Aberfan: The Fight for Justice

Aberfan: The Fight for Justice

Fifty years ago, a coal tip crashed down on a village in south Wales, killing 144 people including 116 children. Now Huw Edwards traces the story of Aberfan's decades-long battle for justice.

The Aberfan disaster shocked the world. Immediately, people were demanding to know how and why it had happened. Was it a terrible accident or a preventable man-made tragedy? Within weeks, a tribunal of inquiry began hearing evidence.

A cast of actors brings the tribunal to life, the script drawn from the actual evidence presented at the inquiry. Huw Edwards looks back at the testimony given. Should warnings have been heeded? Who was to blame?

The publicly owned National Coal Board and the government managed to add insult to injury as they refused the demands of local people to remove the tips from above the village. Finally they gave in, but not without perpetrating another injustice on Aberfan that took decades to remedy.

First shown: October 18 2016
Duration: 60 minutes



Media info:

General
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 1 012 MiB
Duration : 59mn 3s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 2 397 Kbps
Writing application : Lavf57.25.100

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : [email protected]
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 59mn 3s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 298 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 3 500 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.100
Stream size : 970 MiB (96%)

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 59mn 3s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 93.5 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Frame rate : 46.875 fps (1024 spf)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 39.5 MiB (4%)