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24 September 2014
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主播大秀 Northern Ireland Autumn 2006
The Drifters

主播大秀 Northern Ireland - Autumn highlights 2006



Programmes: T to Z

The Drifters

The Drifters is an observational documentary of the last drift-net salmon fisherman on Lough Foyle - all now aged between 60 and 75.

They have fished Lough Foyle for generations and sadly these men will be the last.

Licences are being phased out and Ireland is the only place in Europe to still allow drift-netting, as it has been partly blamed for the drastic reduction in salmon stocks.

The fishermen, who have seen the changes on the Lough over the past 50 years, have strong views on how pollution and over-development are the main culprits in the decline in stocks.

The boats go out all around the Lough, from Limavady to Greencastle, for six weeks every summer, down from the original three months.

Small 20-foot boats carrying almost a mile of nets head out with the first tide of morning - usually before dawn - and take their place on the Lough.

The day's catch is usually best on a Monday, the first fishing day, but it's erratic: some days they catch nothing, and other days a shoal could come in and they'd land 50 magnificent wild salmon.

They must fight off hungry hoards of local seals to retrieve their catch from the nets or they will be left with worthless heads, tails or half-eaten carcasses.

The fishermen are all subsistence farmers living in small cottages and farmhouses close to the shores of the Lough. Salmon has provided a seasonal income for generations, and one that will not be easily replaced.

This is an engaging story about ordinary rural Ulster that has not been told before, featuring some extraordinary characters practising a dying trade.

The Drifters is a Mind the Gap Films production for 主播大秀 Northern Ireland.

The Lion Game
The Lion Game

The Lion Game

In the Seventies the sight of lions, elephants and baboons roaming the fields of Northern Ireland was no fantasy.

It was reality at the Causeway Safari Park, at the time one of Northern Ireland's most popular tourist attractions.

For day-trippers the safari park was a place of excitement, a small piece of Africa in north Antrim.

However, for Louise Trufelli and her husband Pat Stephenson, the couple who created the park, it was not just an unusual business venture, it was a dream come true and a strange and magical home in which they could raise their young family.

With revealing interviews and previously-unseen archive film, The Lion Game tells the poignant, inside story of the Safari Park and of the family who struggled, at enormous personal cost, to keep it open during the darkest days of the Troubles.

The Lion Game is a DoubleBand Films production for 主播大秀 Northern Ireland.

The Seeing Eye
The Seeing Eye

The Seeing Eye

This is the story of four visually-impaired people as they wait to meet and train with their new guide dogs.

Gloria has been blind from birth and is told her first dog Bliss must retire; Linda went blind at 21 and has not been out alone for over nine years; Jennie, also blind from birth, looks forward to the day she can pick her son up from school; and Ann Marie is losing her sight and is hoping to qualify with her first guide dog.

In this, the 75th anniversary of guide dogs walking the streets of the UK, The Seeing Eye not only takes a look behind the scenes of the Belfast Guide Dog Centre, but covers the matching process and training of the dogs with their possible new owners.

The programme also outlines an interesting insight into the first two years of a guide dog, from volunteer puppy-walking and the initial training of the dogs in Scotland to their arrival in Northern Ireland.

The Seeing Eye is produced by Gary Carvill, 主播大秀 Northern Ireland.

The Story of Field Day
Stephen Rea

The Story of Field Day

This documentary tells the story of the most important theatre company Ireland has ever seen. Over 18 years, it attempted to use the theatre as a way of exploring what has lain behind the strife of the last 30 years and the forces which have made us who we are.

The film begins with Belfast-born actor Stephen Rea returning to the Guildhall in Londonderry where he and playwright Brian Friel launched the company in 1980 with the now-classic play, Translations.

As the company developed, they attracted to their ranks poets Seamus Heaney, Seamus Deane and Tom Paulin as well as filmmaker Davy Hammond and another playwright, Tom Kilroy.

The film traces the evolution of their work together, revisiting the key plays and places that shaped it.

It features an amazing wealth of archive material of the company on stage and off, including footage never before seen on television - as well as a specially-filmed staged reading in which Stephen Rea re-explores some key scenes from plays.

The film also explores the demise of the company and the now infamous split between Rea and Friel which tore it apart.

The Story of Field Day is produced by Johnny Muir, 主播大秀 Northern Ireland.

The Van
The Van

The Van

The Van is a humorous and thought-provoking documentary, celebrating a much-loved institution that appears to be dying out - the home delivery Van Men.

Most people over a certain age will remember the Van Men coming round the houses offering a range of services such as groceries, bread, milk, fish, laundry and rag-and-bone.

In its heyday it was like your local shop coming to your front door, except bits of it on different days.

As well as being able to buy home essentials you could catch up on local news and, particularly for elderly people, they were a lifeline - often having to perform tasks such as changing light bulbs or, in extreme cases, calling for medical assistance.

The Van, presented by Gerry Anderson, features a range of services still operational as Gerry follows them on their rounds deep into the countryside and beyond.

As well as the traditional services, he amusingly explores the new mobile services on offer today.

The Van is produced by Feargal O'Kane, 主播大秀 Northern Ireland.

The Wedding
The Wedding

The Wedding

On Monday 19 December 2005 a young couple embarked on the most romantic day of their lives as they entered Belfast City Hall to tie the knot.

However, when this couple stepped into their wedding venue they stepped into history, becoming the first gay couple in the UK to get 'married' in a civil partnership.

Instead of a wedding photographer, Grainne Close and Shannon Sickels had to deal with the world's press and instead of a few confetti-throwing family and friends, they had to deal with a sea of supporters, not to mention a throng of protestors with placards.

Northern Ireland was the last place in the UK to decriminalise homosexuality and many people were unhappy for it to become the first place in the UK to welcome same-sex civil partnership.

In a new documentary, 主播大秀 Northern Ireland is granted exclusive access into the lives of lesbian couple Grainne and Shannon as they prepare for their momentous day.

The Wedding will capture all those prenuptial nerves, the media attention and the on-the-day excitement and ask how the couple remember Monday 19 December.

Will it be as the happiest day of their lives, or the day they made history?

The Wedding is produced by Natalie Maynes, 主播大秀 Northern Ireland.

Photography: Queerspace

Ulster Generals
Ulster Generals

Ulster Generals

By the summer of 1942, the Middle East was Britain's front line. During the Second World War, the British Army was being punched back towards Egypt at such speed that Rommel would take Cairo within a week.

The Allies would lose the Mediterranean, the Far East, the Iraq oilfields and possibly its US ally.

The defeat of Rommel under Ulster Generals Alexander and Montgomery at Alamein was considered by Churchill the hinge moment of the War, yet the Battle for Egypt 12 weeks earlier under another Ulsterman, General Claude Auchinleck, was the real turning point, and this "first" battle of Alamein has been forgotten.

Colonel Tim Collins was keen to get an inside picture of the forgotten battle for Egypt while reassessing Montgomery's tactics.

These Generals turned the tide of the war, and did so when the Allied war effort faced catastrophe.

Six Ulstermen would become Field Marshals - Auchinleck, Montgomery, Alexander and Alan Brooke among them.

Using CGI and dramatic re-enactment, the Ulster Generals, presented by Colonel Tim Collins, is a two-part series which tells the story of these extraordinary men and conveys the desert battle tactics that defeated the Panzer Army.

Tim Collins' command of the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Regiment during the 2003 invasion of Iraq placed him in an alliance of Northern Irish, Irish, British and Commonwealth troops.

It was a similar coalition that made up the 8th Army in 1942, but facing a terrible task where the consequence of failure was almost beyond contemplation.

Fortunately for Europe, in this context at least, Ulstermen don't like going backwards in a fight.

For the first time, this series shows what really happened in the scorching North Africa sands during 1941 and 1942.

Ulster Generals is an About Face Media production for 主播大秀 Northern Ireland.

Wanted: Farmers

Wanted: Farmers tells the story of two farming families who responded to an ad in Farming Life for farmers from Northern Ireland to take up the challenge of milking cows in South Dakota, where 65,000 more cows are needed to keep one of the USA's biggest cheese plants in production.

Filmed over two years, this two-part documentary follows the Elliotts from Fermanagh from their first fact-finding tour to South Dakota, battling to rid their dairy herd of TB, overcoming family objections, selling their home and farm and setting up a 1,400-cow dairy in South Dakota.

The McAllisters of Armoy decide the industrial scale of milking in the States isn't for them and make plans to emigrate to Ontario instead. After 18 months the For Sale sign is still up at the end of the lane - but the family are determined their future lies in Canada.

Wanted: Farmers is produced by Waddell Media for 主播大秀 Northern Ireland.

Waterworld听
Waterworld

Waterworld

主播大秀 Northern Ireland will be diving into the depths of the big blue and taking viewers on an unforgettable underwater adventure in the innovative new series, Waterworld.

Darryl Grimason has spent months learning to dive and present underwater in order to bring viewers the breathtaking sight of starfish, sponges and sea wrecks.

主播大秀 Northern Ireland viewers can experience the thrill of discovery and see in, around and under our coastline as over five weeks we invite them to sit back, relax and submerge themselves in Waterworld.

Waterworld is produced by Maeve O'Cathain, 主播大秀 Northern Ireland.

You Thought You Knew... City Hall听
Jim McDowell in You Thought You Knew... City Hall

You Thought You Knew... City Hall

As a child, Sunday World's Northern Editor, Jim McDowell, played football in the grounds of Belfast City Hall, little knowing that he would spend a major part of his working life reporting on the goings-on in this 'Dome of Delight', as he dubbed it.

So it is both a personal and historical portrait he paints when he commemorates its 100th birthday this year, in a special one-hour edition of his occasional series You Thought You Knew...

We may know that it has served as a magnificent backdrop to many of the most momentous cultural and political events in Northern Ireland's history: the visits of President Clinton; Opening of Parliament; 主播大秀 Proms in the Park; 主播大秀 Music Live; the 'Ulster Says No' Rally and the signing of Carson's Ulster Covenant.

We may also know it has welcomed home sporting heroes, has seen violent rejections of unwelcome visitors and has hosted royalty.

However, Jim also reveals some secrets we probably don't know, such as the great pigeon mystery; the 拢500m man; the Russian letter and the badger in the basement.

Using archive footage, original interviews with historians, members of staff, journalists, politicians and ex-Lord Mayors, Jim takes viewers on a guided tour through a colourful and sometimes controversial history of this "big, bold and beautiful grand old lady," as Jim also likes to think of this architectural icon.

You Thought You Knew... City Hall is produced by Louis Edmondson and Helen Thompson, 主播大秀 Northern Ireland.

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