Writer Douglas Livingstone was moved by the stories of young men sent down the pits during the Second World War.

He tells Steve Pratt about the making of a radio drama on the Bevin Boys at Durham Miners’ Gala.

THE drama team from BBC radio who took to the streets of Durham during the annual Miners’ Gala last July were on a mission. Their aim was to record the sounds and talk to people attending the historic gathering to research a play.

Writer Douglas Livingstone, director Jane Morgan and the all-important sound recordist were working on a Radio 4 play about the Bevin Boys.

These were the young men whose names were picked out of a hat towards the end of the Second World War and sent down the mines instead of being conscripted into the Armed Forces.

Their contribution to the war effort went unrecognised and largely unknown until 1995, when they were mentioned in speech by the Queen.

Two years ago it was announced that these wartime miners would finally receive an honour in recognition of their work, with the first Veterans Badges being awarded in 2008, marking the 60th anniversary of the last Bevin Boys being discharged.

Among the first group receiving the lapel badge from Prime Minister Gordon Brown at a reception at Downing Street was one of the most famous Bevin Boys, Sir Jimmy Savile.

Livingstone had become fascinated by their story in recent years. “Not too many people seem to know about it and for a long time they were forgotten. I met a couple of Bevin Boys through sheer accident and went to one of their get-togethers seven or eight years ago,” he says.

“They had a very difficult experience because of this business of the draw. Whoever you were, you could find yourself down the pits, with a working class guy and a public schoolboy next to each other because there were no favours shown to anyone.”

Then he had the idea of tying up that story with the Durham Miners’ Gala, mindful that the occasion really lends itself to being recorded.

All the bands and parades, as he puts it. “Of course, all the boys are getting a lot older.

They’re all in their 80s, but some still march in Durham.”

The shape of the drama, Road To Durham, came from Livingstone receiving an email from someone with whom he’d done National Service and not seen since the Fifties.

“We got on terribly well and were in the desert together, but had not seen or heard of each other since then. But he’d picked up my name and emailed me. I thought that was a good starting point for the play, about people whose lives had gone in different directions,” he explains.

So in July, writer, director and soundman spent three days immersing themselves in the Miners’ Gala and the Bevin Boys marching in the parade. “We’ve done this with drama before.

You go to a place and a lot of the play comes out of what happens there,” he says.

“We went to a school where they were going to have a new banner dedicated in Durham Cathedral. The pit had packed up years ago, but there was still a lot of pride in the village. That was sheer joy to come across when running around doing research.

“We were out on the streets from eight in the morning. It was very enjoyable and the people were so enthusiastic. I talked to quite a lot of Bevin Boys marching behind their banners.”

What moved him was the passionate pride felt by the ex-miners and by the people from the mining villages, determined to keep alive the memories of mines long closed.

The wartime miners were named after MP Ernest Bevin, the then Minster for Labour and National Service, who introduced the scheme because of the increasing shortage of labour in the mining industry. Many regular miners were called up into the forces, leaving a shortfall in workers.

The role of the recruits drafted into the mines was largely been passed over, leading to them being referred to as the “forgotten conscripts”.

Livingstone heard tales of young miners who’d felt like fish out of water and suffered the antagonism of those who thought they were cowards. He also spoke to those for whom the North-East became home after the war.

“I think some stayed down the pits, but a lot were glad to get home. I did meet one guy who married a girl he’d met and stayed in the North- East and the village became a part of his life,”

says the writer.

Having gathered the sounds and thoughts of people at the Gala, the trio returned to London for Livingstone to write the play.

The story has two octogenarian Bevin Boys, who’ve not seen each other for 63 years, going to Durham Miners’ Gala to confront their memories of themselves at 18.

The two old boys – both Londoners sent North to the pits – are played by Timothy West and Livingstone.

“If you’re an actor as well as a writer and been in a lot of things in the past, then write yourself a part,” he says unashamedly.

“I thought of Tim as soon as I was writing it, I knew he would be right for the part.”

They’re the only actors in the production who don’t come from the North-East. A number of the cast recorded the work while appearing in Lee Hall’s award-winning play, The Pitman Painters, at the National Theatre, in London.

“They sent me a tape of everything they’d got and I could use in the play, certainly in the second half because I wanted to get as much colour from Durham as possible,” says Livingstone.

“To a certain extent, the play was written around what happened when we were at the Gala. The actual plot – a lot of it – came from what we saw and what we liked up there. You use the experience in the play.”

■ Road To Durham: today, BBC Radio 4, 2.30pm.