0:00:02 > 0:00:05Never in my life have I ever seen anything like this.
0:00:07 > 0:00:13I hope that I shall never, ever see anything like it again.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17For years, of course, miners have been used to having roll calls
0:00:17 > 0:00:21whenever there's been a pit disaster.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Today, for the first time in history,
0:00:24 > 0:00:26the roll call was for the miners' children.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00Ahh. How to talk about it.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04That's been a struggle from the very start.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08When something like that happens,
0:01:08 > 0:01:12a village, a person...
0:01:12 > 0:01:13they're bound to go dark.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18They did their best, they really did.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21Psychologists offered to the community -
0:01:21 > 0:01:22educational and clinical.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28But all that, those processes, they were still in their infancy.
0:01:29 > 0:01:34And sometimes - well, right then, straight after,
0:01:34 > 0:01:36isn't when you need 'em.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42I remember, for example, the one appointed to me,
0:01:42 > 0:01:46he'd say, "Don't think about bad things, like what happened,
0:01:46 > 0:01:48"but happy things, like your birthday."
0:01:51 > 0:01:53My birthday!
0:01:53 > 0:01:55How could he have known?
0:01:55 > 0:01:57There was no worse thing.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59I'd been looking forward to mine -
0:01:59 > 0:02:0120, 30 friends at a party.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05But then, when the date came,
0:02:05 > 0:02:09there were only three, four of us about,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12and that's when it really sunk in.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16My friends - they'd been wiped out.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27The journeys will be starting soon.
0:02:27 > 0:02:29You can't see them, down here in the street,
0:02:29 > 0:02:31but once they're up and running
0:02:31 > 0:02:34their sound is all through the village -
0:02:34 > 0:02:36last thing I hear before going to sleep,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39and first thing, too, just after I wake.
0:02:39 > 0:02:44Or when we're playing down the river, or in school, on a break.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46Rumble they do, and clang.
0:02:46 > 0:02:48Metal wheels on metal tracks.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50Drams they call 'em, too,
0:02:50 > 0:02:54carrying the spoil and the shale from down by the pit,
0:02:54 > 0:02:56across the black bridge
0:02:56 > 0:02:58and all the way up to the top of the tip.
0:02:58 > 0:03:02Number seven - that's the one they're going to now.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06Even if you were there, though, on the mountain, I mean,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08you'd still only hear them,
0:03:08 > 0:03:12wouldn't see them - not till the cranes, at least.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Not with this fog, like a cloud in the street.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19It's dark. I can still tell it's thick.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23The way the streetlights blur out, and how I can't see the ridge.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26If I could, that would be darker again,
0:03:26 > 0:03:28like ink spilt on ink.
0:03:28 > 0:03:31And above it, just the moon -
0:03:31 > 0:03:33a harvest one in a week or two.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37Will says they'll be putting a man on it soon.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40He means the Americans, but I don't know.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42I think the Russians might get there first.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45They're launching Lunik 12 tomorrow.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48Like a spinning top it is, with spikes all over.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51Putting it into orbit, if they can.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53That's what Dad says -
0:03:53 > 0:03:56"Like a moon for a moon, but made by man."
0:03:56 > 0:04:00Mad about science, my Tomos, always following them rockets.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02Which is fine by me.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05Better by far he's looking up there to the darkness of space,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08than down to the blackness of this bloody place.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13What still haunts me the most
0:04:13 > 0:04:16is how it was staring us in the face.
0:04:17 > 0:04:21Not just the thing itself, but even the word - tip.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Pit, turned inside out,
0:04:25 > 0:04:27wrong way round,
0:04:27 > 0:04:28which is how it was, of course.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32I was the one meant to be in danger.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35It was miners who died for coal...
0:04:35 > 0:04:38- CHILDREN CHANTING MINERS' NICKNAMES - ..hundreds each year.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42Us, in that daylight night...
0:04:42 > 0:04:44CHILDREN CHANTING
0:04:44 > 0:04:47..not our children, above ground,
0:04:47 > 0:04:48learning in the light.
0:04:48 > 0:04:53HORN
0:04:53 > 0:04:57That's the pit, sounding the end of the safety shift.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00And that's the bus, "Merthyr Col" on its side,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03getting ready to give the next lot a ride.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Never see daylight, not in winter,
0:05:06 > 0:05:08not unless you're carried out on a stretcher.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11That's what my dad says.
0:05:11 > 0:05:12He's down there, see?
0:05:12 > 0:05:15But coming up now. He'll wash, change.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18And if it's been hot, screw my vest into my tommy box.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22Then he'll catch the bus back to have breakfast together.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25It's important, isn't it? To eat round the table as one.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29Otherwise, what's the point of having fathers, a mother, sons?
0:05:32 > 0:05:34Might eat three times today.
0:05:34 > 0:05:39Together, I mean. Half-term, so short hours, isn't it?
0:05:39 > 0:05:43So, yeah, Tom'll be home long before tea.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45And then tomorrow, a whole week off.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47I can't wait!
0:05:47 > 0:05:49I'm playing piano at a wedding first thing -
0:05:49 > 0:05:53Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, for our neighbours Sheryl and Colin.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57OUT OF TUNE PIANO
0:05:57 > 0:06:02Then, hopefully, I'll be in time for the films, down at Bugs.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06Cartoons, then Riders Of Death Valley.
0:06:06 > 0:06:11MUSIC: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
0:06:20 > 0:06:23Wasn't always like this, of course.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26Summer grazing, that's what brought the first people here.
0:06:26 > 0:06:32Good land, sheltered spot, fed by six streams at least.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36It's all still here, in a way - in the names, the streets.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41Hafod Tanglwys - the summer place of Tanglwys.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Bryngolau - hill of light.
0:06:45 > 0:06:50Pantglas - the green hollow,
0:06:50 > 0:06:54and still is, I suppose, though with kids now, not grass.
0:06:54 > 0:06:56And Aberfan, of course.
0:06:56 > 0:06:58The mouth of the Fan,
0:06:58 > 0:07:01the biggest of those streams feeding the Taff.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08I still feel guilty about it. Silly, I know, but I do.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Because I can remember so clearly thinking, that morning
0:07:14 > 0:07:17as Jack did his rounds in the van,
0:07:17 > 0:07:22how nothing new, or nothing exciting ever happened in Aberfan.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Mind you, I was only nine, so maybe that's it!
0:07:29 > 0:07:31And I lived at the top end, which was poorer.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38But I wanted to be like my sister, older - to listen to the jukebox
0:07:38 > 0:07:40down Emanuelli's cafe.
0:07:40 > 0:07:461960s POP MUSIC PLAYS
0:07:46 > 0:07:48The boys from Bedlinog, straight-backed on their motorbikes,
0:07:48 > 0:07:51winking through the window to take me away.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56I wanted something to change -
0:07:56 > 0:07:59for life to go faster, for me and the village.
0:08:02 > 0:08:03And now?
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Now I just wish that I'd somehow slowed time.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13Stopped it even.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17And with it, that slippage.
0:08:17 > 0:08:19MUSIC: It's Not Unusual by Tom Jones
0:08:21 > 0:08:24Barbara! You out of the bathroom yet?
0:08:24 > 0:08:29Get in there, Anne, if she is! Half an hour to get yourself set.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31Last day of school today, then half-term.
0:08:31 > 0:08:34If it's fine tomorrow, I may go help on the farm.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38Or play up the mountain, or tag, or hide and seek
0:08:38 > 0:08:40up the old canal bank. But that's tomorrow.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44Should think of today - that's what Mam would say.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Still a morning of school.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48Maths, English, then break.
0:08:48 > 0:08:51Might do some skipping, if Beth brings her rope.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53GLASS CLATTERS
0:08:53 > 0:08:55That's Jack the Milk, going door to door.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58He's already been out for an hour, maybe more.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01We usually pass him on our way up to school,
0:09:01 > 0:09:03still delivering all down Moy Road,
0:09:03 > 0:09:07with Bryntaf and Aberfan Fawr still to go.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12Like the valley's still asleep when the mist's down this deep.
0:09:12 > 0:09:17But it isn't - never really quiet, this village.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21One shift coming up, another going down.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28Generations down that pit. Not my boys, though.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30I'm working down there so they won't.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33Will's heading for an apprentice at JJ's garage,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37and, well...according to some, he's got a chance in the ring.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43And Tomos bach, he's good with his hands, too,
0:09:43 > 0:09:44in a different way.
0:09:44 > 0:09:48Only nine, but plays piano with both of 'em.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56One of the dinner ladies knew my mam!
0:09:56 > 0:09:59I mean, when she was little and in Pantglas, too.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02They're not like the teachers, see. They're softer, will hold a hand.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05And they know everyone, not just the child,
0:10:05 > 0:10:10but their tad-cu, their nan - the whole family.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13She's right, they do. Which is good, isn't it?
0:10:13 > 0:10:15I mean, to know your daughter's in a place
0:10:15 > 0:10:18where they know more than just her face.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21Not like down Cardiff, where you're just one in a queue.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25On your own. No belongings, no names behind you.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28Take my Gwyn. Gwyn the Rose they call him round here.
0:10:28 > 0:10:30Famous for his flowers.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32Someone knocks at least once a week,
0:10:32 > 0:10:34thumb in their buttonhole after a five-leaf.
0:10:36 > 0:10:40Gives him a pride, to be known like that.
0:10:40 > 0:10:43Had an accident, see? Down the pit.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45Works in Hoover's now.
0:10:45 > 0:10:46He's had his fair share, fair play -
0:10:46 > 0:10:50so those roses, well, they add to him, don't they?
0:10:52 > 0:10:55I stopped growing them after.
0:10:55 > 0:11:00Least, let them go wild, stopped cutting them back.
0:11:01 > 0:11:02Didn't seem right.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08And flowers, well... they changed for me, too.
0:11:09 > 0:11:15Whenever I saw them, in a window, a vase,
0:11:15 > 0:11:17I'd see the cemetery slope again.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22Like a quilt, spread.
0:11:24 > 0:11:27A quilt of flowers for our village dead.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34Anne! You getting dressed up there?
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Never mind half day, you know the rules - school's still school.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43She's a dreamer, that one. Youngest of six and youngest by far.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45Gets 'em yearning too soon -
0:11:45 > 0:11:49I mean, when their brothers and sisters are all in their teens.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53But I say to her, "Anne, you cherish these days,
0:11:53 > 0:11:57"cos believe me, cariad, one blink, and the world'll make you old
0:11:57 > 0:11:58"in a hundred ways.'
0:11:59 > 0:12:03"One blink, and the world'll make you old...
0:12:05 > 0:12:07"..in a hundred ways."
0:12:13 > 0:12:15Last day for me, too.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17So I'll be out tonight.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19The Bystanders playing down Troed-y-rhiw.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22I saw them at the Social last month.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Like the Beatles and Moody Blues, all in one.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28Bit of soul, bit of Motown.
0:12:28 > 0:12:30From Merthyr they are.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34We helped them, after, to carry their kit back up to the train in the Vale.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36I think Will saw, and got jealous a bit!
0:12:38 > 0:12:40Still - this bloody mist!
0:12:40 > 0:12:42Least it's stopped raining, I suppose.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44Old women and sticks it was last night,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47streaming black all down the gullies.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49We were just used to it, see?
0:12:49 > 0:12:52The colour of coal in our water, our river,
0:12:52 > 0:12:54was all we'd ever known.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58The tips were just there, part of home.
0:12:59 > 0:13:00So, no.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06We didn't see any wrong in the rain.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10Always been the same - that's why we love a small coal charabanc.
0:13:10 > 0:13:15Six or seven buses in convoy, away for a day on the beach in Barry.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20Then the long drive back, Tomos asleep on my lap,
0:13:20 > 0:13:24the smell of the sea in his hair, sand in his toes.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28Yeah, he still loves going on those.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30Who wouldn't? It's the ocean -
0:13:30 > 0:13:33got to beat swimming down the Taff,
0:13:33 > 0:13:37or in the streams under the tips, hasn't it?
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Not that here's as bad as all that.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44Loads to do! The mountain - that's a playground in itself.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53Anne goes up there for hide and seek.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56And Tomos? Sits on cardboard to slide down the tips.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58Could do without those, granted.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01But to remove them - well, the cost...
0:14:01 > 0:14:04NCB reckon it would close the pit.
0:14:04 > 0:14:07And we do all right, too, don't we?
0:14:07 > 0:14:12So, yeah, can't complain. A good place to be, Aberfan.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15CLASSICAL PIANO INSTRUMENTAL
0:14:59 > 0:15:01Bye, Mam.
0:15:05 > 0:15:06Bye, love.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19And that's how they went.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23Out a hundred doors for their last days.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26And that's how we said our last goodbyes,
0:15:26 > 0:15:30with all the luxury of easy time.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34But it was already draining.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37Running out like sand in the glass,
0:15:37 > 0:15:39like that pile of tailings and shale,
0:15:39 > 0:15:45already moving, pressed to a shifting,
0:15:45 > 0:15:49under the weight of its own black hand.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53Restless with rain,
0:15:53 > 0:15:55storm water.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02CLOCK CHIMES
0:16:15 > 0:16:18And under it, on their way to school...
0:16:19 > 0:16:20..my son.
0:16:23 > 0:16:24My daughter.
0:16:28 > 0:16:29Bye...
0:16:31 > 0:16:33..love.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41CHILDREN LAUGH
0:16:41 > 0:16:43I love this time of year.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46- I think it's my favourite. - Harvest festival.
0:16:46 > 0:16:47Bonfire Night.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51Then after half term we start rehearsing the Nativity.
0:16:51 > 0:16:54Sometimes, if we're early, we go into Maypoles -
0:16:54 > 0:16:57a grocer's on the high street, just to watch their bobbins,
0:16:57 > 0:16:58strung up on a string.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00More like a zip-line it is.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04- One push from the counter... - And off they go, to the register.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07That morning, though, we were late,
0:17:07 > 0:17:09so didn't go to Maypoles,
0:17:09 > 0:17:13but Anderson's instead - a tuck shop on the hill,
0:17:13 > 0:17:15next to Georgie the barber's.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18- CHILDREN:- Three shrimps, please, and two flying saucers.
0:17:19 > 0:17:25Georgie was still in bed, his shop sign turned to "closed".
0:17:25 > 0:17:30He's always said, if it had been the other way round, well -
0:17:30 > 0:17:33let's just say he's grateful he dozed.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35Shh, listen!
0:17:35 > 0:17:38- To what? - The birds. They aren't singing.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44- How can you listen to nothing? - It's this mist, isn't it?
0:17:44 > 0:17:45What about it?
0:17:45 > 0:17:48Can't see, can they? So don't know it's day.
0:17:49 > 0:17:50It was true.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53The mist was still lying heavy,
0:17:53 > 0:17:54so as we walked up to school,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58just a few steps apart we'd lose sight of each other.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00If only I'd have known.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03I'd have made sure to stay closer.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08Do you think Mrs Jennings will still make us go out?
0:18:08 > 0:18:11Even if at break, it's still like this?
0:18:11 > 0:18:15You know her rules - outside, whatever the weather.
0:18:15 > 0:18:16What shall we play, if she does?
0:18:16 > 0:18:19Hopscotch? Tag? Stuck in the mud?
0:18:19 > 0:18:22L-O-N-D-O-N spells London?
0:18:22 > 0:18:25Or Dickie five stones, or ginger ginger, maybe later?
0:18:31 > 0:18:35You know what my dad said last night, about Mr Beynon?
0:18:35 > 0:18:37That he'd beat him in a fight?
0:18:37 > 0:18:39That he's in love with Miss Jones?
0:18:39 > 0:18:43No! That he used to play for Aberdare, years ago.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46At lock he was, and one of their best.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49I could believe it. Huge, he was.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53I still remember, standing at his feet,
0:18:53 > 0:18:58my head well under his chest, looking up, saying, "Sir?" -
0:18:58 > 0:19:02and thinking, "Dewww, he goes on for ever!"
0:19:03 > 0:19:04We had assembly that day.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09The whole school, sitting cross-legged on the parquet floor.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12OK, sit down, class.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14The whole school, ages five to ten,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17singing All Things Bright And Beautiful.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20# All things bright and beautiful
0:19:20 > 0:19:26# All creatures great and small
0:19:26 > 0:19:30# All things wise and wonderful
0:19:30 > 0:19:34# The Lord God made them all. #
0:19:34 > 0:19:38No. There Is A Green Hill Far Away.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41That's what we sang, I think. Can't be sure.
0:19:41 > 0:19:45# There is a green hill far away
0:19:45 > 0:19:51# Outside a city wall... #
0:19:51 > 0:19:53Then we went to our classes -
0:19:53 > 0:19:55that I do know.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57Each age through a different door.
0:20:08 > 0:20:10I sat by the window. I remember that.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Mr Beynon up front, writing the date.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22"20th August 1963.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26"Dear Sir, re: danger from coal slurry being tipped at the rear
0:20:26 > 0:20:28"of Pantglas School, Aberfan.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30- DIFFERENT VOICES:- "I am very apprehensive about this matter...
0:20:30 > 0:20:33"..as are the councillors and the residents in this area...
0:20:33 > 0:20:39"..as they have previously experienced, during periods of rain...
0:20:39 > 0:20:41"13th December 1963.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43"Dear Sir, re: danger from coal slurry being tipped at the rear...
0:20:43 > 0:20:47- "Danger from coal slurry being tipped...- ..danger from coal slurry being tipped...
0:20:47 > 0:20:50"..tipped at the rear of Pantglas School, Aberfan.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52"As a matter of emergency... I feel it is necessary
0:20:52 > 0:20:54"that the NCB be made to commit...
0:20:54 > 0:20:58"31st January 1964. Dear Sir, re:...
0:20:58 > 0:21:03"on the 22nd January I stated that the pipes
0:21:03 > 0:21:05"under the Aberfan road were half full of silt
0:21:05 > 0:21:07"and that conditions...
0:21:07 > 0:21:09"So far as the council are concerned,
0:21:09 > 0:21:11"there has been a deterioration in the position...
0:21:11 > 0:21:15"As I have said, the silt washed down will now build up...
0:21:15 > 0:21:19"I have not yet had a satisfactory reply to the questions raised.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22"..sliding in the manner that I have envisaged.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24"You are no doubt aware of the tips above Pantglas...
0:21:24 > 0:21:27"You are no doubt aware of the tips above Pantglas...
0:21:27 > 0:21:30"..and if they were to move, a very serious position would accrue."
0:21:32 > 0:21:33October...?
0:21:35 > 0:21:36Come on, who can tell me?
0:21:37 > 0:21:40October 21st, sir, 1966.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47I'd been out in that mist, so thick I could only see
0:21:47 > 0:21:49a couple of the poles down below,
0:21:49 > 0:21:53the ones that carry the wires up from town.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56One, two, maybe three, no more.
0:21:59 > 0:22:05Then suddenly...those wires started swinging around,
0:22:05 > 0:22:06started jumping.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10Like some giant hand was playing at skipping.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13RUMBLING
0:22:15 > 0:22:16Sir?
0:22:16 > 0:22:18- Yes?- Is that thunder?
0:22:19 > 0:22:21Maybe, Anne.
0:22:26 > 0:22:30But then it got louder than thunder ever can.
0:22:30 > 0:22:32And faster.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35I looked out the window, saw Jack the Milk, then -
0:22:35 > 0:22:37and I still don't know why, I had no time to think -
0:22:37 > 0:22:40I put the book I was reading over my head.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43- RUMBLING - Seconds later, the darkness came in.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47RUMBLING
0:22:47 > 0:22:50As if all the eyes in all the world...
0:22:50 > 0:22:52had chosen then to blink.
0:22:52 > 0:22:56SOUNDS LIKE THUNDER
0:22:56 > 0:22:59RUMBLING FADES TO SILENCE
0:23:13 > 0:23:17CHATTERING
0:23:18 > 0:23:20Thank you very much for sharing.
0:23:20 > 0:23:22Glad to. It's good therapy for me.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25I was thinking about how you must have felt on that journey,
0:23:25 > 0:23:27on the bus on the way home.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29I hadn't really thought about it for 50 years. Yeah.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32And, you know, when you live in an area, you know lots of people.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36- That's right. - Yeah, so, generation yna, stopio siarad Cymraeg 'da pobol.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40Obviously, we learnt about it, growing up with history in school..
0:23:40 > 0:23:41- Yes.- ..and that kind of thing.
0:23:41 > 0:23:44- But the fact that it shouldn't have happened.- Oh, no.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47People were talking even months before
0:23:47 > 0:23:50about the slag heap, and somebody should do something about it.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53Very quiet, please. Very still. Here we go.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00I'm a scientist, so I don't believe in spirits and such.
0:24:00 > 0:24:04But I've always kept a diary, a page of A4, every night,
0:24:04 > 0:24:06so it's there, in black and white.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10We couldn't sleep. Me or my wife.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12We were living, in East London back then,
0:24:12 > 0:24:15us and our baby girl,
0:24:15 > 0:24:17but that wasn't where we were from.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20No, that was Merthyr and Aberfan.
0:24:20 > 0:24:24And that's where we were going in the early dark that morning.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27I was getting ready for work, up at the bank.
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Hadn't long put on my suit and tie, when a neighbour came over,
0:24:30 > 0:24:32asked if he could use our phone.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35He seemed...upset.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37"Of course," I said. "Why?"
0:24:37 > 0:24:41"There's something wrong. A house has collapsed, up at Moy Road."
0:24:41 > 0:24:44"Collapsed? How?"
0:24:44 > 0:24:47"That's all I was told. But it's happened, just now."
0:24:49 > 0:24:53So I dialled 999. Got through to the fire service, and let them know.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57As I was on the line, I heard a woman scream.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01I looked up. Men were running past my window.
0:25:01 > 0:25:06"I think this is something major. How long till you arrive?
0:25:06 > 0:25:09"As soon as we can. Your call's been logged at 9.25."
0:25:10 > 0:25:12I'd just got back from honeymoon.
0:25:12 > 0:25:14A week near Burnham Beeches.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18I was still living in Cardiff with my wife and her parents.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22I was young, ambitious. Been at the Express for a year and a half.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24I wanted to go places, travel.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26And I did.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30But this morning it was just Merthyr again, on the train -
0:25:30 > 0:25:33an early interview with the council's John Beale,
0:25:33 > 0:25:34Director of Education.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38After I was coming down the steps of his offices,
0:25:38 > 0:25:42a car pulled up on the kerb - one of the paper's photographers,
0:25:42 > 0:25:45Mel Parry, only 18 back then -
0:25:45 > 0:25:48been to the station for the morning call.
0:25:48 > 0:25:51There's been a couple of incidents - a domestic fire in Dowlais,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54or an outhouse at a school collapsed in Aberfan.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56Which do you think, Sam?
0:25:56 > 0:25:58Fires are common enough. Let's try the school.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Sounds a bit different.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03'So he got in, and I drove on.'
0:26:04 > 0:26:08We were approaching Merthyr Vale when we saw the cars in the mist.
0:26:08 > 0:26:10A chain of headlights,
0:26:10 > 0:26:13blue and red stitched with police, an ambulance.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15All coming towards us, away from Aberfan.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19I watched them pass, become a river of red in our mirror.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25I'd been Mayor's secretary since March of '66.
0:26:25 > 0:26:27I'd gone in early that morning.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31We lit the fire. Switchboard girl had been in to turn her handle.
0:26:31 > 0:26:32All was normal.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37Then, suddenly, the men were leaving.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39They'd been told, you see, to go to Aberfan.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41The offices emptied, to a man.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43Just the women left.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46No-one could tell us why. We didn't know what to do.
0:26:48 > 0:26:50But then the ambulances started streaking through town,
0:26:50 > 0:26:52and we knew.
0:26:52 > 0:26:58Within the hour, we'd gone from staffing the office, to a crisis HQ.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01Must have been around 9.30 as we reached Dowlais Top,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04when out of the mist we saw a roadblock.
0:27:04 > 0:27:05I pulled up.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09"Which way you going?" "Brecon Road, in Merthyr."
0:27:09 > 0:27:13Which is when he said, 'A disaster."
0:27:13 > 0:27:15That's what he called it, even then.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18Of course, we thought it was the pit.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20All my father's side is from Aberfan,
0:27:20 > 0:27:22and always been miners, too.
0:27:22 > 0:27:24The officer was about to signal us on,
0:27:24 > 0:27:28when he saw the sticker above my bumper - BMA.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32"Are you a doctor?" "Student. Final year."
0:27:32 > 0:27:35"But you're medical? We could use your help, if so.
0:27:35 > 0:27:40"All the other doctors, see, they're up at St Tydfil's or Merthyr Central for the casualties."
0:27:40 > 0:27:43"Of course. Anything I can do."
0:27:43 > 0:27:46And that was it. They waved us through.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49I followed the crowd running down my street,
0:27:49 > 0:27:51turned at the Mack and couldn't believe it.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54They're making a film, that's all I could think.
0:27:54 > 0:27:56The apex of the roofs, you see,
0:27:56 > 0:27:59they were all, well... sitting on rubble.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02Everything else had gone.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07And then, as I looked, that rubble wept.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11The Cardiff-to-Merthyr main burst by the slipping tip.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15It just kept coming, turning windows to waterfalls,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18but thick and black,
0:28:18 > 0:28:20not like water at all.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30It looked like the Somme.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33That's what I thought when I came round the corner.
0:28:33 > 0:28:35A mountain of slurry, with men all over,
0:28:35 > 0:28:39like ants, and all of them digging with their fingers, their hands.
0:28:39 > 0:28:42I had my notebook, my pen, but I couldn't take them out.
0:28:42 > 0:28:44So instead, I climbed up onto it,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47that mass of underground waste,
0:28:47 > 0:28:50and joined a chain, passing back buckets of slurry.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56It was only after a while I noticed -
0:28:56 > 0:28:58it was still moving.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00The whole dark body of it,
0:29:00 > 0:29:04a slow buckle and seep like a small coal muscle,
0:29:04 > 0:29:06hard but supple, flexing under our feet.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10More people were coming all the time,
0:29:10 > 0:29:13with shovels, picks, spades.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17I saw firemen further up, pulling out a man in pyjamas.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20In one of the classrooms a dram was stuck -
0:29:20 > 0:29:21that's what someone said -
0:29:21 > 0:29:23and animals, too, from the farm on the hill -
0:29:23 > 0:29:26sheep, a cow, all dead.
0:29:35 > 0:29:39It sounds odd to say it now, but what it resembled, that scene,
0:29:39 > 0:29:41was like something from the gold rush -
0:29:41 > 0:29:42like one of those old photos
0:29:42 > 0:29:46where every man has staked out his pitch to prospect for wealth.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53Except these men were digging for something else,
0:29:53 > 0:29:57something more precious, too - their little ones.
0:29:58 > 0:30:03Their sons, daughters, nephews, nieces -
0:30:03 > 0:30:05still stuck in that school.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09Most had never worked so hard in their life,
0:30:09 > 0:30:11so began collapsing with pains in their chests.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13I did my best to see them right,
0:30:13 > 0:30:16treated sprains, cuts - but it wasn't enough.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20How could it be, in that landscape of pain?
0:30:20 > 0:30:23With that great black tongue lolling out of the mist...
0:30:25 > 0:30:28..and just there, nearby, the mothers,
0:30:28 > 0:30:32holding each other, knee-deep in the grit,
0:30:32 > 0:30:35looking on at what that slipping tip had done.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44Soon enough, every able man was working to clear it.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46Some children had been pulled out alive,
0:30:46 > 0:30:49but everybody knew we didn't have much time.
0:30:49 > 0:30:55I heard lorries, and turned to see the miners, up from the colliery.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59Hundreds of them, jumping off before those lorries had stopped
0:30:59 > 0:31:01and diving straight in to attack that slip.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04God, did they work.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06And organised us too.
0:31:07 > 0:31:12Had teams digging trenches, others making corrugate chutes.
0:31:12 > 0:31:14Every now and then a cry would go up, and to a man
0:31:14 > 0:31:17we'd all still and listen.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21Machines would stop - breaths were held,
0:31:21 > 0:31:24until the source of the sound was found,
0:31:24 > 0:31:26and then the fury of digging again.
0:31:29 > 0:31:30Until around 11...
0:31:32 > 0:31:37..when for the first time that day hundreds of us listened,
0:31:37 > 0:31:41leant on our shovels, strained every sense...
0:31:42 > 0:31:45..only to be met with nothing but silence.
0:31:47 > 0:31:49At around 11 we assembled in the chamber
0:31:49 > 0:31:52to be informed of the plans.
0:31:52 > 0:31:57"We're setting up mortuaries," they said, "wherever we can."
0:31:57 > 0:32:00We were stunned, numb.
0:32:00 > 0:32:02But of course had to carry on.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05There was so much to be done.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08I'd taken over with a shovel when a young man came over.
0:32:08 > 0:32:10"Went to a classroom," he said.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13"You'd better come through, just in case."
0:32:13 > 0:32:16So I passed my tool to another and followed him into the ruins of that place.
0:32:19 > 0:32:24For years I've had dreams because of what I saw.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28The classroom... it was like it had been shaken.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33Desks, chairs, a boulder,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35a clock angled where it fell.
0:32:38 > 0:32:39And there...
0:32:41 > 0:32:42..up against the wall...
0:32:43 > 0:32:45..no higher than your waist...
0:32:47 > 0:32:48..20 children...
0:32:51 > 0:32:54..their master in front of them, his arms spread in protection,
0:32:54 > 0:32:55trying to save them all.
0:32:58 > 0:32:59He was a big man.
0:33:02 > 0:33:04But what could he have done?
0:33:04 > 0:33:06One teacher against a mountain.
0:33:09 > 0:33:12I could see, behind him, their faces,
0:33:12 > 0:33:16their mouths still open as if they'd been caught mid-song.
0:33:17 > 0:33:22Except you could tell it wasn't a song those mouths had been making,
0:33:22 > 0:33:25all crammed as they were with the same black note,
0:33:25 > 0:33:27of shale, slurry and grit.
0:33:32 > 0:33:33And their eyes as well.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38I've never seen a thing so wrong.
0:33:40 > 0:33:41There was nothing to be done.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55At around four, the women as well as the men
0:33:55 > 0:33:57were asked to go to Aberfan.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01Once there, we gathered in a hall, unsure what would happen.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04But then John Beale, Director of Education,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07he came in, school registers under his arm.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11He wanted to account for the children,
0:34:11 > 0:34:13so began to read out their names.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18But their sound on the air, what it conjured,
0:34:18 > 0:34:20was too much for him.
0:34:21 > 0:34:22He broke down.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27And anyway, nobody knew...
0:34:28 > 0:34:30..who had survived and who had not.
0:34:32 > 0:34:35So each of the women was given a street,
0:34:35 > 0:34:38and told to go down it from door to door...
0:34:40 > 0:34:44..asking each family a single question
0:34:44 > 0:34:46against the grain of natural law.
0:34:48 > 0:34:49I was 22.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52Each time I knocked,
0:34:52 > 0:34:55I prayed the answer would be, "Yes, he's here,"
0:34:55 > 0:34:57or, "Yes, she's asleep upstairs."
0:34:59 > 0:35:02But of course, all too often it wasn't.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15I wrote down the name...
0:35:15 > 0:35:18or the names,
0:35:18 > 0:35:20the ages -
0:35:20 > 0:35:24seven, eight, nine.
0:35:26 > 0:35:28We'd talk, if they wanted.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33And then they'd close their door, softly,
0:35:33 > 0:35:37the hand of a husband or wife on their shoulder,
0:35:37 > 0:35:44and I'd carry on, with my list of numbers, names and ages,
0:35:44 > 0:35:47willing for it not to grow any longer.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52At some point, the NCB rescue teams came.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54Like the cavalry they were,
0:35:54 > 0:35:56in their yellow jackets and hats.
0:35:56 > 0:35:58Then the Army, digging trenches,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01clearing storm water - from all over country,
0:36:01 > 0:36:02feather pumps and tenders.
0:36:03 > 0:36:06No-one else would be pulled out alive.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09Not from the houses, nor the school.
0:36:09 > 0:36:11But still, all you could hear was the sound of digging tools.
0:36:11 > 0:36:15And, occasionally, quiet crying.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18Because now there was other work to do.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23Supporting the parents at Bethania chapel,
0:36:23 > 0:36:25small bodies under blankets on every pew,
0:36:25 > 0:36:29as they went in to identify their children,
0:36:29 > 0:36:31sometimes by face,
0:36:31 > 0:36:35but often by just a piece of cloth, a pair of shoes.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40Somehow, throughout it all, the workers were fed, watered.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43Soup and bread from the Salvation Army,
0:36:43 > 0:36:45the Civil Defence.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50Even, at one point, a plate of wedding cake.
0:36:50 > 0:36:52But then, that's what happens, isn't it?
0:36:52 > 0:36:56The world ruptures and we offer what we can.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02And that's what happened that night.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05To a woman, a man...
0:37:06 > 0:37:10..people gave their strength, their sympathy...
0:37:12 > 0:37:13..offered up for Aberfan.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17When the day started fading, they brought in arc lights,
0:37:17 > 0:37:20powered by canisters of gas.
0:37:20 > 0:37:23Towers were erected, from which they shone
0:37:23 > 0:37:26across that whole expanse of ruin and slurry and dark.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30Everyone was covered in muck, me included.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34I'd worn my best suit to go and see John Beale,
0:37:34 > 0:37:36but now you'd have thought I'd spent the day down the pit.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41But we hadn't. It had come to us.
0:37:41 > 0:37:44Everyone knew that now.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48And when it did, like some heartless pied piper,
0:37:48 > 0:37:51it harvested the best of that town.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54It was time for me to go.
0:37:54 > 0:37:58Dusk was giving to night. I wanted to see my wife.
0:37:58 > 0:38:00The Merthyr-to-Cardiff line had been cut, so I got a bus.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02I was the only one on it, and like that,
0:38:02 > 0:38:05held in the brightness of its upper deck,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08I travelled home alone, through the darkness,
0:38:08 > 0:38:12being sick at my feet as it went.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14I couldn't help seeing one specific sight.
0:38:16 > 0:38:19The curtains of a house in a short terraced street
0:38:19 > 0:38:21I'd passed earlier that day.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26They were closed, which in Wales, not at night, means only one thing -
0:38:26 > 0:38:29a house where the seeds of death have been sown.
0:38:30 > 0:38:35I walked on, but as I did I looked down the rest of that row,
0:38:35 > 0:38:37which is when I saw -
0:38:37 > 0:38:41the curtains, they were drawn in every window.
0:39:06 > 0:39:08It's amazing, our school.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12Got iPads and Astroturf and loads of clubs, too.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14Science is my favourite.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17We've been learning about Tim Peake all this week.
0:39:17 > 0:39:19Six months he was up there!
0:39:19 > 0:39:23Mr Davies says tomorrow we'll be able to see it from here.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26A man-made star, that's what it'll be like,
0:39:26 > 0:39:28just above the mountain ridge.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31Slow, but faster than a satellite.
0:39:31 > 0:39:36Dancing's more my thing - cha-cha-cha, jive and Latin.
0:39:36 > 0:39:40I play football, too, in a mixed team run by the Social.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42Unless it's tipping - then I'll stay inside
0:39:42 > 0:39:44and listen to One Direction.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59It just looked so beautiful, when we first drove in.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01We thought it would be a good place for the kids.
0:40:03 > 0:40:05And we were right.
0:40:05 > 0:40:08It's scenic, quiet.
0:40:08 > 0:40:10They feel safe, even at night.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32I didn't go to school for about a year after.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34None of us did, who'd survived.
0:40:34 > 0:40:38They put some caravans down at the site where the Welsh school is now.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40Back then it was a tip - coal and slag at the sides.
0:40:42 > 0:40:44Toys had been donated, books for us to read.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47We could stay, leave, come and go as we pleased.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51I didn't live at home, either, for a while,
0:40:51 > 0:40:53I went to live with an older sister.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56In the street, see, every child except me was dead.
0:40:57 > 0:41:00So I was difficult for the other parents to see.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05"They took all the roses,"
0:41:05 > 0:41:07that's what one woman said to me.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09"And left us the thorns."
0:41:17 > 0:41:19So, yeah, I went away for a bit.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21When I came back, my mother was completely bald.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25She'd been on the ambulances, taking the bodies.
0:41:27 > 0:41:28Weeks later, her hair fell out.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36"You're the lucky one," she'd say, when I asked after friends.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38"That's all you need to know about."
0:41:40 > 0:41:43In the end, they sent us to Mount Pleasant,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47but we were too disruptive, that's what they say -
0:41:47 > 0:41:49the Pantglas kids.
0:41:49 > 0:41:51And still, if there was thunder, lightning,
0:41:51 > 0:41:53the teachers would shout, tell us to hide.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56They were only young themselves and, like us, still traumatised.
0:41:58 > 0:42:01So, yeah, wouldn't be right to say those who'd survived
0:42:01 > 0:42:04entirely escaped that tip's landslide.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08We got out, yes,
0:42:08 > 0:42:10and most of us have got on, too.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14But the shadow of that shale, those tailings...
0:42:16 > 0:42:19..it's long and deep, and cast inside.
0:42:21 > 0:42:23BOTH: How could it not be?
0:42:23 > 0:42:27We were children, going to school with our friends.
0:42:28 > 0:42:33Then, minutes later, climbing out again without them.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44Aberfan is known, isn't it?
0:42:44 > 0:42:47Anywhere you go, you say the name, and people are, like, "Oh," nodding,
0:42:47 > 0:42:49thinking of the disaster.
0:42:49 > 0:42:52But that's not the whole story.
0:42:52 > 0:42:55I mean, if it was, they must think we're a miserable place,
0:42:55 > 0:42:58sitting round crying, long in the face. But that's not true.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00Take the Young Wives' Club.
0:43:00 > 0:43:041960s POP MUSIC PLAYS
0:43:04 > 0:43:08I know it grew from what happened, but it grew beyond it, too.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10Buses to London, theatre trips.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14I reckon that's mostly what they do!
0:43:17 > 0:43:20Might sound strange but it's true,
0:43:20 > 0:43:23and partly why the group was formed.
0:43:23 > 0:43:29We felt guilty, see, whether your child had survived or died,
0:43:29 > 0:43:35to be seen laughing in the street, or having fun.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37But we were human,
0:43:37 > 0:43:42and hurting terribly, all of us,
0:43:42 > 0:43:46which is why it was so vital to have somewhere we could go
0:43:46 > 0:43:49to laugh, cry, have a recital,
0:43:49 > 0:43:52or just talk, get on a bus,
0:43:52 > 0:43:55to go out together, to forget, and remember.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00Coming together for 50 years or so,
0:44:00 > 0:44:04and for many of us, all carrying that same green hollow.
0:44:11 > 0:44:16The club's changed, obviously, over the years.
0:44:16 > 0:44:19Just last week, we put it to the vote,
0:44:19 > 0:44:23and decided - time to drop the "young" from the title.
0:44:23 > 0:44:28So just the Wives' Club now we are.
0:44:31 > 0:44:35I don't know - it's fine by me,
0:44:35 > 0:44:39if what we were, what we've known...
0:44:40 > 0:44:43..starts becoming...history.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09It was years later, when we were adults,
0:45:09 > 0:45:13that we all finally talked about it.
0:45:13 > 0:45:17We got in touch, said, "Right, let's do this."
0:45:17 > 0:45:20Asked each other questions, shared our stories.
0:45:20 > 0:45:23And got really drunk as we did,
0:45:23 > 0:45:25as if it was the only way we could let everything out.
0:45:27 > 0:45:29Since then, I'd say it's been better.
0:45:31 > 0:45:34All of us still carry the scars, of course.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39And I couldn't help notice that none of us, when we met,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41had held down relationships -
0:45:41 > 0:45:45either never married, or had, then got divorced.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49We'd mostly been successful, though.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53A barrister, a writer, an accountant, a mayor.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59As if, having survived that collapsing pile,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02we'd made a pact with ourselves
0:46:02 > 0:46:05to make the living we'd been given worthwhile.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12I studied hard, in the end.
0:46:12 > 0:46:16Went to university, then worked for years in the City.
0:46:17 > 0:46:21I felt, in a way, like I had a duty,
0:46:21 > 0:46:27to succeed not just for me, but for my friends as well -
0:46:27 > 0:46:31the children in that class who never got the chance
0:46:31 > 0:46:32to be what they hoped...
0:46:35 > 0:46:37..or to even try.
0:46:39 > 0:46:40So, yeah...
0:46:42 > 0:46:44..I think that's why.
0:46:44 > 0:46:52CLASSICAL PIANO INSTRUMENTAL
0:46:54 > 0:46:57There was, at least, a public conversation.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00The funerals first, of course.
0:47:00 > 0:47:04A kind of communal speech of grief -
0:47:04 > 0:47:07the grave like a trench,
0:47:07 > 0:47:11the hearses, the crowds, the flowers.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51But we had to heal, and I'd say we have.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Whole place is greening back up.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59Go up the canal bank, in July, August,
0:47:59 > 0:48:01when the thistle heads are seeding,
0:48:01 > 0:48:05catching the light, early berries budding,
0:48:05 > 0:48:07chaffinches singing.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10Well, beautiful it is.
0:48:14 > 0:48:17I've always tried to do my bit -
0:48:17 > 0:48:20set up a scheme for apprenticeships, that kind of thing.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24Can't say why.
0:48:26 > 0:48:28Because I was there, perhaps...
0:48:29 > 0:48:31..or because I'm still here.
0:48:37 > 0:48:38Don't get me wrong.
0:48:39 > 0:48:41It's not like there hasn't been anger.
0:48:43 > 0:48:45Of course there has. Still is.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50I remember on the Monday after,
0:48:50 > 0:48:53when it first made itself known,
0:48:53 > 0:48:55when our silent grief became heard.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02It was at an inquest at Zion chapel, into the deaths of 30 children.
0:49:04 > 0:49:08The coroner, he was reading out the causes -
0:49:08 > 0:49:12asphyxia, multiple injuries...
0:49:14 > 0:49:17..when from out the crowd, a father stood.
0:49:18 > 0:49:23No, sir. Buried alive by the National Coal Board.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25That's what I want on the official record.
0:49:27 > 0:49:31The coroner, Mr Hamilton, paused...
0:49:33 > 0:49:38..and in the silence, a woman cried out...
0:49:38 > 0:49:40They have killed our children!
0:49:45 > 0:49:47Then there were the tribunals.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50Another public conversation,
0:49:50 > 0:49:53and necessary, I'm sure,
0:49:53 > 0:49:56though many found it hard to settle with its conclusion.
0:49:56 > 0:50:00No-one prosecuted, no-one sacked
0:50:00 > 0:50:03nor forced to resign -
0:50:03 > 0:50:05and with the NCB claiming no knowledge or sign
0:50:05 > 0:50:08of a spring under the tip.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10After generations had swum in it.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16Corporate manslaughter, that's what it amounted to.
0:50:16 > 0:50:20"Not wickedness, but ignorance, ineptitude
0:50:20 > 0:50:22"and a failure of communication."
0:50:23 > 0:50:26That's what the final report claimed,
0:50:26 > 0:50:30and that the NCB carried the blame for a lack of regulation.
0:50:40 > 0:50:42I was on the tip removal committee.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44Had to be, really.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48Like everyone else, I wanted them gone.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52Not surprising, when you think what they'd done.
0:50:52 > 0:50:56But after the tribunal, they were inspected,
0:50:56 > 0:50:59and the NCB declared them safe.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04"No reason to go," that's what they said.
0:51:04 > 0:51:06Well, we wouldn't take no.
0:51:06 > 0:51:10Because that wasn't the point, was it?
0:51:10 > 0:51:13Safe or not - and we'd heard that before -
0:51:13 > 0:51:18we didn't want to see them each day when we opened our door.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22Piles of the stuff on the mountainside,
0:51:22 > 0:51:27dug out, for many of us, by our very own hands.
0:51:29 > 0:51:31It took my boy away.
0:51:48 > 0:51:50That was reason enough for me.
0:51:50 > 0:51:52But eventually they went.
0:51:52 > 0:51:55Which is when we were left asking, "What next?"
0:51:57 > 0:52:02Removing those tips, see, it brought us together,
0:52:02 > 0:52:06and in a way - no denying - it helped,
0:52:06 > 0:52:09and we didn't want that helping to end.
0:52:10 > 0:52:16So, we had a meeting and someone said, "Why not a choir?"
0:52:16 > 0:52:22# And I will sing with the understanding also
0:52:22 > 0:52:25# Alleluia, alleluia
0:52:25 > 0:52:29# Alleluia. #
0:52:30 > 0:52:34The choir's changed, of course - lots of new men -
0:52:34 > 0:52:36but the spirit hasn't.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42It's still the same, we're still here, and still singing.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45# For my heart would break
0:52:45 > 0:52:51# If you should wake and see me go... #
0:52:53 > 0:52:57I won't lie - went off the rails for a bit.
0:52:57 > 0:53:00Lots of us did. And not just the kids.
0:53:00 > 0:53:05Hardly a surprise. I mean, we've had our own daughter since, so I know.
0:53:05 > 0:53:10Is anything more alive than a... eight, nine-year-old child? No.
0:53:11 > 0:53:16So imagine losing all that life at once,
0:53:16 > 0:53:21all that talk and song and dance and...and fight.
0:53:23 > 0:53:25Enough to put any place out for the count.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30But we got back up, didn't we? That's for sure.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33As a village, and on our own.
0:53:34 > 0:53:39Me, I took up at JJ's, became a mechanic -
0:53:39 > 0:53:41married Barbara, too.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44I don't know, we'd always fancied each other.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47Even though my brother died, while her sister survived,
0:53:47 > 0:53:50we both still lost, in a way.
0:53:50 > 0:53:53Maybe that drew us closer. I like to think so.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00I still think of my brother every day.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03What type of man he'd have been.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06If he'd had kids, in their faces,
0:54:06 > 0:54:09how much of him, or me, we'd have seen.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17But you've got to move on, haven't you?
0:54:18 > 0:54:20But you've got to move on, haven't you?
0:54:22 > 0:54:24But you've got to move on, haven't you?
0:54:24 > 0:54:27But you've got to move on, haven't you?
0:54:29 > 0:54:32But you've got to move on, haven't you?
0:54:32 > 0:54:34But you've got to move on, haven't you?
0:54:34 > 0:54:36But you've got to move on, haven't you?
0:54:39 > 0:54:42But you've got to move on.
0:54:42 > 0:54:43Haven't you?
0:55:08 > 0:55:11I'm going to be a painter, like Tom's dad!
0:55:11 > 0:55:13- A dancer on Strictly! - A goalkeeper for Chelsea.
0:55:13 > 0:55:15A pilot or hairdresser.
0:55:15 > 0:55:17A fish-and-chip man.
0:55:17 > 0:55:19A teacher.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23For me, it's about opening the world to these children. And their eyes.
0:55:23 > 0:55:25Letting them see what they could do,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27who they could be.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30- A rugby player.- A freerunner. - A singer.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32- A soldier.- A nurse.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36Because you can only aspire to what you can imagine, or see.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38- A farmer.- A miner.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41- A lorry driver.- A dinner lady.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44All that, though - the teaching, the running the school -
0:55:44 > 0:55:46that comes easily enough to me.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48But then there are the other things that are harder to negotiate.
0:55:48 > 0:55:51- A football player.- An actor.
0:55:51 > 0:55:52A doctor.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56The first man on the moon - an astronaut!
0:55:56 > 0:55:59Each year, for example, we mark the disaster's date.
0:55:59 > 0:56:01And we should.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04But it's difficult, sometimes, to know exactly what to do.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06Some want to talk, to remember.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09Others - they stay quiet, they try to forget.
0:56:10 > 0:56:12And here, well, they're children -
0:56:12 > 0:56:15some the same age as those who died.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19So, yes, we teach it, but gently, as part of the general history.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28The way I see it, more and more, is that we're all carbon, aren't we?
0:56:28 > 0:56:31At least, that's what Tom keeps telling me.
0:56:33 > 0:56:34And what happened here...
0:56:36 > 0:56:38..it was the most terrible weight.
0:56:41 > 0:56:42The worst you can imagine.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47A weight on lives, families, the community, the town.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53But what happens to carbon under pressure,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56if you keep pressing down?
0:56:56 > 0:56:59Well, at first, you get coal.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02A darkness that burns.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06But keep pressing long and hard enough
0:57:06 > 0:57:09and some of that coal turns diamond...
0:57:10 > 0:57:14..and some of that darkness light.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17Now, I'm not saying we're all diamonds here, of course I'm not.
0:57:17 > 0:57:22But I do think that when so many have felt the same pressure,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25at exactly the same time, then sometimes, in places,
0:57:25 > 0:57:27we're pushed through till we shine.
0:57:30 > 0:57:32An unexpected brightness...
0:57:33 > 0:57:36..made both of that darkness
0:57:36 > 0:57:38and that sharing of weight...
0:57:41 > 0:57:44..its source buried under years.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49But there, deeply rooted in our memories...
0:57:51 > 0:57:52..a day...
0:57:53 > 0:57:54..a date.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06# All things bright and beautiful
0:58:06 > 0:58:11# All creatures great and small
0:58:11 > 0:58:15# All things wise and wonderful... #
0:58:15 > 0:58:17SINGING FADES