In 1975, the National Coal Board (NCB) produced a short film, “People Will Always Need Coal”, to encourage recruitment into mining. It was extraordinarily attention-grabbing, presenting miners as cosmopolitan playboys. It defined the industry in hyper-masculine terms, encouraging would-be recruits to “be a miner”. This article uses the film as a starting point for a discussion of the complex interactions between the material realities of masculinity, class, and culture within Britain's coalfields in the period 1975–1983. A critical reading of the film is complemented by archival research and oral testimony drawn from interviews with 96 former miners and their families. At a time when the industry was positioning itself as an employer with a long-term future, mining was presented on screen as a modern masculine occupation that was far removed from the dominant imagery of coal for much of the twentieth century. The National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) victories in the strikes of 1972 and 1974, the drafting of a Government Plan for Coal, and rising living standards, created a short period of optimism before the cataclysmic closures of the 1980s and 1990s. This was a time when masculinity in the coalfields was being reproduced, modified, contested, and subverted. The years 1975–1983 offer valuable insight into such masculinity and the ways it was mediated and challenged through work, the domestic sphere, leisure, and popular culture.

1975 年，国家煤炭委员会 （NCB） 制作了一部短片《人们永远需要煤炭》，以鼓励采矿业的招聘人员。它非常引人注目，将矿工描绘成国际化的花花公子。它以超级男性化的术语定义了这个行业，鼓励潜在的新员工“成为一名矿工”。本文以这部电影为起点，讨论了 1975 年至 1983 年期间英国煤田中男性气质、阶级和文化等物质现实之间的复杂互动。对这部电影的批判性阅读辅以档案研究和对 96 名前矿工及其家人的采访中的口头证词。当该行业将自己定位为具有长期前景的雇主时，采矿业在屏幕上被呈现为一种现代男性职业，在 20 世纪的大部分时间里，它与煤炭的主流形象相去甚远。全国矿工工会 （NUM） 在 1972 年和 1974 年的罢工中取得了胜利，起草了政府煤炭计划，并提高了生活水平，在 1980 年代和 1990 年代的灾难性关闭之前创造了短暂的乐观情绪。这是一个煤田中的男子气概被复制、修改、争论和颠覆的时代。1975 年至 1983 年为了解这种男性气质以及它如何通过工作、家庭领域、休闲和流行文化来调解和挑战提供了宝贵的见解。