News on Screen

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 20th Year

Issue

Issue No.

4

Date Released

Dec 1966

Stories in this Issue:

• 1. Country Durham - LET’S GO TO THE MOVIES
• 2. Yorkshire - NEW HEADQUARTERS
• 3. Nottinghamshire - SISTER

Story

Story No. within this Issue

1 / 3

Summary

BFI synopsis: Miner’s daughter Dorothy Wright, who becomes a projectionist in an Auckland cinema.
NCB Commentary - Bishop Auckland is in mining country. Here in retirement after a lifetime in the pits lives Arthur Wright, with his birds to keep him busy.
Arthur’s daughter Dorothy has, for a woman, a most unusual job. One clue - she leaves home each afternoon around 5.
James Platt, on nights at nearby Brancepeth Colliery, will be heading out later in the day to meet up with Dorothy, - at the movies.
Mining Review is on screen tonight, and behind the projection room porthole is Dorothy - probably the only woman chief projectionist in the business.
That issue ended with a story about Daleks, and now Dorothy switches over to the reel stuff - British Lion’s recent "Dalek’s Invasion".
Here’s where James Platt comes in to the picture - he works evenings at the theatre as Dorothy’s number 2, before clocking on at the pit at 2 in the morning.
It’s an unusual team in the box at Bishop Auckland, but in a mining town no one is surprised to discover unsuspected talents among the versatile family of mineworkers.

Keywords

Women; Cinema

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases   Used for synopsis
The National Archives COAL 32   /13 Scripts for Mining Review, 1960-1963

Credits:

Sponsor

National Coal Board

Production Co.

National Coal Board Film Unit