Programmes: T to Z
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The Drifters
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The Drifters is an observational
documentary of the last drift-net
salmon fisherman on Lough Foyle - all
now aged between 60 and 75.
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They have fished Lough Foyle for generations
and sadly these men will be the last.
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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.
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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.
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The boats go out all around the Lough, from
Limavady to Greencastle, for six weeks every
summer, down from the original three
months.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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This is an engaging story about ordinary
rural Ulster that has not been told before,
featuring some extraordinary characters
practising a dying trade.
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The Drifters is a Mind the Gap Films
production for 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland.
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The Lion Game
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In the Seventies the sight of lions,
elephants and baboons roaming the
fields of Northern Ireland was no
fantasy.
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It was reality at the Causeway
Safari Park, at the time one of
Northern Ireland's most popular
tourist attractions.
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For day-trippers the safari park was a place
of excitement, a small piece of Africa in north
Antrim.
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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.
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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.
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The Lion Game is a DoubleBand Films
production for 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland.
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The Seeing Eye
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This is the story of four visually-impaired people as they wait to meet
and train with their new guide dogs.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The Seeing Eye is produced by Gary Carvill,
91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland.
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The Story of Field Day
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The film traces the evolution of their work
together, revisiting the key plays and places
that shaped it.
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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.
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The film also explores the demise of the
company and the now infamous split
between Rea and Friel which tore it apart.
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The Story of Field Day is produced by Johnny
Muir, 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland.
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The Van
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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.
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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.
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In its heyday it was like your
local shop coming to your front door, except
bits of it on different days.
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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.
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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.
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As well as
the traditional services, he amusingly
explores the new mobile services on offer
today.
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The Van is produced by Feargal O'Kane, 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland.
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The Wedding
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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In a new documentary, 91Èȱ¬ Northern
Ireland is granted exclusive access into the
lives of lesbian couple Grainne and Shannon
as they prepare for their momentous day.
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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.
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Will it be
as the happiest day of their lives, or the day
they made history?
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The Wedding is produced by Natalie Maynes, 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland.
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Photography: Queerspace
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Ulster Generals
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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.
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The Allies would
lose the Mediterranean, the Far East,
the Iraq oilfields and possibly its US
ally.
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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.
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Colonel Tim
Collins was keen to get an inside picture of
the forgotten battle for Egypt while reassessing
Montgomery's tactics.
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These Generals turned the tide of the war,
and did so when the Allied war effort faced
catastrophe.
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Six Ulstermen would become
Field Marshals - Auchinleck, Montgomery,
Alexander and Alan Brooke among them.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Fortunately for Europe, in
this context at least, Ulstermen don't like
going backwards in a fight.
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For the first time, this series shows what
really happened in the scorching North
Africa sands during 1941 and 1942.
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Ulster Generals is an About Face Media
production for 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland.
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Wanted: Farmers
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Wanted: Farmers is produced by Waddell
Media for 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland.
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Waterworld
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91Èȱ¬ 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.
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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.
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91Èȱ¬ 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.
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Waterworld is produced by Maeve
O'Cathain, 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland.
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You Thought You Knew... City HallÌý
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You Thought You Knew... City Hall
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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.
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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...
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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; 91Èȱ¬ Proms in the Park; 91Èȱ¬ Music Live; the
'Ulster Says No' Rally and the signing of
Carson's Ulster Covenant.
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We may also know it has welcomed home
sporting heroes, has seen violent rejections
of unwelcome visitors and has hosted
royalty.
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However, Jim also reveals some secrets we
probably don't know, such as the great
pigeon mystery; the £500m man; the
Russian letter and the badger in the
basement.
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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.
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You Thought You Knew... City Hall is
produced by Louis Edmondson and Helen
Thompson, 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland.
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