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16:10Prime Minister, Captain.
16:20Sixty bodies recovered so far.
16:22And counting.
16:26Quiet! Quiet!
16:28Quiet!
16:31Quiet!
16:57Back to work, everyone!
16:59Back to work.
17:04Every time the whistle blows, it makes they think they've heard something.
17:07Another child trapped beneath the wreckage.
17:09One more time.
17:23One step, two step.
17:25Come on, two step.
17:26One step.
17:56I guarantee you the highest level independent inquiry into this tragedy.
18:06All the necessary parts will be given to those in charge to take whatever action they need.
18:20No intention of adding to anything I've made in my state.
18:25It's a bit late now.
18:28We've been turning our room for years, those chips are dangerous.
18:38There was a disaster waiting up, and no one listened.
18:43The number of casualties in the tip disaster in South Wales could be as high as 200.
18:48Thirty-six people remain in hospital, plentiful bodies have been recovered,
18:51and estimates suggest that as many as 150 more are still missing, most of them children.
19:06What are you doing?
19:08You haven't heard the news.
19:09No? I've been at Caroline's birthday party.
19:14When you read the papers tomorrow, you'll understand.
19:16When you read the papers tomorrow, you'll understand.
19:23It's quiet...
19:30I mean you brought a number...
19:36I don't know left...
19:37to eat or ok.
19:39No!
19:57The smoke continues to hamper rescue efforts tonight in the village of Abadhan, South Wales.
20:02So far, 67 bodies, mostly children, have been pulled from the wreckage of Pant Glass Junior School, which was struck
20:09by 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.
20:17The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, visited the scene today, and Buckingham Palace have issued a statement of sorrow from the
20:24Queen.
20:24The message reads, I am shocked and distressed to learn of the terrible disaster which has taken place at Abadhan.
20:30Please convey a message of my heartfelt sympathy from my husband and myself to the children's parents and to the
20:36families of those who have lost their lives.
20:39That's the news from us at the moment. Now back to London.
20:43There will be special reports during the evening.
21:10Prime Minister, ma'am.
21:14As of an hour ago, the loss of life in Abadhan stands at 116.
21:18Now it appears that over 80 is still missing.
21:2036 of the survivors have been hospitalised.
21:23I 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 and the village
21:35is 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 is that you've paralysed virtually any situation you
22:02walk into.
22:03The very last thing emergency and rescue services need when they're working against the clock is 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.
23:03I said you should read your lines.
23:05Well, it's a brilliantヒ力.
23:05I said, what?
23:12I said it.
23:18Let me do it.
23:27Oh, I said The Lily.
23:27How did you arrive?
23:27My birthday?
23:28Nobody swapped Ei.
23:32I said on a show.
23:39Good morning, darling.
23:41Tea?
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.
23:58From a poor box.
24:01In 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.
24:52Many of them spent several hours stuck under the mud beside dead friends.
24:58Buried 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, he was holding his son's school cap.
25:56After the hospitals, he wanted to walk back to the house where he was due to stay.
26:01But he carried on walking.
26:06And walking.
26:09I want, what, what, what.
26:20No, I've never heard him like that.
26:26I hope I never do again.
26:38We 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?
26:50Who is it?
26:51National Coal Board cannot accept responsibility for the weather.
26:56Abnormal levels of rainfall have created extraordinary conditions.
27:01You'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.
27:16That's what I want to see written on my child's desk.
27:20What 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.
27:39And I'll give this 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.
27:56You 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.
28:05Their view is, if the Labour government pay the price for this tragedy,
28:10and the Tories make political capital from it,
28:12it would be obscene and a betrayal.
28:14Not just of the people of South Wales, but of all of us in the movement.
28:19We'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
28:32over 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,
28:41but to show solidarity with our supporters.
28:43Oh.
28:45This 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
28:57by the people who are to blame, the 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,
29:11and 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
29:20to deflect negative attention.
29:24Who?
29:27Her.
29:28The Queen.
29:30But you must admit,
29:31her 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.
30:06Losing 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,
30:25you'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,
30:36you're going to have to grow some balls.
30:40The MCB is a creation of the Labour Party.
30:48This is a government-made disaster.
30:52Take 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.
31:58Neither 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 playing in the streets thereof.
32:33And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels.
32:41And I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
32:48I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth.
32:55I heard a voice from heaven.
33:09Amen.
33:18Amen.
33:26Amen.
33:33Amen.
33:36Amen.
33:45Amen.
33:55Amen.
34:04Oh, my God.
34:51How was it?
34:53Extraordinary.
34:57The grief, the anger,
35:00the government of the Cobourg,
35:02but God, too.
35:0681 children were buried today.
35:10The rage in all the faces behind all the guys.
35:16They didn't smash things up.
35:18They didn't fight in the streets.
35:21What did they do?
35:23They sang.
35:25The whole community.
35:27It's the most astonishing thing I've ever heard.
35:37Did you weep?
35:41Did I weep?
35:47What kind of question is that?
35:50Just a question.
35:51Did you weep?
35:54I might have wept, yes.
35:56Are you going to tell me it was inappropriate?
35:59And the fact is,
36:01anyone who heard that hymn today
36:04would not just have wept.
36:09It would have been broken into a thousand tiny pieces.
36:37I see you.
36:41Thank you for letting me know.
36:47We've had a tip-off from a friendly newspaper editor.
36:51The government, determined not to take the blame for Aberfan,
36:56have decided to refocus the subject of the national conversation.
37:02And as briefed to newspapers as that.
37:07One person has been conspicuously absent from Aberfan,
37:11and that is our Queen.
37:13The scandalous lack of care and interest,
37:15one can only assume it is that by our head of state,
37:19is 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.
38:15On arrival at RAF St. Athan,
38:18you will be received by Sekener Treharne,
38:21Lord-Lieutenant of Glamorgan,
38:22and taken via car to the school disaster site 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
39:51It's expected to be considered appropriate
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.
47:42A special is.
47:46I have never done a day's manual work in my life.
47:51Not one.
47:52I'm an academic.
47:54A privileged Oxford Don.
47:56Not a worker.
47:59I 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.
49:40Your
49:41Yes.
49:41Yes.
49:42Yes.
49:55Yes.
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