Summary
Every morning I'm listening intently for Derek's forecast... just to find out how cold or wet it's going to be for the Coal House families. "I never thought it was going to be as hard as this," puffed my mate Terry, after emerging from an arduous shift down the Blaentillery colliery. And he's just the soundman who can go home to a nice hot bath, a chicken tikka masala and Sky Plus.
Back in BBC Wales' 1927 time capsule, of course, the Phillips, Griffiths and Cartwright families have no such luxuries. But watching them make the best of it has provided reality television of the best kind. Coal House is entertaining, educational and does not rely on the humiliation gimmicks that usually taint this genre.See the full content of this document
Extract
Glimpse of a Lost Age Through the Coal House Door
And, anyway, life 80 years ago had more challenges than any modern television producer could contrive.
The beauty of Coal House is it conveys a family history half of Wales can relate to, and one which is just about to disappear from the collective memory. It ...See the full content of this document
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