In 1984, Billy Elliot, an 11-year-old from the fictional Everington in County Durham, England, loves to dance and has hopes of becoming a professional ballet dancer. Billy lives with his widowed father, Jackie, and older brother, Tony, both coal miners out on UK miners' strike (1984–85) (the latter being the union bully), and also his maternal grandmother, who has Alzheimer's disease and once aspired to be a professional dancer.