Newsreels had been popular in cinemas since the First World War, and were often the only way in which the public could see, as well as read about, current news stories. Weekly or monthly 'cinemagazines' such as Pathé Pictorial - with topical features on a broad range of subjects - were also particularly popular in the 1930s and 1940s. A couple of years prior to nationalisation in 1947, recruitment vans began travelling the country, encouraging men to sign up to working in the coal mines. Films were used to illustrate the message, though there were few suitable films available to show. Noel Newsome, a former director of the BBC's Overseas Service, had been appointed as Director of Recruitment and Training by the Minister of Fuel and Power. He encouraged the idea of the production of a ten-minute monthly newsreel-cum-cinemagazine. Though its appeal would be strongest in mining areas, it could be shown in cinemas throughout the country. So, Mining Review was launched in 1947 and became the longest-running industrial newsreel made in Britain. More than 400 issues later the final edition was released in 1983. Meanwhile Newsome had become the Director of Public Relations at the newly established National Coal Board. He appointed H K Lewenhak as Film, Drama and Photographic Officer and it was Lewenhak's job to persuade film distributors to take on Mining Review. "Lewenhak had youth, an enwreathing smile to cover his nervous anxiety, to which he thought to add a touch of chutzpah", according to Henry Donaldson, later NCB Press Officer. Lewenhak pointed out to the distributors that Mining Review would help exhibitors to fulfil the quota system, under which a proportion of cinema screenings had to be of British films. Welcome though this would have been, the distributors still felt able to insist upon receiving exactly 930 feet of film per Mining Review (i.e. 10 minutes' running time), to be delivered punctually on the 15th of each month. This was agreed to by Lewenhak. It was also supplied free of charge as part of the NCB's aims to be seen to be running the mines in the national interest and keeping the public informed of their activities. Initially Mining Review was shown in cinemas in the slot vacated by the end of the Ministry of Information's 'ten-minute' wartime newsreels. The first six issues were made by the Crown Film Unit - the NCB did not yet have its own film unit. Members of CFU had formerly been part of the pioneering GPO Film Unit, which spearheaded the British documentary film movement in the 1930s. The NCB, however, was disappointed by Crown's Mining Reviews, and decided to transfer production to Data Film Productions, a co-operative of filmmakers in which Donald Alexander - who later founded the NCB Film Unit - was a leading member. Data made more than 150 issues of Mining Review before it transferred to the NCB Film Unit in 1963. It was renamed Review in 1972, from which point each issue featured a single ten-minute story. The three or four stories covered in each issue of Mining Review ranged from miners' social activities (from whippet racing through to ballet dancing) to developments in mining technology and improvements in productivity and safety. It was narrated for many years by John Slater, best known for his acting career in the television series Z Cars (BBC, 1962-1978). The editorial policy ensured that all major coalfields were covered every few issues, while smaller coalfields featured at longer intervals. Many stories were requested by the NCB, others were suggested by the filmmakers or proprosed from within mining communities. Decisions were taken by a weekly editorial committee representing the NCB, the National Union of Mineworkers and the producers. Leslie Shepard, who worked on Mining Review in the 1940s and 1950s, wrote about the creative and practical processes involved in making each item: Every four weeks we make a cine-magazine. A one-reel news film with four items in each issue. Each item a miniature film... You will have three hours to sort out the ingredients. Get the facts - find the story... You wonder if you'll make it this time. You don't rush at it. Get people and let them talk. Watch. Waste time, but keep them talking while your mind waits for the old magic - the pattern that turns the facts into a story. You know in the last corner of your mind that if a story is good enough - if it is observed, imagined and recorded with that spark of art which the cameraman, editor and director... are too embarrassed to mention - then it speaks for itself. It's the raw stuff of documentary - the image of life and truth in a pin-sized magazine story. These brief images of life and truth were seen by large audiences; at its peak in the 1950s, the NCB claimed that Mining Review was shown in half the cinemas in the country - about 800 cinemas - and seen by millions of people. Ros Cranston
| 
