The Miners' Strike 1984: The Battle for Britain - Season 1

The year-long dispute in the coal mining industry, which was an attempt by unions to prevent the closure of collieries advocated by the government of the day. The strike proved bitterly divisive, nowhere more so than in one Derbyshire pit village, Shirebrook, that came to be split down the middle in an increasingly violent struggle between striking and working miners. This episode tells the story of how Shirebrook descended into violence and division - a microcosm of what was happening in communities across the country.

Memories of June 1984 during the year-long dispute, when the bloodiest single day of the strike occurred with the Battle of Orgreave. With new revelations about the day and its aftermath, this documentary explores the lasting consequences for law and order in the UK because of the way the strike was policed. The film follows three striking miners who went to Orgreave to picket the coking plant and ended up victims of police violence and facing a riot charge which carried a maximum life sentence

The actions of millionaire Tory supporter David Hart, who worked behind the scenes to help Margaret Thatcher's government defeat the prolonged strike by exploiting divisions between working and striking miners in the key county of Nottinghamshire. When - with Hart's help - legal action was brought against the National Union of Mineworkers to freeze bank accounts, its chief executive Roger Windsor sought money from a controversial source - Libyan dictator Colonel Gaddafi