Pride looks likely to be a massive hit. It is wonderful. I've seen it twice, laughed repeatedly, wept at the end. You might wonder how, after the defeat of the miners, an upbeat ending could be legitimate, but this is one of the film's many achievements. The story could easily have gone awry but never belly-flops into sentimentality — its feelgood factor is earned. It evokes the 80s uncannily. And what is most remarkable is that it does not trivialise the politics of the time. It opens with a rallying Arthur Scargill on TV, saying the miners will, one day, be able to tell themselves: "I was proud and privileged to be part of the greatest struggle on Earth.
Thatcher appears, looking like a possessed marionette, her bossy elocution a declaration of intent, as if she means her voice to carry, to be heard generations on. Most of the real people who were involved are alive to tell their tales, although Aids casts its shadow in the events of the film and has taken several LGSM members this is not Pride 's primary subject but readers who would prefer not to know anything about its impact on the film should stop reading here. Beresford's problem was how to make contact with the survivors from the mining community and LGSM with no obvious internet trail to help him.
But one crucial find — a half-hour documentary, All Out! Dancing in Dulais , created by LGSM for the miners — became a vital resource and makes a fascinating introduction to the cast. Its most arresting character is a charming, fresh-faced Irish boy, Mark Ashton , who died of Aids in He was one of the founders of LGSM and talks like a leader: "One community should give solidarity to another. It is really illogical to say, 'I'm gay and I'm into defending the gay community but I don't care about anything else…'.
In Pride , he is beautifully played by Ben Schnetzer with spontaneity, sweetness and swagger — a heartbreaker. Beresford says he was the hardest character to recapture, not least because: "In Wales, they still talk about Mark Ashton as if he were Joan of Arc. In the homemade LGSM documentary, we also glimpse a tall, handsome fellow wearing groovy leather trousers, shaking a donations bucket outside Gay's the Word bookshop in London's Marchmont Street — this is Jonathan Blake.
A small, bespectacled chap, busy with paperwork, is northern English leftie Mike Jackson, described by Beresford as a "keeper of the flame, then and now". Among the Welsh contingent, a young woman stands out — one of the stars of the homemade doc. She explains how the gay community educated the mining community: "Their struggle is similar to our own. Beresford describes her as a "powerhouse, a highly intelligent working-class woman, an engine of social action".
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And there is Dai Donovan, Welsh miner, courageous and open-minded, speaking with dignity at the benefit concert Pits and Perverts the phrase was the Sun's, reclaimed by LGSM as a badge of honour. Cliff, an older miner in the film, a killingly funny and affecting Bill Nighy appears in the documentary saying: "The lesbians and gays have been super duper.
But because this was an amateur documentary, no names accompanied the faces. The credits, luckily, included an uncommon name: Reggie Blennerhassett. Eventually he met almost everyone. Yet he knew he would also need an invented character. Joe sensitively played by George MacKay is a sixth-former, a suburban mouse discovering his sexuality to cover for absences from home when he is with LGSM, he tells his folks he is doing a choux pastry course. What happens to him is like what happens to the straight audience — he mirrors the slight feeling of trepidation.
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It helps to have someone who does not know where he is going because an audience can think: neither do I. Beresford was honest with all his interviewees from the Welsh mining community and from LGSM: "I'm a ruthless teller of stories. I told them this won't be a documentary. Now, because I'm about to meet some of the original people involved, I have to ask: how has the film gone down? He admits he was "incredibly frightened" before the first screening.
But at the end there was stunned silence, applause, tears.
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Dai Donovan, visibly moved, asked: "May I speak? He said the time had come for them to thank us, as film-makers.
He said, 'None of us believed this story would see the light of day. It is a document for the future, it exists for all time. After the strike, Mike Jackson felt "sad to think that when I died this history would be forgotten.
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The archive is in the People's History Museum, Manchester — but nobody would have known it was there". Now his eyes shine as he remembers the Welsh miners who came to London to march with Gay Pride in June The film gets that so right. But I feel the same now, if anything more angry. I hate Margaret Thatcher as much as ever. I speak to Blennerhassett — Beresford's key to the story — and his partner, Ray Aller, on the phone and they agree that being involved in LGSM was "the best time of our lives".
They tell me they were paid extras in the film's final march: "We were costumed for the 80s.
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It was a stirring day to relive and many younger people were fascinated. One hope is that the film might revive political interest because the activism of the left has been sidelined, the trade unions are weak, gay rights issues aren't there. Like many of those I interview, they say the film made them weep and they see it, in part, as a memorial to Mark Ashton.
Blennerhassett says: "It is very hard to watch. When you see Ben playing Mark, it is like he has come back to life — it is unbelievable. I meet Jonathan Blake at Mike Jackson's flat and he brings along a black-and-white photo of himself dancing at the miners' welfare hall. We look at it together: he is leaning back, eyes closed, hands clapping. He is handsome, relaxed, basking in the moment. It was this image that inspired a dancing scene in Pride in which Dominic West really goes for it and climbs on the tabletops, wowing everyone in sight.
The real Jonathan is warm and bearish, with a mohican, chic specs, a scarlet fleece, hippyish brown leather shoes — loads of visual flair. In the film, Jonathan is more actor than activist. A GIF of a pug waving. Any dating mishaps? What does your bio say? Tips for standing out? Confidence is key. As are make-up-free photos. Focusing on me. The day before our planned date, he invited me to a stand-up comedy night that evening instead, which was spontaneous and fun. Best thing about being single?
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