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16:10Five, Minister.
16:1960 bodies recovered so far.
16:22And counting.
16:26Quiet! Quiet!
16:28Quiet!
16:57Back to work, everyone!
16:59Back to work!
17:03Every time the whistle blows, it means they think they've heard something.
17:07Another child trapped beneath the wreckage.
17:17Come on!
17:23Step, step, step.
17:26Step, step.
17:56I guarantee you
18:00the highest level
18:01independent inquiry
18:03into this tragedy.
18:05All the necessary
18:07will be given to those
18:10in charge to take
18:11whatever action they need.
18:14I've been neglected.
18:20No intention
18:22of adding to anything
18:23I've made in my state.
18:25It's a bit late now.
18:28We've been turning
18:29our room for you
18:30as those tips are dangerous.
18:38There was a disaster
18:39waiting to happen
18:40and no one listened.
18:44Casualties in the
18:45tip disaster in South Wales
18:46could be as high as 200.
18:4836 people remain in hospital.
18:50Plenty of bodies
18:50have been recovered.
18:51And estimates suggest
18:52that as many
18:53as 150 more
18:54are still missing.
18:55Most of them children.
19:06What are you doing?
19:08You haven't heard the news.
19:09No?
19:11I've been at
19:12Caroline's birthday party.
19:14When you read the papers
19:15tomorrow,
19:15you'll understand.
19:44I'll see you in hospital.
19:57The smoke continues to hamper rescue efforts tonight in the village of Appadhan, South Wales.
20:02So far, 67 bodies, mostly children, have been pulled from the wreckage of Pant Glass Junior School,
20:08which was struck by coal waste from a nearby tip.
20:12Hope remains for many more still missing, but work to recover bodies is likely to continue through the night.
20:18The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, visited the scene today,
20:20and Buckingham Palace have issued a statement of sorrow from the Queen.
20:24The message reads,
20:25I am shocked and distressed to learn of the terrible disaster which has taken place at Appadhan.
20:30Please convey a message of my heartfelt sympathy from my husband and myself to the children's parents
20:36and to the families of those who have lost their lives.
20:39That's the news from us at the moment.
20:41Now back to London.
20:43There will be special reports during the evening.
21:10Prime Minister.
21:13As of an hour ago, the loss of life in Appadhan stands at 116.
21:18Now it appears that over 80 are still missing.
21:2036 of the survivors have been hospitalised.
21:24I see.
21:25Are any more victims expected to be found?
21:28Not alive, ma'am.
21:30To make matters worse, it has been reported that the north shoulder of Tip 7 has moved
21:34and the village is ready for immediate evacuation.
21:37Mechanical diggers are out of action, bogged down in the soggy mud.
21:41The military have been brought into hell.
21:44Now, given all this, I was hoping I might persuade you to go.
21:55One of the most unfortunate things about being sovereign I have discovered
21:59is that you've paralysed virtually any situation you walk into.
22:03The very last thing emergency and rescue services need when they're working against the clock
22:08is a queen turning up.
22:17I'm not sure I agree.
22:20Children have died.
22:22The community is devastated.
22:26What precisely would you have me do?
22:32We'll comfort people.
22:34Put on a show.
22:36The Crown doesn't do that.
22:41I didn't say put on a show.
22:43I said comfort people.
23:01Your Majesty.
23:20I gave her permission to take care of me.
23:21I said comfort people.
23:21I said comfort people.
23:28My personality to pick your joke, I say there's aöly !
23:39Good morning, darling. Tea?
23:41Would anyone object if I had something stronger?
23:44Coffee?
23:45No, I was thinking whiskey.
23:47Margaret, it's nine o'clock.
23:49Yes, I know.
23:50But it's not morning.
23:52Not my world, anyway.
23:55Tony called.
23:57In the small hours.
23:58It was from a call box in the middle of nowhere.
24:07Oh, it's me.
24:10Can you do something for me?
24:13You told me to go into the children's bedrooms and kiss them while they slept.
24:24As soon as he got to Aberfan, he went straight to the school.
24:38It was unimaginably awful.
24:43Miners used to digging for coal, now digging to reach their children.
24:53Many of them spent several hours stuck under the mud, beside dead friends.
24:59Buried alive.
25:01Running out of there.
25:04He then went to the mortuary, where people were waiting to identify the children's bodies.
25:11Nurses and Salvation Army volunteers, they were writing a description of each adult, each child, noting any possessions they found
25:23in their pockets, like a handkerchief or sweets, anything, to help identify them.
25:45And from there, I went to the hospital.
25:49But there, he comforted a man, who was holding his son's school cap.
25:56After the hospitals, he wanted to walk back to the house where he's due to stay.
26:01But he carried on walking.
26:06And walking.
26:09What, what, what?
26:14No, I've never heard him like that.
26:26I hope I never do again.
26:39We have Geoffrey Morgan from the National Coal Board.
26:42I'm George Thomas, Minister of State for Wales, here to answer our question.
26:47Will you both accept responsibility?
26:49Who is it?
26:52National Coal Board cannot accept responsibility for the weather.
26:55That is.
26:57Abnormal levels of rainfall have created extraordinary conditions.
27:02You've known about the spring under the tip for years.
27:05I wrote to you.
27:07So did I.
27:08That's what's caused this, not rainfall.
27:10And nothing was done.
27:12Buried alive by the National Coal Board.
27:15That's what I want to see written on my child's desk.
27:20Talk about financial assistance.
27:23We've got people in dire need now.
27:26When's government going to step in?
27:30Let us be quite clear.
27:34A dreadful tragedy has taken place.
27:37But blame for that cannot be placed at the door of the Labour Party.
27:42Tip number seven was built in 1958 when the Labour Party wasn't in power.
27:49I had a visit today from certain members of the Cabinet.
27:54You need to tell me who.
27:56Who are concerned that this is all turning political.
27:59Of course it's turning political.
28:02And they want you to do something to deflect the blame.
28:06Their view is, if the Labour government pay the price for this tragedy, and the Tories make political capital from
28:12it, it would be obscene.
28:13And a betrayal.
28:14Not just of the people of South Wales, but of all of us in the movement.
28:18We've been waiting for this for too long, Harold.
28:22Thirteen years in opposition.
28:24And now we're finally in power, in government.
28:27We cannot allow ourselves to be crucified on the altar of public opinion over something that isn't our fault.
28:34Oh, when people are angry, they throw stones at their leaders.
28:38Then it's the duty not just to deflect that anger, but to show solidarity with our supporters.
28:43Oh, this is grief, Marcia.
28:47It's injustice.
28:48It's just another in a long list of injustices.
28:51There's parents grieving their children.
28:53It's also cold-hearted refusal to accept responsibility by the people who are to blame.
28:59The Tories.
29:00And now they're making us the scapegoats.
29:03Well, what do you want me to do about it?
29:06Make sure they take the blame.
29:08And if you can't blame it on the Tories, and you won't press it in the House,
29:12and you can't go after the NCB until the tribunal is over,
29:15then perhaps we should look for another establishment figure to deflect negative attention.
29:24Who?
29:26Her.
29:28The Queen.
29:30But you must admit, her behaviour is symptomatic of establishment neglect.
29:35Her behaviour is unfortunate.
29:38You went to see her today, didn't you?
29:41Yes.
29:42And you asked her again to go?
29:44Yes.
29:46And what did she say?
29:47The crown doesn't go.
29:50Something like that.
29:52The Duke of Edinburgh is now going.
29:55They pulled him away from some duck shoot.
29:58Yes, but she isn't.
30:00Perhaps there's good reason for that.
30:03Maybe she finds that kind of situation difficult.
30:07Losing your children is difficult.
30:11Losing brothers and sisters is difficult.
30:15Living in a mining village where the coal boards abandons you is difficult.
30:19And instead of sticking the knife in her and allowing us all to vent our anger at someone cold-hearted,
30:24you'd sooner let your own team take the blame.
30:27You're pathetic.
30:28You disgust me.
30:29So you keep telling me.
30:30If you ever want to be a real leader, a real man, a real socialist, you're going to have to
30:37grow some balls.
30:41The MCB is a creation of the Labour Party.
30:47This is a government-made disaster.
30:53Take responsibility.
31:22Take responsibility.
31:46And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes,
31:51and there shall be no more death.
31:55Neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
32:03for the former things are passed away.
32:10Fear not, for I am with thee.
32:13He shall feed his flock like a shepherd.
32:17He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom,
32:22and shall gently leave those that are with young.
32:26And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls
32:30playing in the streets thereof.
32:33And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts.
32:38In that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them,
32:43as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
32:48I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth.
32:53Amen.
32:55I heard a voice from heaven.
33:09Amen.
33:18Amen.
33:29God, the saved toi.
33:39are not alone, still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee this day, all my help
33:55call me, I pray, come on my way.
34:51How was it?
34:53Extraordinary.
34:58Grief, the anger at the government, at the co-board, at God too. 81 children were buried
35:08today. The rage in all the faces, behind all the guys. They didn't smash things up, they
35:18didn't fight in the streets.
35:21What did they do?
35:23They sang. The whole community. It's the most astonishing thing I've ever heard.
35:37Did you weep?
35:42Did I weep?
35:47What kind of question is that?
35:50Just a question. Did you weep?
35:54I might have wept, yes. Are you going to tell me it was inappropriate? And the fact is,
36:00anyone who heard that hymn today would not just have wept. It would have been broken into
36:10a thousand tiny pieces.
36:12a thousand tiny pieces.
36:34Right.
36:39I see.
36:40I see. Thank you for letting me know.
36:47We've had a tip-off from a friendly newspaper editor. The government, determined not to take
36:54the blame for Aberfan, have decided to refocus the subject of the national conversation. And
37:03it's as briefed newspaper as that. One person has been conspicuously absent from Aberfan,
37:11and that is our Queen. The scandalous lack of care and interest, one can only assume it
37:17is that by our head of state, is symptomatic of a lack of care from the traditional establishment,
37:23not just for the people of Wales, but for the whole working class.
37:36And the Prime Minister gave that his blessing?
37:40I think we have to assume so.
37:53I think it would work.
38:10The point of time is that he's completely unarmed.
38:15We are being attacked by the Battle of St. Athan.
38:18You will be received by Sir Kenneth Traherne, Lord-Lieutenant for Glamorgan, and taken via car to the school disaster
38:24site in Aberfan.
38:28Then on to the Bithania Chapel for the presentation of the heroes and survivors of the disaster.
38:35There will then be a visit to the cemetery, where you will lay a wreath.
38:39And finally, a visit to the home of a local miner, Thomas Edwards, who lost relatives in the disaster,
38:45and scheduled conversations with several other grieving families.
38:50A whole trip should be approximately two and a half hours.
38:54Without wishing to prompt your majesty, you may wish to consider that this is Wales, not England.
39:02A display of emotion would not just be considered appropriate.
39:07It's expected.
39:36But honestly, you know, we just paid attention to this family.
39:38But in remained prayer, you mayjoint people's���休息.
39:38What do you want to idols to the people you are working on?
39:42It will last forever.
39:42You might not say goodbye to the park or to the sky.
43:57As soon as possible.
43:58Yes, ma'am.
44:47The Prime Minister, Your Majesty.
44:49Your Majesty.
45:02Churchill would have had the character to do it face to face.
45:07Come to think of it, so would Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan.
45:11Each of them would have had the courage to do it, none of them would have had the courage to
45:28express their anger to me directly.
45:30Never.
45:31It wasn't you?
45:38But perhaps one or two of my colleagues concerned at the anger being directed at the government.
45:43It's possible.
46:10It's possible.
46:31It's possible.
46:34It's possible.
46:36It's possible.
46:43It's possible.
46:45It's possible.
46:46Well, you were a child.
46:48It's possible.
46:54It's possible.
46:58It's possible.
47:01It's possible.
47:04It's possible.
47:26It's possible.
47:33It's possible.
47:41It's possible.
47:42It's possible, Byron Macmillan, yes.
47:46I have never done a day's manual work in my life.
47:51I am an academic.
47:54A privileged Oxford Don.
47:57I don't like beer.
48:01I prefer brandy.
48:04I prefer wild salmon to tinned salmon.
48:08Chateaubriand to stained kidney pie.
48:12And I don't like pipe smoking.
48:15I far prefer cigars.
48:19But cigars are a symbol of capitalist privilege.
48:23So I smoke a pipe on the campaign trail and on television.
48:30It makes me more approachable.
48:35Likeable.
48:40We can't be everything to everyone and still be true to ourselves.
48:46We do what we have to do as leaders.
48:49That's our job.
48:51Our job is to calm more crises than we create.
48:56That's our job and you do it very well indeed.
49:01And in a way, your absence of emotion is a blessing.
49:07No one needs hysteria from a head of state.
49:14I mean, the truth is, we barely need humanity.
49:33Prime Minister.
49:38Your Majesty.
49:39Let's do.
50:34Let's do.
50:59Let's do.
51:09Let's do.
51:41Let's do.
52:10Let's do.
52:41Let's do.
53:09Let's do.
53:41Let's do.
54:10Let's do.
54:39Let's do.
55:09Let's do.
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