Film

Still the Enemy Within

Name: Still the Enemy Within
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2014
Cast: Norman Strike, Paul Symonds, Steve Hammill, Mike Jackson, Joe Henry

A raw documentary about the 1984 UK miners' strike, told by the men who lived it. Composed almost entirely of testimony from striking miners—no narrator, no editorialising—it's an unflinching account of economic devastation, community collapse, and political conflict. For anyone wanting to understand modern Britain's regional divides and class wounds.

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you want the strike told from the pit villages up, through the men who lived the picket lines and the long grind of the dispute, rather than from Westminster.

Skip it if you need an even-handed history; this is one side's memory, with former miners reflecting on their own cause and little interest in the other camp.

What it asks of you: Just under two hours, mostly seated testimony that rewards patience more than pace; attention on names, dates and grievances matters.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Pride2014

Narrative drama about LGBTQ+ activists fundraising for a Welsh mining town during the strike. Feels lighter than a pure documentary but carries real emotional weight and captures the solidarity aspect beautifully.

But It's a fiction feature, so some historical details are compressed or altered. The tone is warmer than the bleaker documentary record.

Kes1970

Set in a Yorkshire mining village, this Ken Loach film captures the world the miners came from—the narrow options, the dignity in hardship, the suffocating class structure. Essential context for understanding what was at stake.

But From before the strike, so it's not directly about it. Bleak and slow; not everyone connects with Loach's style.

Looking for Eric2009

Ken Loach again, but set in post-industrial Manchester with an older man confronting unemployment and lost purpose. Less about the strike specifically, more about its long emotional shadow on working-class lives.

But The magical realism element (Eric Cantona appearing as himself) feels incongruous with the serious subject matter.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Still the Enemy Within

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Nightcrawler2014

Both are about who gets to tell the story of working people's suffering, who controls the narrative, and who benefits. Still the Enemy Within gives voice back to the miners; Nightcrawler shows what happens when that voice is absent and they're only raw material.

A visceral crime thriller about a freelance videographer preying on Los Angeles chaos. Seems completely unrelated until you realise it's about the machinery that turns human suffering into commodity, and who profits.

But It's a tense, dark thriller, not a documentary. The connection is thematic and oblique. Can feel nihilistic and unsettling in ways that distance you from empathy.

The Full Monty1997

British comedy about unemployed steelworkers in Sheffield reinventing themselves. Lighter than documentaries but genuinely engaged with post-industrial male identity and shame, with more humanity than you'd expect from the premise.

But It's a comedy, so it defuses the anger and pain. If you want unvarnished rage, this softens the edges.

I, Daniel Blake2016

Loach's most direct statement about what neoliberal Britain does to working people. A recent widow and a carpenter navigate welfare bureaucracy with crushing dignity. Made a decade after the strike but exploring the same damage.

But Extremely grim with minimal lightness. The bureaucratic cruelty is relentless and can feel didactic rather than dramatic.

Raining Stones1993

Loach again, on a post-industrial Lancashire estate where a jobless father tries to raise money for his daughter's communion dress. Small, intimate, devastating portrait of shame and scraping by.

But Extremely slow and quiet; the emotional impact is cumulative, not immediate, and that doesn't work for everyone.

Harlan County U.S.A.1976

Two documentaries about strikes separated by continent and decade, but both are about communities holding the line against economic erasure. Harlan County shows you what endurance looks like; Still the Enemy Within shows what breaking looks like. Together they're a conversation about different choices and different outcomes.

Barbara Kopple's extraordinary documentary about a Kentucky coal miners' strike. Embed with the miners and their families for a year; no narration, just their voices and choices. Shot in the American South decades earlier but resonates with exactly the same courage and cost.

But Black-and-white, grainy, and the pacing is meditative rather than dramatic. It's a slow immersion, not a narrative arc, and some viewers find that patience-testing.