KING COAL
AN INTERNATIONAL TV SERIES FROM WALES
Gritty reality drama – the loves, hates and hardships of people caught up in disaster – a human story from history written in blood.
King Coal opens with the story of the Phillips family thrown into chaos by disaster. Torn apart by tragedy, they must find a way to face the future.
With child miners dying underground in rat-infested corridors, immigrants enduring daily prejudice, and the threat of a roof fall or explosion never far away,
As the Phillips family live alongside the demands of industry, family love is strained to its limits. The themes of love, hate and forgiveness are universal.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The story of King Coal will run over five seasons. from 1875 to 2008. It centres on the life of John Phillips, son of Abraham, a controversial overman accused of negligence. When gas explodes underground, the man John loves dies in his arms. John must learn to forgive his father. His is a tough journey that takes him to the underworld of Victorian Cardiff. He rubs shoulder with Mad Jack Matthews, a notorious criminal, interacts with prostitutes and rip gangs as he faces the underbelly of the union movement with Noah Ablett, a young Marxist
From Cardiff’s Black Ribbon of Death, John will witness harsh justice, tragic disasters, race riots, strikes and crippling poverty. He will sell his soul as he moves through history. As family life plays out alongside the demands of industry, John will encounter strong women, men he is close to, discover he has a mystery benefactor. He will serve in WW1, face the poverty of the Great Strike, and die, an old man, on the Hunger march to London.
The Wall Street crash, the Great Depression of the 1930s and Evan Phillips, John’s illegitimate son, becomes the focus. Destitute, his father dead, his relationship in tatters, he travels to Pennsylvania to find work, but returns to serve in the war effort. An old man, he is witness to the tragedy of Aberfan. His miner son will strike in 1984, will be at Orgreaves facing police brutality. As the pits in South Wales close, the human story of coal culminates with the miner buy-out of Tower Colliery, the last deep pit in Wales, the only pit in the world owned and run by miners. Tyrone O’Sullivan creates Noah Ablett’s dream.
The Cruel History of King Coal
1875-2008
Episode One - Disaster
The men are irritable, the door boy asleep again. A deep breath; a quick decision: “C’mon lads. Let’s get down there. Quick in and out. It’s nearly Christmas.”
The gas explodes. Men are praying, scrambling over dead bodies. Samuel Taylor is covered in flames. Abraham beats them out with his bare hands, shouting “Keep calm, boys” as the roof falls away. He calls to his son, “John, get out lad. Get out!” Then a sickening crash as a truck is thrown through the air …
John Phillips runs to the exit with Dan Malone in his arms. He hears a shout – “The Overman is dead” – but takes no notice. He can only think of Dan.
Underground, an ordinary day. John has slipped down late. He works alongside Dan. Collier Evans breaks through to an old working. A hiss. Then gas explodes. Flames dance down the corridors.Men are praying, scrambling over dead bodies. Samuel Taylor is covered in flames. Abraham beats them out with bare hands.“Keep calm, boys” he calls as the roof falls away. “John, get out lad. Get out!” he shouts as a sickening crash throws a truck pinning him to the wall. John is running to the exit with Dan in his arms. He hears the shout – “The Overman is dead” – he pauses but moves on. He can only think of Dan.
SEASON
December 1875. Sunday prohibition. John Phillips drinks illegally on the Garth with other men. Shadrach Davies, his sworn enemy, picks a fist fight. John knocks him to the ground. As his hand is held up as winner, the cry of John echoes through the valley. Back home he is at odds with his father. They exchange harsh words.
Preoccupied by his rebellious son, falling coal prices and the threat of the mine’s closure, Overman Abraham Phillips trudges to the Lan entrance through falling snow. And then a hurried conversation. Gas at the work face. What should they do? No pit, no wages, no food. And they have worked in gas before …
The men are irritable, the door boy asleep again. A deep breath; a quick decision: “C’mon lads. Let’s get down there. Quick in and out. It’s nearly Christmas.”
The gas explodes. Men are praying, scrambling over dead bodies. Samuel Taylor is covered in flames. Abraham beats them out with his bare hands, shouting “Keep calm, boys” as the roof falls away. He calls to his son, “John, get out lad. Get out!” Then a sickening crash as a truck is thrown through the air …
John Phillips runs to the exit with Dan Malone in his arms. He hears a shout – “The Overman is dead” – but takes no notice. He can only think of Dan.
Abraham is carried home. Jemima Phillips falls to her knees – she had thought him invulnerable. As she prepares her husband’s body for the grave, he is declared a hero for his rescue effort.
As survivors give evidence at the Inquest, John has a panic attack. Reliving the horror he runs from the hall, breathless. William John appears from the shadows; he tells John his father is no hero. He knew there was gas and took men into it.
CHARACTERS
ABRAHAM PHILLIPS – a family man in his mid to late fifties who sees the world differently from his father and his eldest son. He is an experienced miner who has spent his life in mining, working up from the ranks. Promoted to overman at the Lan mine, he is still a collier at heart, well liked and trusted by his men. Abraham is the voice of reason, always prepared to listen to others and to find the middle way.
JOHN PHILLIPS – the eldest son of Abraham Phillips. A miner like his father, John is a handsome, charismatic tear-away, something of a local hero. He finds a soul mate in Dan – they see the world the same way and want to stir the miners to action. It’s a friendship that develops into love.
JEMIMA PHILLIPS – a strong-willed mother and wife in her forties. Jemima is fiercely independent and makes her views clear. The disaster at the Lan takes away her family’s reputation and her status as an overman’s wife. But even as she faces poverty and is rejected by her community, she keeps her family together through the crisis.
DEBORAH PHILLIPS – Abraham’s mother, a woman who believes in progress and argues like her grandson, for the role of unions as the only way to improve their lives. A bit of a philosopher and a woman of strong views, she is often at odds with her son. She is a constant and calming presence, helping to bring the family back together.
PHILIP PHILLIPS – the younger son of Abraham. Philip leaves the village to work in Thomas Booker’s Liverpool offices. Like his father, Philip is a peace-maker. He returns to the village after the disaster to help his family, trying to make John see sense, to make him understand his father’s impossible decision.
ELIZABETH PHILLIPS – the youngest member of the Phillips family. Elizabeth loves listening to her grandfather’s stories, but she is expected to work hard in the house to support her mother.
DAN MALONE – a young Irish man. In spite of his experience as a miner back home, Dan works as a labourer in the Lan. He is disliked and distrusted by many of the miners, but he and John believe they can change the world together. Only death can break their bond.
WILLIAM GALLOWAY – a young Scottish mining engineer. Galloway’s father is a coal and iron master so he has seen first-hand the working conditions underground. His life’s work is to make mining safer. When he investigates the Lan disaster, he comes to a unique conclusion for the time – an understanding that was to change mining practices across the world.
HANNAH THOMAS – a local girl who works at the pub. She’s ambitious and looks to life beyond the village. Hannah dreams of freedom – and Philip could be her way out. There is an unspoken connection between them and a stormy night on the mountain changes both their lives.
COLLIER EVANS – the voice of reason amongst the miners. Around Abraham’s age, Evans is a decent man who understands life. He supports Abraham and takes the middle ground in any debate, looking for ways to find agreement. After the explosion, he suffers physical and emotional trauma from his terrible injuries and the guilt that haunts him.
WILL JOHN – fireman at the Lan. Will is an experienced miner responsible for checking gas levels each morning and for carrying out controlled explosions to remove the gas. He is a long-time friend of Abraham and supports him without question, but after the explosion rumours spread and Will is the source.
SAMUEL TAYLOR – an immigrant from Jamaica who is never quite one of the men. Sam left his home in the Caribbean working his passage as a stoker on a steamship. He marries a local girl, but is kept at arm’s length by the community. He dies in the explosion leaving his wife to raise two young children. There is no money for a funeral so he is buried in a pauper’s grave.
SHADRACH – an aggressive, bitter man who leads a small group of miners. His loud mouth and antagonistic attitudes set him apart. He is belligerent, rude and always looking for a fight – he and John clash repeatedly. Shadrach has no time for the Phillips family and hates immigrants.
THOMAS W. BOOKER – the master of the local iron works and the Lan mine. Booker has reluctantly inherited his father’s iron and steel empire. A young man who loves a grand gesture, he is all talk and no substance. As a business tycoon, he is inept – he borrows and spends heavily, and fails to keep his pit in a good state of repair.
SEYMOUR – the English pit manager at the Lan. Seymour is a surly Northerner who has no time for the Welsh. He is heavy-handed in his dealing with the miners and frequently threatens Abraham. As Booker’s right-hand man, he has no interest in safety – his only goal is to get the coal up and to get it up as fast and as cheaply as possible.
CORONER REECE – the local face of the legal system. He is a young man, old school, overly formal and fixed in his views – he doesn’t like it when the people around him know more than he does. As a coroner, he is thorough, but lacks understanding.
THE STORY
The book behind this series is a novel by Norma Procter, The House of Abraham Phillips, which tells the tragic story of a mining disaster in the small Welsh village of Gwaelod-y-Garth for the first time. King Coal will bring to life in graphic detail a moving tale of working-class families and the unsung heroism of ordinary men and women by focusing on one family closely linked to the Lan mine in 1875. The main incidents are based on historical facts recorded in contemporary reports, but this is a fictitious reworking of the loves, hates and hardships of Abraham Phillips and his family as they struggle to survive.
100% Wales, UK
We will use local Welsh locations, Welsh crews, Welsh studio facilities. It is anticipated that filming will commence Autumn 2024-Spring 2025.
Love. Hate. Forgiveness. In a brutal world, none of us can survive alone.