We  had a crazy schedule trying to show every month. Phil Sawyer and Elizabeth Bayliss had spent time at Oakdale and recorded it. There was a lot of support for the miners in Hackney and, indeed, all over the country. I had seen at first hand what was going on because as I travelled round the country I saw the road blocks set up by the police at every slip road off the motorways near mining areas. Any car with two or more men in them was stopped and questioned. It was the first time the police were mobilised outside their own areas, becoming a virtual private army under Thatcher. The trick was to use police from way outside the mining areas. I talked to one policeman in Devon who had been involved. The overtime he earned paid off his mortgage, bought a new car and paid for a two week holiday in Florida, or somewhere.

The opening was well attended, even the Mayor of  Hackney came, a very nice woman whose name I can't remember. It was our first proper show of an 'outsider'.

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