The tragedy of Aberfan - fifty years on

​​​​Producer and director Steve Humphries talks about 'Surviving Aberfan' described in one newspaper as “one of the most heart-breaking pieces of television you are ever likely to watch.” It’s part of a series of commemorative programmes by BBC Wales, marking 50 years since the Aberfan disaster, which touched people around the world.

​This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster.

The people of this Welsh mining village, where life for more than a century revolved around the Merthyr Vale colliery, have rarely spoken at length about what happened to them on 21 October 1966, and for good reason.

On that morning, at the start of the school day, a massive tip slide careered down the mountainside, engulfing the village primary school and surrounding houses in hundreds of tonnes of rubble and coal waste. Twenty-eight adults and 116 children were killed.

Aberfan ranks high among the worst peacetime UK disasters of the 20th century - the loss of so many children in what should have been their safe haven shocked Wales, Britain and the world.

The impact was immediate, the public response overwhelming in messages of condolence and gifts in cash and kind.

Painful memories

As producer and director of the BBC documentary film Surviving Aberfan, I had to persuade people to talk on camera about what was, for many, the worst day of their life.

It took months to build a relationship of trust with the community to make this possible. Inevitably, talking about the disaster brings back acutely painful memories and many survivors still cannot speak about it publicly.

But some did eventually agree to tell their story. This is probably the last significant anniversary we have to capture the experience from the widest number of surviving witnesses.

Some believed it was vital that the full story of what happened to their community should never be forgotten.

Others wanted placed on record the largely unsung role of the emergency services and the men who risked their lives in rescue operations in the most challenging conditions and lived thereafter haunted by regret that they couldn’t have brought out more alive.

Former fireman Len Haggett had never spoken about what he did on that day - even to his wife. As a result of telling us his story, of a dramatic rescue he was involved in, we were able to reunite him with Phil Thomas, the boy whose life he saved.

Recounting the stories of survival, rescue, loss and bereavement was a uniquely emotional experience for the people of Aberfan – and for me.

As a programme-maker specialising in oral history documentaries for many years, I found these some of the most affecting interviews I have ever done. It seems to me that no-one ‘gets over’ a disaster of the suddenness, scale and severity of Aberfan. There are only different ways of surviving.

Steve Humphries is producer and director of the BBC documentary film Surviving Aberfan.

• Surviving Aberfan airs on BBC One Wales, Monday 17 October at 9pm, and on BBC Four, Thursday 20 October at 9pm
• Aberfan: The Fight for Justice,Tuesday 18 October, BBC One, 10.45pm
• Aberfan: The Green Hollow, Friday 21 October, BBC One Wales, 9pm; Sunday 23 October, BBC Four, 8pm
• Aberfan; A Concert to Remember, Saturday 22 October, BBC Two Wales, 9pm; Sunday 23 October, BBC Four, 9pm