Seacoal (film)
Encyclopedia
Seacoal is a British docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....

 film about the harsh industrialised beach of Lynemouth
Lynemouth
Lynemouth is a village in Northumberland, England. The village is situated northeast of Ashington, and is in close proximity to the village of Ellington which is located to the north west...

, Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

, and the local residents of the Lynemouth traveller camp. The film stars many of the local travellers as themselves, and many well known north-east actors, such as Sammy Johnson
Sammy Johnson
- Biography :The son of Samuel Johnson and Thomasina Scott, his birth name was Ronald Samuel Johnson. He was brother to two brothers Kenneth , Raymond and two sisters Valerie and Catherine. He has two children Lorraine and Lynn.Johnson was raised in Gateshead and lived on the Springwell Estate...

.

Plot

Ray drives to a block of flats in Sunderland to collect Betty who is his partner. They drive on to a pub for a wedding night time party. Unknown to Betty, ray is in the process of doing a deal with one of his friends, the party is full of all Rays old associates who are seacoalers that work and live on the Lynemouth coast, reclaiming waste coal that is washed in on the tide. Without informing Betty, Ray buys a caravan on the seacoalers' camp.

Betty wakes the next morning to find herself in the run-down caravan, and is shocked to learn of Ray's decision to set up again as a seacoaler. Nevertheless, she agrees to move in with him to get her and her daughter Corrina away from her violent ex-husand.

Betty cleans and decorated the caravan, turning it into a home for the three, and becomes content with living on the camp and working as a seacoaler Betty makes friends with two other women Rosie and Val. Ray manages to persuade an old resident of the camp Ronnie, to allow Ray to use his address to fiddle his dole payments, as living in a caravan they have no actual address.

Betty is outraged to discover that all their hard work of about 15 ton of coal has accumulated to £40. Ray the goes ahead with out consulting Betty sells his car and buys a horse, which sets him up as a freelance seacoaler, this enables him to get a better rate for his collected coal. Meanwhile.

Corrina makes friendships with the other children on the camp, Ray is called for an interview at the DHSS concerning his address, where his fraud is discovered. He then bets all his coal on a troting race to win a pickup that could improve his fortunes, but unfortunately loses. He returns to the beach to find his coal already gone. unsure what to do and not wanting to face up to Betty he packs his suitcase and leaves while Betty is shopping, Although very upset by Ray's disappearance, Betty decides to stay on the camp and try and make a life for herself and Corrina with support from the other families on the camp.

Cast

Professional Actors
  • Amber Styles as Betty
  • Ray Stubbs as Ray
  • Corrina Stubbs, Corrina
  • Benny Graham as Joe
  • Tom Hadaway as man in dole
  • Murray Martin as counter clerk
  • Sammy Johnson as Sammy
  • Steve Trafford as DHSS investigator
  • Mo Harrold as woman in dole
  • Gwen Doran as mother's voice


Starring As Themself
  • herself LAIDLAW, Rosie
  • himself LAIDLAW, Brian
  • herself LAIDLAW, Alison
  • herself LAIDLAW, Helen
  • himself LAIDLAW, Rockers
  • herself LAIDLAW, Nini
  • Critch, himself CRITCHLOW, Trevor
  • Val, herself WACIAK, Val
  • Stan, himself ROBINSON, Stan
  • Taity, himself TAIT, Gordon
  • himself COOK, John
  • himself MOSCROP, Robert
  • also appearing ARMSTRONG, Denis
  • also appearing CRITCHLOW, Margaret
  • also appearing BROWN, Robbie
  • also appearing BROWN, Jackie
  • also appearing BROTHERTON, Ronnie
  • also appearing LILBURN, Robert
  • also appearing COULSON, Gena
  • also appearing CRISP, Ian
  • also appearing WACIAK, Clare
  • also appearing HOLMES, Colin
  • also appearing ARMSTRONG, Miley
  • also appearing CROSSLAND, Lyn
  • also appearing HAIGH, Carl
  • also appearing MILES, Carol
  • also appearing WARD, Terry

Locations

  • Lynemouth Travaller Camp, Lynemouth
  • Lynemouth Beach
  • Lynemouth Hotel
  • Wear Garth flats, East End, Sunderland (now demolished)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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