Rabin a'Hood, Whar Be Ye?

 “Sherwood,”BBC limited series, 2022

This story is about a former coal-mining town near Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, in the midlands of England. It is a version of class war PTSD, as the central drama revolves around repercussions from the massive miner's strike in 1984, but years later. It shows the quality in BBC drama over the non-existent fare on U.S. PBS, even given BBC's problems. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) strike led by Arthur Scargill was a defining moment in how England became a neo-liberal ruin under Maggie Thatcher. The 1984 strike was defeated after many arrests, bloodshed, court orders, riot cops, media collaboration and scabs. Later all the mines were closed by the government and the collier towns left to fend for themselves.

Annesley Woodhouse is the real town

The characters are a local lead detective, an assistant detective from the Metro police, a former under-cover cop, a NUM militant, a group of scab miners who had been with the breakaway Union of Democratic Miners, two estranged sisters, their children, a dark-skinned love interest and an odd, dorky Indian dad. It all revolves around a horrific night when a fire in the scab-transporting bus building killed and burned several workers, supposedly started by a group of NUM strikers nicking some food, but really set up by the under-cover female cop. This bloody incident poisoned the lives of many in the mining village, leading to years of severe family estrangement.

The under-cover cop suffers guilt over her role in the deaths, calamity and arrests, one of whom was not even there. The lead cop also has his guilt, as he turned in his father and ignored his burnt brother. Scotland Yard assigned under-covers to infiltrate the union and mining towns to gather information on militants and leaders, but also to act as provocateurs. The unit was called the Special Demonstrations Squad. She was one, but she stayed in town after her assignment was over.

Can you imagine PBS exposing the FBI about its own infiltrations of left movements over the years, something still going on? No. The BBC environmental fantasy drama “The Rig” revealed under-cover British police, even MI5, infiltrating a Scottish anti-nuclear group and camp. The BBC drama “Line of Duty” reveals systemic, deep corruption in the London Metropolitan police. The long-running BBC series “The Peaky Blinders” shows police agents gunning for subversives. The British film drama “Official Secrets” is about MI5 spying on U.N. members over the Iraq war. Again, when has PBS ever cast aspersions on U.S. police? Never that I know of, except perhaps an episode of Frontline.

Class war in England

The somewhat unbelievable plot revolves around a confused, alienated son who takes to Sherwood Forest with his bows and commits various crimes. So, the sheriff of Nottingham looking for him is now the kinda good guy while the guy with the bows in the woods is the bad guy. Like everything else in neo-liberalism, the story is turned upside down. Robin Hood no longer exists.

What is interesting are the personal class attitudes of the various characters – an arrogant Tory daughter of the bus owner in town, who shipped scabs into the mines.  Or the defensive weakness of the majority of local scabs, who still feel put upon for selling out. Or the genuine attempts of the villagers to get along with each other, even during the strike. Their anger, hidden secrets, betrayals and humanity are on display. The psychological arc is to attempt a reconciliation between the two sides. As one lead character on the NUM side points out, they benefit when workers fight among themselves. As the chant goes “the Miners united will never be defeated.” They weren't so they were. Other factors, like the scabbing of Jaruzelski's Poland by providing coal to England and tepid support by national union leaders played a role too.

The scenes shift back and forth between the 'present' and 1984, with key characters portrayed by younger versions of themselves. It is a class war version of a civil war, tearing families apart. This is the first fictional TV portrayal of this strike that I can remember other than Pride, which was a movie. Both turn a critical eye on Thatcherism. The series is inspired by the real murder of an outspoken NUM union miner in Annesley Woodhouse, Keith Frogson, in 2004, and dedicated to him.

Prior reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 16 year archive, using these terms: “Class Against Class – The Miner's Strike,” “Pride,” “Chavs – the Demonization of the Working Class” “Peaky Blinders,” “Line of Duty,” “Manufacturing Consent,” “Left Confusion on Brexit,” “Official Secrets,” “I, Daniel Blake.”

The Cultural Marxist

March 16, 2023