Review of The Big Meeting

The makers of the Dennis Skinner documentary Nature Of The Beast pay tribute to another leftist landmark in this homage to the Durham Miners' Gala, an annual parade of banners and brass bands that has been a fixture of the Trade Unionist calendar for more than 100 years. Incorporating footage from 1963's Gala Day, the last film to chronicle this north-east tradition, Daniel Draper's feature vividly portraits both the pageantry and the politics. It would probably be more appealing to the unaffiliated, however, if there was at least one interviewee who didn't sing from the same socialist hymn sheet.