Brassed Off

Brassed Off (1996) is a British comedy-drama directed by Mark Herman that you can watch online on iFILM. Ewan McGregor, Pete Postlethwaite, and Tara Fitzgerald lead the cast in a story set against the last days of a Yorkshire coal mine.

The Grimley Colliery is shutting down. Hundreds of families face unemployment, and the town's beloved amateur brass band — led by the stubborn, ailing Danny (Postlethwaite) — is falling apart along with everything else. Danny refuses to stop: he pushes his players toward the national brass band championship even as their lives unravel outside the rehearsal room. When Gloria (Fitzgerald) arrives back in town with a flugelhorn, Andy (McGregor) sees a first love he thought was gone for good. Her playing lifts the band. Her presence complicates everything else.

Herman shot the film in 1996, when de-industrialisation had already hollowed out much of northern England, and the anger underneath the film's warmth is real. It is funnier than it sounds and sadder than it looks. Stream Brassed Off (1996) online on iFILM.