Don’t lie, this film made you cry at least once. Here's our ranking of the moments that did it to us, but you’d be forgiven if you were just a weeping mess from start to finish. 

5. “What you’ve given us is more than money.”

LGSM (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, for the uninitiated) have raised funds in support of striking miners - seeing common ground between the socially marginalised LGBTIQ+ activists and the workers resisting Thatcherism. But the mining union lodges are all too afraid (or too prejudiced) to associate themselves with the gay rights movement. Finally a Welsh lodge gratefully sends a representative to collect the funds. Mr. Donovan arrives, unsure what the L and the G in the group’s name mean. It doesn’t take long for him to cast aside his hangups and go straight to gratitude. At the gay bar, he tells an initially-hostile crowd:

“If you’re one of the people who’s put money into these buckets - if you’ve supported LGSM - thank you.

Because what you’ve given us is more than money. It’s friendship. And when you’re in a fight as bitter and as important as this one, against an enemy so much bigger, so much stronger than you - well. To find out that you have a friend you never knew existed - It’s the best thing in the world.

Isn’t that beautiful? It is also somehow made more beautiful by the mild-mannered Welshman and his accent. 

4. The Welshman’s Tears

Not all the tears in the film are tears of joy. Gethin, LGSM’s Welsh expatriate, hasn’t been back to Wales in 16 years - fearing the prejudice of his homeland. But on a trip to the village of Onllwyn with LGSM, he finds himself overjoyed to be back in his home country, exclaiming as he leans drunkenly in a doorway, “I’m in Wales! And I don’t have to pretend to be something I’m not. I’m home! And I’m gay! And I’m Welsh.” It’s a nice moment. 

But his homecoming isn’t complete. He takes a detour to his home, in Northern Wales. He walks through the snow to the door of his family home, but when he knocks his mother only has one word for him: “No.”

3. Bill Nighy Casually Admits to Being Gay

In a way that only Bill Nighy can pull off, this moment is small and understated and it’s everything.

While cutting sandwiches in silence next to Hefina Headon (played by Imelda Stanton) Mining Union leader Cliff (Bill Nighy), admits that he’s gay himself. Somehow, in the space between words, Nighy communicates the weight of a long-held secret, and his relief at Hefina’s casual acceptance. All she can say is that she knows, and that she has since 1968. 

They continue cutting sandwiches.

2. “As we go marching, marching…”

You’re tearing up just thinking about it, aren't you?

We don’t even have anything to say about it, because we know you just want to watch the clip. So go ahead, you need it today. 

1. True solidarity

The miners’ cause is lost (spoilers, sorry) and LGSM is being relegated to the back of London’s Gay Pride March because they are deemed “too political” (and for unionists familiar with Pride march, this moment may touch a nerve). But just as they start descending into bickering, dozens of coaches begin arriving. The miners have come to support the people who supported them. Each busload begins unloading traditional union banners, and the miners start a roll call of Welsh towns. 

It’s not part of a transaction, it’s not holding up the end of a bargain. It’s just pure, simple, solidarity. 

Note: the crying that starts upon the arrival of the coal miners in their coaches effectively continues through the end credits and is certainly not helped by Billy Bragg’s There Is Power in a Union. We count this all as one moment, but there’s so much going on. At this point, I think you’ll agree, you should just stop reading and go watch the movie. 

Victory! Victory to the miners!

Don’t lie, this film made you cry at least once. Here's our ranking of the moments that did it to us, but you’d be forgiven if you were just a weeping mess from start to finish.