3. The Enemy Within

A miner and two photographers the violent events of June 18, 1984 at Orgreave. Thousands of police and thousands of miners arrived at the coking works in Rotherham for a set-piece confrontation.

The miners wanted to stop the coke from getting to a steelworks, and they were surprised that the police waved them through rather than, as they normally did, trying to prevent them from forming a picket line. What followed is seared on the memories of those who were there, and left hundreds injured. And the version of what happened on the news that night was wrong: the police attacked the picketers BEFORE they attacked the police.

Scores of men were charged with Riot and Unlawful Assembly, which could have resulted in heavy sentences. But all their cases were later dropped.

We also hear about how roadblocks were used to prevent flying pickets from travelling to pits in Notts, and what the pickets did to try to avoid them. A lawyer - who is now a member of the Welsh Senedd - says this is the closest peacetime Britain ever came to being a police state.

And a former South Wales police chief tells us how he came under pressure from the Home Office to change his low-key approach to policing and be more confrontational. He says in South Wales police and miners were part of the same community and would have to live alongside each other afterwards - and he directed his officers with that in mind. Officers from other forces who were bussed in to deal with picket lines - did not have the same mindset he says.

Strike is a Bengo Media Production for BBC Sounds.

Presenter: Jonny Owen

Series Producer: Clare Hudson

Executive Producer: Steve Austins

Episode Producer: Ffion Clarke

Development Producer: Branwen Davies

Sound Designer: Meic Parry

Sound Editor: Adam Whalley

Composer: Richard Llewellyn

Series Consultant: Dr Ben Curtis

Commissioning Editor: Bridget Curnow