Thanks for that Askew, I was looking out for it & missed the beginning but checked & it’s repeated through the night so banged it on to record so I can watch tomorrow.
Sobering stuff. Amazed to read the sole survivor of the Ross Cleveland was back at sea 11 weeks later.
Brian Lavery's book "The Headscarf Revolutionaries" is an excellent read and his second book, "The Luckiest Thirteen", about the sinking of the Saint Finbarr a year earlier, is similarly moving. Whenever anyone recalls the final radio message from the Ross Cleveland it's guaranteed to bring a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye.
Imagine having those 4 women leading our protests. Joking aside, how proud must their families be of them. Truly proud to come from the same city as them.
A story worthy of a film with Lillian Bilocca as the heroine. Battling against the menfolk, the owners and the blinkered status quo, reviled even by many in her own community. Died almost forgotten. You couldn't write a story like that, and of course it would be impossible to portray the cold, the fatigue, the danger, the hardship and the life aboard those trawlers. No way could you get that across in a film- hacking off the ice on the rigging in hurricane force winds, in the dark, in the snow, with rough seas, many hours at a time.
The thing I found that I was the most pleased about, the programme itself was brilliant, was the total none interruption of the story by adverts. For me adverts would have totally diluted the impact of this production, the emotion was as raw today as of those events all those years ago. Adverts would have destroyed that emotion for me, well-done ladies, and yes, as said in the programme, those women deserve some award and official recognition for what they did. But, like their menfolk, hope for that is fading with time.
Worthy though "Made in Dagenham" was, this story is far more compelling. Mark Herman -- are you listening?
Brilliant TV I only read the Headscarf Revolutionaries a couple of weeks ago If you haven’t read it, and enjoyed the documentary, I’d thoroughly recommend it (My copy may have been dusty though as I seemed to get a bit in my eyes, which started them watering, on a few occasions...)
