infoBeyond The Vote (1984)
Amber Films (Producer)
22 mins, video
Documentary
Made by Amber’s Current Affairs Unit for Channel 4’s Eleventh Hour, Beyond the Vote examines the relationship between the Labour Party and its voters, with the Chesterfield by-election of March 1984 as the setting. When Amber were offered unrestricted access to the Labour Party’s election campaign in Chesterfield, the production team decided to send a crew down to the Derbyshire town for the duration of the by-election.
With Chesterfield a coalfield constituency, Amber’s interest in Labour campaign was, of course, related to its engagement with the issues behind the Miners’ Strike and by extension to the concerns of the anti-nuclear and peace movements and the analyses of media bias that were associated with the Glasgow Media Group. Interviewing local party members and the Labour candidate Tony Benn, the programme follows the election process of the local party away from the political personalities and into the homes of the residents of Burbage Road, a small street in the north of the constituency.
The Chesterfield by-election took place in the wake of the attacks on the ‘extra-parliamentary activists’ of the Bermondsey by-election, Tony Benn seen by most commentators as a leading figure in a political approach projected as irreconcilable with a ‘parliamentary’ left.
AMBER FILMS
Made under the auspices of the ACTT Workshop Declaration with financial assistance from Northern Arts and Channel Four Television.
Co-produced with Swingbridge Video
Music by: Ray Stubbs and his R & B All Stars.
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