40's Britain - At The Coal Face DVD

Advantages: Wonderful
Disadvantages: None

...some of the work on site, he preferred to do it in his back garden workshop which was filled with many special tools, often of his own design and manufacture, all powered by a small steam engine that he operated in his back garden workshop. Section 1 of this DVD is entitled The Early Pioneers. Fred talks of the earliest forms of power, water and wind, and then points out that steam power began to take over as the main power source in the 18th and 19th century, bringing the possibility of mechanisation and industrialisation, mass production and rapid transportation. All due to coal and its use to fire steam boilers. Fred points out that there's a special smell to the production of steam power, and that older people who visited his workshop said that the smell of oil and steam took them back to the days of their youth, when virtually... Read review

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Advantages: A wealth of British talent
Disadvantages: Although not a true story, sadly such things did happen

...Released not long before the Full Monty, but never with the same hype, this uncoloured look at life in a Yorkshire mining town during the pit closures is a superb black commedy and gritty drama. There are too many talented British stars to mention all of them, many of whom under-rated in their professions. Stephen Tompkinson, Melanie Hill, Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald, and Ewan McGreggor are just a few. This is a look at life through the eye's of the miners who were affected and their families. The back ground story is of the pit band, who's members can not see a future for it once the pit closures have gone through. The band leader is Pete Postlethwaite, who lives and breathes for the music, and as a retired miner who's taken in too much coal dust over the years, he doesn't have much else to live for. This is an endearing... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Fantasitc footage of the last days of steam
Disadvantages: None

...This is another in the eminently professionally produced DVD programmes on steam train released through Green Umbrella. With the Very Best of British Steam of Yesteryear, you are given a real feast for the eyes and also, for the memory, of course. Well, for those of us old enough to remember when steam trains regularly plied their business up and down the main lines of the United Kingdom. The last regular steam runs in Britain came to a very sad halt in August 1968. That's slightly under a year before the first manned space flight to the moon, for those interested in transport trivia. Without an unsung bunch of dedicated enthusiasts and professional and semi-professional film makers in the previous two decades, these wonderful steam trains would not be available to the general public. They would only exist as the personal memories... Read review

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