Doncaster filmed movie Brassed Off celebrates 30th anniversary
The classic music movie is marking three decades
Doncaster filmed movie favourite Brassed Off is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
The 1996 film told the struggles of a fictional Yorkshire brass band set against the back drop of pit closures.
The Grimley Colliert Band was loosely based around the real-life Grimethorpe Colliery Band, with the majority of the scenes shot in the South Yorkshire village.
The bittersweet comedy-drama, written and directed by Mark Herman, starred Pete Postlethwaite as Danny, the devoted leader of the Grimley Colliery Band, who is determined to show the Tories ‘we are not defeated’ as a pit closure programme threatens the existence of the colliery band.
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Ewan McGregor, Stephen Tompkinson and Tara Fitzgerald also starred in an impressive ensemble cast, with the finale of the movie seeing the band compete at the historic Royal Albert Hall.
What is Brassed Off?
It was a movie that combined tragedy and comedy, politics and music - and brought the plight of South Yorkshire miners on to cinema screens worldwide.
On November 1, 1996, Brassed Off was released and, excuse the pun, it arrived with little fanfare.
Written and directed by Mark Herman, it told the troubles faced by a colliery brass band following the closure of their pit and was loosely based on the story of the Grimethorpe Colliery Band and their own struggles against the closure programme.
Gradually, word spread about the movie and it became a box office smash and has gone on to become one of the most highly-regarded British films of recent years, managing to weave a plot featuring not only some comic touches but also a host of harrowing scenes that helped spell out the misery of Margaret Thatcher’s decimation of the region’s mining industry.
The film is set in Grimley’ in the mid-1990s and was largely shot in Grimethorpe. although several scenes were shot in Doncaster including a scene shot outside Doncaster Minster where the band play for a seriously ill Danny, with the former Doncaster Art College doubling up a hospital.