A special commission as part of the 100 years of Stainless Steel celebrations, The Big Melt is a feature-length elegy to the men and women who toiled in Sheffield's steelworks and a hymn to Britain's proud industrial past. Working together, Sheffield's own musical hero Jarvis Cocker and acclaimed director Martin Wallace have produced an exquisite tapestry of steel industry-related archival footage drawn from the BFI National Archive.

Jarvis Cocker provides the film's stirring musical accompaniment, collaborating with a raft of Sheffield's finest musicians, including a string quartet, a brass band, members of PULP, Richard Hawley, The Forgemasters and a youth choir.