Gen

Product name	Black Christmas
Manufacturer	Reel Vision Films
Price range	£13.45
Web link	http://www.reelvisionfilms.co.uk/pit.html
Rated

Full Review

Black Christmas

A DVD in the Historical Disasters series

Produced by: Reel Vision Films

Year of production: 2006

Format: DVD

Duration: 52 minutes

Language: English

Classification: E (exempt)

Black Christmas is the story of 21st December 1910 disaster at the Pretoria pit (the local name for the Hulton No 3 and 4 Bank pits) near Bolton, an explosion that killed 344 men and boys and was, at the time, the second biggest disaster in British mining history.

The DVD arrives professionally presented in the familiar plastic DVD slip case with a full colour printed insert, it might have been an idea for the producers to have included some information on other titles in the series, either on the packaging or on the disc however none is present.

Load it up and you’ll get a welcome screen with the option to play the film or choose specific chapters. The DVD is narrated by Paul Loughran (Butch Dingle in ITV’s Emmerdale) and features interviews with Erwin Bottomley (Deputy Director, National Coal Mining Museum), Dr David Holding (Social Historian), Brian Clare (Pretoria Pit Historian) and Dave Siron, Guide at the National Coal Mining Museum.

I watched this DVD deliberately with two people who do not entirely share my interest for all things mining history and mine exploration related. I wanted to see if it had a broader appeal and could hold somebody’s attention as an hour long documentary.

The DVD starts with an introduction to the Pretoria pit and its surrounding area before looking at the development of coal mining in the UK, from its earliest origins to modern techniques. This is well illustrated with computer graphics, interviews and underground sequences shot at the National Coal Mining Museum. It then progresses to a detailed history of the Pretoria pit, again well supported by interviews, illustrations, archive photographs and good use of first hand reports. Finally the disaster itself and the subsequent enquiry are covered in great detail. The extent of the research conducted and the factual content here are commendable.

Black Christmas is an excellent and informative production. It is very factual but never dull. It certainly holds its own as a documentary for the general market, and very effectively illustrates the realities of working in a coal mine in the early 20th century. For anybody with more of a grounding in mines and mining history this is still a very worthy purchase, whilst most of the general historical information and methodology will be familiar, the history of the pit and the analysis of the disaster and the enquiry are so well covered that unless you know the entire history already you will enjoy and learn from this DVD.

The only criticisms are related to minor production issues. Occasionally the same archive photographs were used several times leading you to wonder if they were relevant to the narrative at that point (most clearly are relevant) and the final interviews are at times drowned out by music. No coal mine documentary would be complete without the colliery band but it slightly drew attention away from the final interviews, and the points and sentiment contained in them. These however are very minor criticisms.

Highly recommended.