This film is part of Free
Fuel for Battle
There’s a war on and coal is needed – lots, and fast. Dylan Thomas is on hand to script this fascinating documentary.
Overview
There’s a war on and coal is needed – lots of it, and fast. This fascinating dramatised documentary tells the story of the pit production companies ensuring the mining industry reached its targets. Prefiguring similar initiatives under postwar nationalisation, which would also be dramatised on film, this piece can be viewed as part of the long process of coalmining not only reforming and renewing but also rebranding itself. It was a process that called for film, and for drama-documentary in particular, being perhaps the most powerful rebranding tool there is. The fine direction is by John Eldridge, in one of his many collaborations with none other than Dylan Thomas who supplies the script.
This government film is a public record, preserved and presented by the BFI National Archive on behalf of The National Archives, home to more than 1,000 years of British history.
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