Sherwood

By AM Thursday, July 7, 2022

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Caoimhin O’Muraile ☭ reviews Sherwood, a BBC Drama Mini-series.

 I was watching with a certain amount of political interest the recent BBC dramatized mini-series, Sherwood. I was not too interested in the story, which no doubt for those who enjoy such drama was very good. I just thought modern characters modelled on Robin of Loxley (Robin Hood) running round Sherwood Forest with a Long-Bow shooting at people and trains a little far-fetched. As I say, each to their own. 

I was, however, very interested in the background to the story which was the 1984/85 British Coal Miner’s Strike. Nottinghamshire was unlike any other area as most, though not all, miners there worked (scabbed). Much of the background, even for Nottinghamshire, was flawed and some of it just untrue though it was a fictitious tale, but based on factual events in 2004 when two horrific murders took place near where the writer of Sherwood grew up. For example, the impression given was one of violence and hatred between the working majority and striking minority of miners in the area. That aspect is true, and even today much acrimony exists between the two groups. The problem I had was the way this violence was portrayed or, at least, implied that it was the strikers intimidating working miners. In any other area, that is where any miners were working, with the strikers in the majority that may have been the case. But not in Nottinghamshire. Away from the pit lanes, where flying pickets from Yorkshire, Durham, Scotland managed with much success to close those working pits, in the mining villages it was the working miners, supported by their far-right allies, in some cases, who were intimidating the striking minority.

In the real world back in 1984 miner’s pickets were viciously attacked by police and whole areas were on curfew. Britain’s motorway network was ordered by a judge to be out of bounds for striking miners, so was the establishment's determination to stop the pickets getting into Nottinghamshire and closing would be working mines. The majority of Nottinghamshire miners, despite working when they should be on strike, would not cross a picket line. At Ollerton colliery, Nottinghamshire, on 15th March 1984 a flying picket from Yorkshire, David Jones, was killed when he was hit by a brick thrown by persons unknown. Suspicion falls on any number from the police, who may have thrown the projectile (please no naïve comments about the police being above that sort of thing. Not in this strike - they were well able, and with unofficial government backing). 

The far-right National Front is another suspect for the death of David Jones, as are the possibility that working miners could have thrown it. There was no mention or reference in passing to this incident which was a milestone in the strike, the first death. Given the fact the series was fiction perhaps a similar incident based upon the Ollerton picket could have been used. 

Much of the violence at the pitheads was orchestrated by the police, who in Sherwood appeared the honest broker in a trade dispute. This was not the case which was why Thatcher introduced what amounted to a national police force, with headquarters at New Scotland Yard. This part the producer and writer, James Graham, of Sherwood did get right with reference to the undercover police officer from the Metropolitan Police in London operating in the area.

That theme was correct because there was much covert police undercover work going on at the time. MI5 had infiltrated the NUM at the highest level with an agent called Roger Windsor who secured the position of the unions CEO. Stella Rimington was the head of F Division of MI5 and F2 monitored trade unions, particularly the NUM. Windsor was put there by her, on Thatcher’s instructions, and, having passed the interview, with flying colours I understand, secured the position of CEO. However, it is the events in Nottinghamshire which was the background to the drama and the undercover operations were regular in that area. The role of MI5 and, in particular, F Division was never mentioned, they stopped at the Met involvement.

What would a former market trader and Blacksmith at Bevercotes Colliery have in common with David Hart, AKA David Lawrence, the son of a wealthy city banker and a friend and advisor to Thatcher? Chris Butcher, code named the “Silver Birch” was such a former Blacksmith at Bevercotes Colliery and a former market trader. He was vocal in the working miners' committees. Up until the strike the most organising he had done was helping promote retiring miners benefit nights. He was now to play a key role, along with Hart – Lawrence – in the formation of a breakaway union, the Union of Democratic Mineworkers (UDM). This “scab” union would be active in Nottinghamshire and would be funded largely by Hart, who was working for Prime Minister, Thatcher. 

What was the “Silver Birch’s” eagerness to set up this “scab” organisation? Hart arranged a meeting of working miners at a plush five-star hotel, with a view to forming this breakaway union, not TUC recognised. This would be no coincidence that Nottinghamshire was picked. The area had a tradition dating back to the nineteenth century, the lockout of 1893, of “scabbing” or “blacklegging”. Many miners who turned up for this meeting at this most unlikely venue for a miners meeting were suspicious. So suspicious in fact many turned away once they found out the true meaning of the meeting was, to split and destroy the NUM in Nottinghamshire! Much to their credit some of the men, even though they were working miners who should have been out on strike, walked away at this juncture. Some even joined the dispute in disgust at what was being done to what was still their union, the NUM. Who was this “Silver Birch” character? (For more reading on this issue and the UDM read section on Nottinghamshire in Striking Similarities P.187 by Kevin Morley). Was this man an MI5 Agent or, at very least, on their payroll? How did he become so familiar, so rapidly, with Hart? Did they already know each other? Had Butcher been an MI5 sleeper at the mine all along? The list of possibilities is endless, but one thing is for certain, he was no ordinary NCB employee! Why was none of this, the slaying of David Jones at Ollerton, this “Silver Birch” character, David Hart not mentioned in the background of the drama? These were important events and even though the series was fiction characters simulating these could have been introduced or, at least, mentioned in passing. There was no mention of MI5 activities in Nottinghamshire, but the involvement of the Metropolitan Police covert operations was in the plot. Maybe I am being pernickety and over estimating the need for more clarity on the background to Sherwood by writer James Graham. 

The central theme of the dramatized series was the real-life events of 2004 when two horrific murders took place in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. The Miner’s Strike was used as a background and I just feel a little more detail should have been afforded to such an important event in working-class history.

At the end of the series a meeting was shown in the welfare club between those who “scabbed” in Nottinghamshire, the majority, and those on strike. The former working miners appeared to blame those who were on strike for the demise of their industry, which was, of course, ridiculous. If those so eager to do Thatcher’s dirty work, as some of their colleagues eventually saw sense and did, had joined the strike the outcome may well have been different.

In real life, during the strike, the only people sleeping rough in Sherwood Forest were striking coal miners on the run from the police, regrouping to picket again the following day. These were the only modern-day Robin Hoods sleeping out in the Forest, and hunted by an ever- growing fascist police force organised by Thatcher. None of the flying pickets had bow and arrows as did our outlaw in the drama, which, from a dramatist viewpoint was very good. Not so great, but not bad, from a labour history perspective. These are my own views and others may disagree, no doubt, but I remember the real-life events and feel a little more detail was necessary, even though the strike was not the main theme. As I said, maybe I’m being pernickety.

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent 

Socialist Republican and Marxist