For expectant mothers and fathers-to-be, pregnancy is a nine-month rollercoaster ride of emotions. Guiding them every step of the way, right up to the birth, is a special breed of people – the midwives. With unique access to the state-of-the-art maternity unit at the Ulster Hospital in Belfast, this compelling new documentary series follows a team of midwives as they take on the demands and worries of bringing new lives into the world and as they share in the joy of the proud parents. With unlimited access to the drama of the delivery room, the series offers viewers a fascinating insight into that most special of moments – the beginning of a new life.

SPECIAL DELIVERIES

A DoubleBand production for BBC Northern Ireland.

Produced by Diarmuid Lavery

Directed by Laura Doherty

Featuring the evocative memories and unseen archive of generations of enthusiasts, Britain Goes Camping tells the intriguing story of how sleeping under canvas evolved from a leisure activity for a handful of adventurous Edwardian gents to the quintessentially British family pastime that it is today.

“I think the British camper has always been stoic, someone who has a wry smile and the ability to carry on in the face of adversity.”

Camping has been at the heart of our nation’s holidaymaking for a hundred years. Leaving our towns and cities behind, to sleep under canvas and to cook over a campfire, has been at the heart of British holidaymaking for over a hundred years.

Now Britain Goes Camping, a new documentary for BBC Four, tells the story of how camping evolved across the generations, inspired by a series of ingenious innovations and influenced by social and cultural change across the twentieth century.

“The story of camping in Britain is actually a revealing social history,” says the director of Britain Goes Camping, Brian Henry Martin of DoubleBand Films. “It charts a century of social and cultural change and our struggle to get away from the rules and regulations of modern life, to replace them – even for a short time – with a life under canvas.”

As the documentary explores, camping also gave British people the opportunity to escape our sprawling cities and to experience the simple pleasures of the British countryside. One such enthusiast who features in the documentary is 86 year-old Alec Law from Woolwich in London, who explains how camping offered the only affordable holiday for his family:

“I had eight sons and to take eight sons on holiday anywhere cost the earth but to take them into a field and to give them a tent, feed them on baked beans, fried eggs and bacon don’t cost a fortune,” says Alec.

“Britain Goes Camping explores how camping has changed across the generations,” says Brian Henry Martin. “But it also shows how the appeal and challenges of camping have remained largely the same over the years. It has always been a story of adventure, resourcefulness, adversity in the face of the British weather, strange gadgets – and tinned meat.”

In addition to Alec Law, contributors to Britain Goes Camping include:

Stephanie Hilhouse from Uxbridge – who explains how her first foreign camping trip, aged thirteen with her family back in the 1930s led to a bizarre encounter with Nazi Germany.

Novelist and actress Emma Kennedy who reveals the many curious experiences of her first foreign holiday under canvas, a camping trip to the seductive south of France in the 1970’s.

Dixe Wils, a camping enthusiast from London, who enjoys wild camping in Britain all year round, whatever the weather. Dixe takes us on his most recent winter camping trip in the Welsh Mountains with below zero temperatures and Arctic conditions.

Britian Goes Camping

A DoubleBand production for the BBC.

Executive Producer – Michael Hewitt

Produced by Diarmuid Lavery

Directed by Brian Henry Martin

Teorainn is a new four-part Irish Language documentary series on the dramatic history of the border and its impact on Ireland north and south for almost 90 years.

Is sraith úr faisnéise Gaeilge í seo, ina bhfuil ceithre chlár, a dhíríonn ar stair dhrámatúil na teorann agus ar an dóigh a ndeachaigh sé i bhfeidhm ar Éirinn thuaidh agus theas, le beagnach 90 bliain anuas.

Narrator – Tráchtaire – Niall Cusack

Photography – Fótagrafaíocht – Michael Quinn

Editor – Eagarthóir – Daithí Connaughton

Producer – Léiritheoir – Diarmuid Lavery

Writer & Director – Scríbhneoir/stiúrthóir – Fiona Keane

Teorainn is a DoubleBand Films production for BBC Northern Ireland and TG4, supported by the Northern Ireland Screen Irish Language Broadcast Fund and Sound & Vision at Broadcasting Authority of Ireland Initiative.

The issue of the 11+ has led to fierce debate and divided opinion across Northern Ireland on the merits and fairness of academic selection. It’s a debate that has dominated the news in Northern Ireland for a number of years and which has also led to uncertainly about the future of our education system among parents, teachers and pupils.

Now, in a lively and refreshing approach to the 11+ debate, THE SCHOOL REPORT follows two experts with strong and opposing views on our education system as they visit a range of schools across Northern Ireland – Chris Woodhead, the former and controversial Chief Inspector of Schools who is firmly pro-selection, and the outspoken education campaigner Fiona Millar, a passionate believer in the comprehensive school system and once the adviser to Cherie Blair.

Coming from outside Northern Ireland, in this programme Chris and Fiona side-step the political fallout that has surrounded the debate over the 11+ and set out together on a lively and informative journey – one in which they take a look at the current education system in Northern Ireland through fresh eyes. As they do so Chris and Fiona talk not only to parents, teachers and to the Minister for Education, but to those at the very heart of this hotly-contested debate – the children themselves.

In addition to Chris and Fiona’s intriguing journey, THE SCHOOL REPORT provides an insight into the experiences of four children from local schools as they sit the last 11+ exam to be held in Northern Ireland – and then wait anxiously for their results.

THE SCHOOL REPORT

A DoubleBand production for BBC Northern Ireland.

Executive Producer – Diarmuid Lavery

Produced by Leona Coulter

Directed by Michael Hewitt

To celebrate the centenary of flight in Ireland, presenter Eddie Irvine tells the dramatic but little-known story of the young aviator Harry Ferguson, the first man in Ireland to fly a plane, at Hillsborough, County Down in 1909.

Programme synopsis

He is one of Northern Ireland’s most famous sons. A hugely successful industrialist, an innovative engineer and a visionary inventor. He is Harry Ferguson – a man so iconic that his face even adorns our bank notes. Harry Ferguson was a man whose creative spirit, engineering genius and gritty determination saw him transform the design of ploughs and tractors – and change forever the lives of millions of ordinary people across the world. That is the Harry Ferguson we all know. But there’s another story – a less well-known story – to tell about this remarkable Ulsterman. It’s the story of the young and dashing Harry Ferguson, the maverick who was addicted to speed and danger. And it’s the story of how one hundred years ago – long before he turned his attention to ploughs and tractors – this restless young risk-taker became the first man in Ireland to build and fly his own aeroplane.

Former Formula One Driver Eddie Irvine goes in search of the young aviator Harry Ferguson, Featuring contributions from Harry Ferguson’s three grandchildren Jamie Sheldon, Caroline Sheldon and Sally Fleming.

Produced by Diarmuid Lavery

Directed by Brian Henry Martin

A DoubleBand production for the BBC.

Part of the Age of Glamour Season

Billing

A compelling and colourful documentary celebrating the golden age of air travel when, during the 1920s and 1930s, Britain ruled the skies and style and glamour were a passport to adventure.

Programme synopsis

In Britain in the 1920s and 30s a revolution took place that would change forever our perspective on the world. While the country was in the grip of recession, dashing pilots and daring socialites took to the air, pushed back boundaries and forged new links across the globe. The era of commercial air travel was born. This documentary tells the story of this golden age of British aviation and of how the original ‘jet set’ shaped air travel for generations to come.

Executive Producer for DoubleBand – Diarmuid Lavery

Produced by Leona Coulter

Directed by Brian Henry Martin

A DoubleBand production for the BBC.

Losing Our Religion is the second programme made for BBC NI by DoubleBand Films in which William makes a personal journey into aspects of life here. The first film, Dying For A Drink, took an up-close look at our society’s relationship with alcohol. In both films, William makes a deeply personal exploration into his own and his family’s story.

Losing Our Religion seeks to make a similar investigation into our society’s relationship with religion, and, on the way, William reveals part of his own experience of faith and the church.

William wasn’t raised with religion, but at the age of 16 he underwent a religious conversion and began a lifelong fascination with religious ideas. Soon, while still a teenager, he was preaching in pulpits across Northern Ireland. In the documentary, he returns to some of the first pulpits he ever preached from. Eventually, he trained as a minister and theologian, preaching and teaching in churches and universities on both sides of the Atlantic.

Today, he no longer is a churchgoer. In Losing Our Religion, he tells the story of his changing understanding of faith and religion. He also goes back to church to see if he is missing anything – and to see how things have changed. He visits new churches that sound more like rock concerts, and meets young converts who are being baptised in the sea at the north coast. He visits the Belfast Islamic Centre and asks whether our Christian society here is ready to make room for other faiths, and considers whether Christian ceremonies that have marked the key moments in our lives are losing out to non-religious alternatives.

William Crawley says: “In some ways, my story is a very typical one. More and more people in Northern Ireland are rethinking—re-imagining—their understanding of faith and the traditional, organised houses of faith. That’s not always a journey away from God; it is often an expedition into new ways of speaking about God and new ways of following ‘the religious path’.

“For many of us in Northern Ireland, religion is a home which provides us with comfort and security. For others, it’s a prison they’ve escaped from. And for more and more, it’s a house of cards that has long since collapsed.

“In this film, we want to do justice to those very different understandings of religion—and to the growing number of people, particularly under-35-year-olds, who feel more comfortable being described as ‘spiritual’ rather than ‘religious’. What does it mean to be ‘religious’ or ‘spiritual’ in the 21st century in a place like Northern Ireland?

“Inevitably, this is a profoundly personal film for me. In some ways it has been the most personally challenging of this trilogy to make. I learned a lot about myself while visiting churches, mosques, and humanist gatherings—and the film forced me to ask questions about where my journey is likely to take me in the future.”

Director Brian Henry Martin from DoubleBand Films says: “We wanted to explore the future of religion in Northern Ireland, the role that churches play in a modern society and the role of faith in all our lives. William Crawley is our perfect guide on this journey, having been a non-believer, a convert, a preacher and now a questioner.

“It was very exciting to make the film with him because as well as exploring religious life in Northern Ireland; we were following William reflecting on his own spiritual journey. In making Losing Our Religion, we wanted the programme to appeal to everyone – believers and non-believers – and we hope it will be a real conversation-starter.”

Losing Our Religion, a DoubleBand Films production for BBC Northern Ireland. Is on BBC One Northern Ireland on Monday, October 12 at 9pm.

As rioting raged out of control across Northern Ireland in August 1969, for Jack Lynch and his government it was the biggest crisis to have faced the country since the start of the Second World War. Remarkably, within weeks the Irish Defence Forces drew-up top secret plans exploring the possibility of taking military action in the north – including an invasion. Revealing the details of those extraordinary military plans, this is the story of what happened during one of the most dramatic and dangerous episodes in recent Irish history – and it’s the story of what could have happened ‘if Lynch had invaded’ Northern Ireland.

Broadcast to mark the 40th anniversary of the outbreak of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, If Lynch Had Invaded is a compelling combination of presented history and counter-factual analysis of one of the most controversial moments in contemporary Irish history.

If Lynch Had Invaded is presented by Keelin Shanley and Tom Clonan, written and directed by Michael Hewitt, and produced by Jonathan Golden.

The documentary features interviews with eye-witnesses to the dramatic events of that period including, Des O’Malley (former Parliamentary Secretary to Jack Lynch), TK Whitaker (former advisor to Lynch on Northern Ireland), Des Fisher (former Deputy Head of News at RTÉ), Bernadette McAliskey, Eamonn McCann, Tony Benn, John Taylor, Sir Ken Bloomfield, and historians Michael Kennedy, Diarmaid Ferriter, Stephen Collins, and Thomas Hennessey.

Executive Producer for DoubleBand Films Diarmuid Lavery

Photography by Michael Quinn

Additional Photography by Paddy Stevenson

Edited by Greg Darby

Produced by Jonathan Golden

Written and Directed By Michael Hewitt

A DoubleBand Films production for RTÉ, 2009.