Joe the Chainsmith

A railwayman from St. Kitts, a bus conductor from Jamaica, a family of singers from Trinidad and a nurse from Barbados ... Philip Donnellan's Birmingham-based film gives a voice to West Indian immigrants who movingly describe their experiences of trying to integrate into a surprisingly unwelcoming ‘mother country’. Shot in 1964 the film provides an important snapshot of Britain in the early stages of momentous social change and first-generation Afro-Caribbean immigration.

A bitter account of the marginal status of the community of male Irish migrants responsible for rebuilding much of Britain's post-war infrastructure. Made for TV but never broadcast, it instead enjoyed limited circulation on the non-theatrical circuit.

The hero-figure of the British coalfield - is he real? or imaginary? is he man? or machine?

1973 documentary on boxing from filmmaker Philip Donnellan, inspired by an original Radio Ballad of the same name by Charles Parker, Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger