Director: Mark Herman
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald
In North Yorkshire, a local colliery band led by Danny (Pete Postlethwaite), prepare for the National Brass Band championships, at a time when the pit’s miners face redundancy. When the daughter of a former band leader named Gloria (Tara Fitzgerald) arrives, her return to the band raises their spirits, alongside a blossoming relationship with one of the band’s younger members (Ewan McGregor).
With Gloria leading on the flugelhorn, this pivotal scene showcases the band performing Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. Combining the yearning, pining quality of brass band music with the film’s dry humour, politics and human stories, Brassed Off reminds us that it’s the music that matters.
85 on the BFI’s Top 100 British films