Coal House

Coal House is a Welsh television series made by Indus Films for BBC Wales, and broadcast on BBC One Wales, with a subsequent UK wide repeat of both series on BBC Four. Series 1 was set in the depressed economic coalfields of 1927, while Series 2 was set in 1944 as World War II draws to a close. Series 2 was broadcast on BBC across the UK from October 2009

Plot

The series follows three or more families who are placed in a location which replicates the lifestyle of Welsh people living in a coal mining town of that period. The chosen families leave all 21st century luxuries behind, swapping a modern high-tech life for a miner's cottage in Stack Square in the Welsh hills of Blaenavon. The mines are owned by Mr. Blanford, and are 4 miles (6.4 km) up the hills. Men and boys over the age of 14 are required to work in the mines.

Production

Series 1

Filmed from early October 2007 and shown from late October 2007, three families (the Cartwright family from Penarth, the Griffiths family from Ceredigion; and the Phillips family from the Vale of Glamorgan), cope with daily life as the Welsh mining community lived it 80 years ago - a year after the last general strike and before the pits were nationalised.