Brassed Off (1996) Dir. Mark Herman

90s drama Brassed Off is being re-released on a new Blu-ray from the BFI, and we look back at a film that explores the fury and frustrations of past pit closures affecting British communities.

Tara Fitzgerald plays Gloria, who returns to her hometown in the north of England and joins a local brass band made up of miners led by conductor Danny (Pete Postlethwaite).

Impressing the men with her flugelhorn playing, she later reconnects with Andy (Ewan McGregor) who is battling against ongoing pit closures in the area. But unbeknownst to everyone, Gloria is in fact working for a company who will decide the fate of the pit.

Released in 1996, at the height of Britpop and Cool Britannia, the film’s quaint – but politically charged – kitchen-sink narrative is a world away from Ewan McGregor’s star turn in Trainspotting released earlier the same year.

But you could argue the films are two sides of the same coin. The band’s smartly pressed purple uniforms are hardly ‘heroin-chic’, but it still bravely tackles similar issues of poverty, frustration, economic insecurity and inequality. Although seen through the eyes of very different generations.

And whilst Danny Boyle’s film is in your face, Brassed Off scrutinizes topics in a much milder tone, but not without some bite too. The gentle Full Monty-style humour and sarcastic dialogue conceal darker narrative points around depression, divorce, suicide and desperation.

As Andy discovers Gloria’s management role, she’s accused of being a stooge before she herself realises her report won’t change the outcome. And as Danny tries to keep the band together, even as the sword of Damocles swings over the pit’s head, his son Phil’s shame leads to a dark moment of attempted self-harm.

Later, Danny’s health takes a turn, Gloria throws off the corporate shackles and as these things go, the band’s differences are overcome for one final performance in the finals of a music competition at Albert Hall (actually shot in the Midlands at Birmingham Town Hall!)

But as the film never really commits to the dark drama the subject matter leans towards, and it doesn’t take a satirical look at the politics and people either, it sadly falls into, well, a bit of a bland space. Whereas The Full Monty balanced these styles with deftness, Brassed Off’s comedy is inappropriate at times, whilst the political speeches seem equally out of place during lighter moments.

Ranked 85th on the BFI list of Top 100 British Films, Brassed Off is honourable in its themes, and full of a lot of oompah-pah, and twee diddling. It’s (mostly) a gentle slice of solid British historical drama, but sadly never really hit the right note for me. I’m sure I’m supposed to say it’s a “still relevant two-fingered salute to a disgraceful period of government injustice” but whilst maybe true, it didn't actually make the film any better for me. As the brass band played 'Oh, Danny Boy', I kept thinking Danny Boyle is the one I'd rather watch.

★★★

3 / 5

Michael Sales

@midlandsmovies on Instagram, Facebook & X

Special features

• Newly recorded audio commentary by Scott Harrison 
• Toilet Breaks and Brass Band Shame (2026, 16 mins): a newly recorded interview with writer and director Mark Herman 
• Interview with Tara Fitzgerald (2026): a newly recorded interview with the actress 
• Unusual Ground Floor Conversion(1988, 12 mins): Mark Herman’s early short film starring Adrian Dunbar (My Left Foot, The Crying Game) as a writer who becomes increasingly frustrated by his upstairs neighbour 
• Archive interviews (1997, 10 mins): a series of short interviews recorded on location 
• Balletomines (Mining Review 7th Year No.12) (1954, 3 mins): a group of burly Yorkshire miners form a ballet-dancing troupe to raise money for charity 
• The Big Meeting (1963, 26 mins): Sam Watson, former General Secretary of the Durham Miner's Union, explains the origin of the Durham Gala Day and its purpose 
• 40 Years On(1978, 19 mins): the changes in coal mining which have taken place during one man's working lifetime