FED UP WITH THE SYSTEM. TICKED OFF AT THE ESTABLISHMENT. AND MAD ABOUT… EACH OTHER.

In the small town of Grimley in Northern England, Gloria (Tara Fitzgerald) joins the local brass band, made up of miners; she has a secret they won’t like…

A film set in a community that has suffered a lot after the 1980s wave of pit closures. In the U.S., it was marketed as a romantic comedy, but it is the political ingredients that give the movie an edge and emotional strength, not really the love affair between Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor or the story that’s similar to many other British comedies at the time.

A frequently relevant depiction of workers who are stuck in a hopeless situation, with a solid performance by Pete Postlethwaite.

1996-U.K. 107 min. Color. Written and directed by Mark Herman. Cast: Ewan McGregor (Andy Barrow), Pete Postlethwaite (Danny Ormondroyd), Tara Fitzgerald (Gloria Mullins), Stephen Tompkinson, Jim Carter, Philip Jackson.

Trivia: Kate Winslet and Catherine Zeta-Jones were reportedly considered for a role.

Last word: “Pete Postlethwaite, who was playing my father, took me down to Grimethorpe a week before filming to talk to locals and let them know this was their story. The miners were reticent at first. Not long before, a TV crew had stitched up the town, getting kids to throw stones at derelict buildings and making it seem as if it was a regular occurrence, as if Grimethorpe had become a wild west town. But Pete, with that extraordinary face, could make people see him as one of their own. We were allowed into the miners’ club.” (Tompkinson, The Guardian)