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Film
was flickering across that traditionally
strong mining union, a flame was
being lit in the hearts and minds of
lesbian and gay people which arguably
has come to fruition with the
legislation on gay marriange and the
total acceptance of one’s sexuality in
today’s Britain.
“All too often today people have
forgotten what kind of country
Thatcher and the Conservatives were
building. It was one of division and the
destruction of working people and
trades unions, it was the forerunner of
Section 28 which prohibited so-called
promotion of homosexuality in
schools. Thatcher stated quite
clearly that there was no such thing
as society. This film has had such a
Paddy Considine
Mark Ashton tragically died from
response because the time is right.”
(centre left) plays
HIV in 1987, aged just 26. David says:
David paid tribute to the bravery of
David with Bill
“The film portrays him every bit as
lesbians and gays at that time who
Nighy as Cliff the
energetic and political as he was. He
took the chance to reach out to the
club secretary
thought up the idea of a fundraising
mining communities even though they
gig called Pits and Perverts and it
didn’t know what reception they’d get.
resulted in a large concert in the
“And also my undying gratitude to the
Electric Ballroom with Bronsky Beat
families in my community who proved
to be every
bitALTS
as generous
as I
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1 17/09/2014 12:50 Page and
1 reps from the mining community
attending from Wales. It was a very
thought they were by welcoming
exciting night!”
these colleagues from London.”
He’s been an unassuming,
hard-working BECTU official
for over 20 years. So David
Donovan’s colleagues were
astonished, and thrilled, to
find him being played as
one of the lead characters
in a brilliant new film, Pride.
It tells a touching and true
story of how two groups of
people came together to
support each other in the
darkest days of the miners’
strike in the eighties.
Pride of BECTU
stills courtesy pathe
A
fter all these years working
alongside the unassuming
and eminently likeable
David Donovan, his
colleagues were astonished to
discover last month that he is one
of the two leading characters in the
newly released feature film Pride.
The film, a comedy, is set in the
eighties during the miners’ strike –
a bitter, longrunning dispute which
pitted the miners against the
Conservative government of Margaret
Thatcher. Many bonds were made
between striking miners’ families and
the thousands of groups round the
country that raised money to support
them. But perhaps the most surprising,
given the times they were living in,
was the great comradeship that grew
between striking south Wales miners
and a London-based lesbian and gay
group – the story told by the film.
So how was David involved? “I only
found out about the film when I was
approached by the writer (Stephen
Beresford) just before they started
shooting it,” he said. “They wanted me
to release the copies of the speeches
that I’d made at the time but I had to
tell them I’d never written them down
– only to be informed that they’d been
recorded by others. So I was happy to
8
Paddy Considine, left, as
David Donovan with Ben
Schnetzer as Mark Ashton.
Above: David himself
confirm the details of them.”
David was from a mining family and
had been working at Abernant Colliery.
“I was a representative of the Neath,
Swansea and Dulais Valley Support
Group. If there was something we did
differently I felt that as the strike was
political, as well as raising money for
funds to support the families of
strikers we also needed to forge
political links with the support groups
across the country. And that’s how I
first came in contact with Lesbians
and Gays Support the Miners”.
The film
had such a
response
because
the time is
right
So it was David who went down to
London, as portrayed in the film, to
meet the representatives of LGSM
who had been collecting for the miners.
The people he met were Mark Ashton,
Mike Jackson and Robert Kincaid.
“Following the meeting I went with
the group to the Electric Ballroom that
night to pick up the money but,
importantly, that meeting led to a
confidence growing between me and
the individuals who were instrumental
in collecting for the miners. Everything
is about personalities isn’t it? They
started growing in confidence and
we invited them down to Wales.”
solidarity
“Of course this isn’t a documentary,
it’s a comedy drama and not all events
portrayed are entirely accurate,” he
said, grinning. “But the thing is, it’s
based on very solid facts of the events
of those days. A relationship was
formed between those living in the
mining communities and lesbian and
gay people in London who wished to
support them. And one can see a link
between those first faltering steps of
lesbian and gay politics entering the
mainstream of the labour and working
class movement. And it intrigued me
over the years how when the candle
Stage Screen & Radio October/November 2014
A Red Ribbon Fund (which raises
money for the Terrence Higgins Trust)
had been set up to commemorate
Mark, and if it raised more than
£2,000 his name would be inscribed
on a plaque at the THT central office.
Mark’s friends ran a mini-campaign to
get the fund over £2,000 and in May it
stood at £2,059. But suddenly, when
Pride came out, donations poured in
and they currently stand at nearly
£14,000. To add a donation go to
mark.ashton.muchloved.com
By coincidence, the film has come
out at the same time that BECTU is
setting up an LGBT committee
following a resolution at this year’s
annual conference. BECTU is delighted
that LGBT members will now have a
committee to put forward their issues
of concern and take action.
David adds: “The film starts with the
Gay Pride march in London in June
1984 and the closing scenes are the
same march in June 1985. It’s fair to
say that, of all the scenes in the film,
that closing scene epitomises the
principles of the working class and
trades unions, which is that we
support each other.” l
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