Amber, 1980, 60 mins

The Bessie Surtees loads up with ash from Dunston Power Station and journeys down the Tyne to dump it at sea. Pub singers, pigeon men, shop stewards, Swing Bridge operators, Bingo players, fish quay workers and more, the film opens up on the communities along the banks of the industrial river.

Not entirely successful as film, it was an early experiment in bringing together drama and documentary, drawing on several-projects-without-funding. But there are some really rich sequences and scenes – including excerpts from the touring version of Tom Hadaway’s The Filleting Machine, which was then given a full film version the following year.