Amber Online

Like many women who were active during the miner’s strike, it is May Murton (Charlie Hardwick) who has been left to clean up the mess. The failure of her marriage and the disintegration of her community have shattered both her personal and political beliefs.

Her teenage children, Dale and Becky, ( Darren Bell and Katja Roberts) are increasingly out of control, and her estranged husband Tony ( Brian Hogg) has flown the nest to take up residence in the allotments perched high above the town. Tony views the town from above, realising what has been lost but, like many former miners, stripped of the capacity to re-engage with a society which has treated him so cruelly.

May attends a reunion of women activists. It is the night before the Miners’ Gala and they are going to let their hair down at the local rock ‘n’ roll dance. Also heading for the same venue is Roy Cotton, (Bill Speed) the recently arrived manager of an open cast coal mine which the ‘free enterprise’ culture has fostered as replacement for the traditional mining communities. Although he is from a mining background himself, at 17 he got ‘on his bike’ and has never looked back. In political and cultural terms, Roy is regarded as the ‘enemy’.

When he asks May to dance, he is unaware of the effect it will have on both of their lives. Roy does not understand what he is getting himself into. For May, the conflict he engenders proves to be the catalyst to rekindle her lost belief.

The Scar has its roots in work during the 1984 miners’ strike. Amber worked with women’s’ support groups in the region, one of which was Easington Co. Durham. In 1994 Amber produced in conjunction with a community services project, a video tape examining the problems of young people in the East Durham pit villages in the aftermath of the closure of the industry in that area (It’s the Pits). One of these villages was Easington. Links with the women’s group from 10 years earlier were re-established, and a process of examination of the experience of that community in the intervening period, the tensions in families, the perceived alienation of the young, the economic consequences on families of industrial decline, formed the starting point for the script of The Scar. At all stages the local people were involved.They shared their experiences and discussed the script with Amber. Some were employed during production as set decorators and technical assistants, and groups were brought in for consultation during the editing process.

• Charlie Hardwick
• Bill Speed
• Katja Roberts
• Darren Bell
• Brian Hogg

1997
Running time: 95 mins.
Colour

Awards

Arts Event of the Year Award, Northern Electric Arts Awards (97)

Special Prize for TV fiction, Prix Europa (98)

Silver Nymph for Best Actress, Monte-Carlo TV Festival (98)