Facts and Figures - Or, Whatever Happened to Dick (1970)

views BFIfilms — 04 September 2009 — For more information on 'King Coal', a major exploration of Britain's coal mining industry as seen on film, visi... BFIfilms — 04 September 2009 — For more information on 'King Coal', a major exploration of Britain's coal mining industry as seen on film, visit http://www.bfi.org.uk/coal.html

Witty, brief, basic - and bleak. Here's another side of the National Coal Board's amazingly rich, diverse and addictive work for the screen. Following Lord Robens' 1961 appointment as NCB Chairman, safety became a higher priority than ever before. Annual safety campaigns became a fixture of the coal industry calendar, and films played a major part.

TV Cartoons, run by George Dunning (best remembered for 'Yellow Submarine') contributed some two dozen animations to these campaigns over the years. This one's characteristic: unambiguous message, unpretentiously inventive animation and a blackly comic tone. Note the variety of names representing miners onscreen - Dai and Jock, as well as Tom, Dick and Harry. 'Facts and Figures' was made available in all the coalfields, Welsh, Scottish and English. (Patrick Russell)

You can watch over 1500 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge in the Mediatheque at BFI Southbank, London and at the new QUAD centre for art and film in Derby - http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/bfi-mediat...