Brassed Off at 30: 'Community spirit has kept Grimethorpe going'

Thirty years after Brassed Off landed in cinemas, Grimethorpe—where the film’s fictional “Grimley” is set—still feels the aftershocks of pit closures and the cultural spotlight the story brought. Grimethorpe Colliery shut in 1993, and the village that had grown around it was fictionalised in the 1996 Bafta-nominated film starring Ewan McGregor, Sue Johnston, Pete Postlethwaite and Tara Fitzgerald. Local organiser Johnny Wood, 68, chairs the Grimethorpe Miners Memorial and Reunion for 300 former miners and says the colliery’s closure left the area with lasting devastation. He notes the film highlighted lost jobs, while praising the ongoing community spirit and memorial to 163 miners’ names.