of those nostalgia programmes recalling the fashion, fads and folk from a year gone by - namely 1984. Wham were demanding "wake me up before you go-go", Torvill and Dean skated to victory, and Mrs Thatcher was returned to power in a landslide victory.

Then things turned nasty as the country became locked in a long-running, increasingly violent and bitter dispute that split public opinion and changed the face of trade unions.

The miners' strike began 20 years ago and, while this two-hour documentary lacked fresh testimony from the two main protagonists - Prime Minister Maggie and miners' leader Arthur Scargill - there were more than enough participants and witnesses to recount the whole sorry story.

The even-handed makers gave equal air time to both sides. We heard of miners pitted against each other, politicians more concerned with spin than truth, and policemen who used the strike to boost their earnings.

This was a fight to the death between, Margaret Thatcher, the champion of the free world, and Arthur Scargill, the Marxist union leader.

The spark was a Government plan to close 20 pits with the loss of 20,000 jobs. But, as one observer pointed out, in a way both sides wanted it to happen. This country wasn't big enough for both of them.

Public opinion was divided, but most newspapers had little sympathy for the miners. When The Sun proposed a front page picture of Scargill under the heading 'Mine Fuhrer', printers refused to print it.

Coal Board chairman and Mrs T's champion Ian McGregor had a reputation as a hatchet man after making cuts in British Steel but had no idea how to handle the media, or as Bernard Ingham, the PM's chief press secretary, put it: "He didn't have a public touch". Eventually, a stunt in which he arrived at peace talks wearing a carrier bag over his face led to him being sidelined.

Footage reminded us of violent confrontations between flying pickets and policemen. Scenes of strikers being repeatedly hit with truncheons and miners running down village streets being chased by mounted police were stark reminders of those days.

One police officer admitted the strike, and the overtime it provided, was a licence to print money. He earned two-and-a-half to three times his normal weekly salary, enough to buy a flat, a sports car, a new set of golf clubs, a golfing holiday, two weeks in Portugal and still have money left over.

Scenes of miners queuing in soup kitchens were a stark reminder that not everybody profited. But the policeman showed no sign of regret. "The only way to defeat them was to cheat, play dirty with dirty people," he said.

The researchers had even found a clip of a young Tony Blair being interviewed about undercover operations. Police, he said, were going beyond their formal powers to stop people going to picket.

By the end of January 1985, nine months after the strike was called, half the workforce had returned to the mines. The NUM ordered a return to work - announced on BBC Television in a news flash caption at the bottom of the screen while Dad's Army continued.

It was a sad way to end such a significant conflict that signalled the end of the old, unprofitable industries like coal that had no place in Mrs Thatcher's brave new world.

Published: 26/01/2004