The Last Fare / David Wilkie & The Miners’ Strike - Part 1
They Walk Among Us - UK True Crime
They Walk Among Us
4.5 • 6.8K Ratings
🗓️ 22 October 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
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Summary
The winter of 1984 forced miners to confront impossible choices. Families faced a dilemma that would tear at the fabric of the country’s tight-knit communities. Miners could continue to strike, pushing them to the brink of poverty, or return to work to put food on the table… (Part 1 of 2).
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This episode was researched and written by Eileen Macfarlane.
Edited by Joel Porter at Dot Dot Dot Productions.
Script editing, additional writing, illustrations and production direction by Rosanna Fitton
Narration, additional audio editing and mixing, and script editing by Benjamin Fitton.
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MUSIC:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode contains distressing themes, profanity and descriptions of violence. |
| 0:12.2 | This podcast is intended for a mature audience. Listener caution is advised. |
| 0:29.6 | The winter of 1984 forced miners to confront impossible choices. Families faced a dilemma that would tear at the fabric of the country's tight-knit communities. |
| 0:36.6 | Miners could continue to strike, pushing them to the |
| 0:39.7 | brink of poverty or return to work to put food on the table. The decision to return, regardless of |
| 0:46.8 | the reasoning behind it, turned friends into enemies. Leaving the picket line meant more than breaking |
| 0:52.8 | ranks. The anger was palpable. |
| 0:56.3 | The very act of going to work, something that had once been routine, now carried genuine physical risk. |
| 1:03.8 | In this climate of dwindling resources and fractured loyalties, taxi driver David Wilkie |
| 1:09.9 | became caught in the middle of a conflict that was |
| 1:12.5 | reshaping the landscape of industrial Britain. |
| 1:17.0 | But every miner and his wife and family understand that we're not in a despondent mode, |
| 1:24.1 | we're in a confident mood, because we're not, we're not fighting to attain a Christmas |
| 1:30.9 | that's endurable in 1984. We're fighting so that our Christmases in future can be acceptable |
| 1:38.0 | to our children and to their children. I find it difficult to believe that anyone can support |
| 1:44.0 | a strike sustained by these methods. |
| 1:47.0 | It isn't British. This calculated malice is alien to us. |
| 1:53.0 | And I felt so strongly that if only there had been a ballot, none of this would have happened. |
| 1:59.0 | Welcome to Season 10, Episode 43 of They Walk Among Us, |
| 2:05.0 | a podcast dedicated to UK true crime. |
| 2:10.0 | This is part one of a two-part case. |
| 2:13.6 | The second installment will be available in four days. |
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