Writers onWriters Broadcasting

The Living Air 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:33 pm Page 1 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:33 pm Page 3

Contents Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Extravagant Sky, Worlds Near Introduction Living Air and Far by Fabian Monds by Anna Carragher by Anne Tannahill

6 8 10 12 14 Sam A.T.Q. John Christina Michael McAughtry Stewart Morrow Reid Longley

16 18 20 22 24 Jonathan Seamus Bernard Sam Marianne Bardon Heaney MacLaverty McBratney Elliott

26 28 30 32 34 Frank Graham Ciaran Annie Martin Ormsby Reid Carson McCartney Lynch

36 38 40 42 44 Medbh Malachi Paul David Anne McGuckian O’Doherty Muldoon Park Devlin

46 48 50 52 54 Glenn Colin Sinead Jo Daragh Patterson Bateman Morrissey Baker Carville 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:33 pm Page 5

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Extravagant Sky, Living Air Worlds Near and Far

I found myself also thinking of the innovation that As a small child I had a passion for all things Chinese and makes the air alive, from Marconi’s radio experiments of one evening my father woke me up – at half past eight! – over a century ago between Ballycastle and Rathlin, to and took me downstairs in my dressing gown to listen to the creative and technical skills of today’s programme a programme about China on the Home Service. It was makers and broadcasters. From my childhood, I rare for anyone in our large family ever to have our remember well my own first hand-crafted one-valve parents all to ourselves so that evening – me, them, the radio receiver, with coils lovingly wound and capacitors radio – is vivid and alive nearly half a century later. carefully adjusted, and the excitement of listening to radio stations from far away. As darkness fell, the And suddenly, magically it was mine. Miss McArdle population of competing stations grew, and so did the entered a poem I had written in class for a BBC diversity of content. In today’s digital broadcasting Northern Ireland Children’s Hour competition. It won, world, choice and diversity can be somewhat and aged ten I came into Broadcasting House, Belfast, overwhelming, making quality, always the key, all the for the first time. I read the poem live on air and my baby by Fabian Monds more precious. by Anna Carragher brothers and sisters sat on the floor in silent amazement as my voice came out of the brown Bakelite box. One of This bouquet of memories is a treasury of literary riches, The BBC’s public service responsibilities are nowadays If there was a time before radio I don’t remember it. them cried, thinking I had gone to live in radio land. and its value is enhanced by the directness of their often characterised in terms of quality and in the values A brown, Bakelite presence, glowing valves and sounds personal connections with our lives, homes and of citizenship, culture, education, connecting with that crackled out of nowhere to live among us and By the time they were in secondary school I was at communities. The reflections and reminiscences are communities and a global perspective. This collection become part of our lives. It is Proustian in its intensity – Queen’s and soon after I was going through those doors mainly based on the content of remembered broadcasts, brings life, affection, understanding and relevance to Mrs Dale is my mother listening as she ironed; the in Broadcasting House, first in London, then again in on broadcasting itself and on consequential influences. these critical elements of public value. Our contributors rhythmic, helter-skelter commentary from Clones or Belfast every day. The children were right – I did go to The sense of gaining access to the wide world, and to a have made it so, through their originality, insight and Croke Park is the smell of my father’s Sweet Afton radio land. better knowledge of our local world, is evident generosity, and they are most deserving of our thanks. cigarettes; Two Way Family Favourites the noise and throughout the writings and perhaps is best captured bustle of Sunday lunch; Listen with Mother and by Seamus Heaney in these lines from his poem Children’s Hour my little sisters and brothers clapping ‘The Skylight’: and joining in the singing. It was geography – those strange, exotic places, Hilversum, Athlone, Cologne; it But when the slates came off, extravagant was history as presidents, prime ministers, poets, Sky entered and held surprise wide open. Anna Carragher musicians, film stars talked in our living room; it was Controller, BBC Northern Ireland So it is with The Living Air. The value of this collection education, concerts on the Third at home, music is in its literary excellence, eclectic span and individual Professor Fabian Monds and stories in Miss McArdle’s dusty, sense of connection and access. BBC National Governor for Northern Ireland cream-painted classroom. 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:33 pm Page 7

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Introduction

This idea of the air being alive, full of crackling energy, For Frank Ormsby, his father’s ‘welfare wireless’ had ‘an The BBC’s crucial role as talent scout and coach suggested the title for the anthology. It’s from ‘Tintern aura of mystery and promise’ that ‘might give us access was warmly acknowledged by many of the writers. Abbey’, Wordsworth’s poem about the past being caught, to anywhere’. And while ‘the lit blips of the stations, A succession of producers taught Sam McAughtry that held and handed on by ‘something . . ./ Whose dwelling London, Hilversum, Athlone, Helsinki, Moscow’ hinted ‘radio sets a stern test for writing. Every word must work is the light of setting suns,/And the round ocean and the at a wider world for Ciaran Carson and the late-night for a living’. Bernard MacLaverty discovered that ‘the living air,/And the blue sky, and in the mind of man . . .’ shipping forecasts told Seamus Heaney that ‘the world more words you took out the better the story got’. would be watched over until you woke again’, for some Jonathan Bardon, writing history programmes for Arranging the contributions in roughly chronological writers it was the advent of television that brought the schools, was excited at being involved ‘in a collective order revealed an intriguing shift between the narrow outside world into sharper focus. Marianne Elliott’s campaign to show that the real history of an increasingly intimacy of older writers’ memories and the wider family bought the first television set in the fractured country was not dull, but could be gripping horizons of television-age writers like Sinead Morrissey, neighbourhood to watch the Grace Kelly wedding, and and enlightening’. And the financial side was not to be Jo Baker and Daragh Carville. ‘our house became a mini-cinema’. A few years later, sniffed at: BBC commissions were for John Morrow ‘an a harsher world was brought into the living room with outlet for my early work at a fraught time’ and for Sam by Anne Tannahill Michael Longley described huddling with his brother the assassination of John F. Kennedy. McBratney, it was ‘amazing to write something, send it inside a wigwam pitched in the living room, not really away, and hear it on the radio. And get paid for it!’ When Mark Adair of BBC NI suggested that I compile understanding the jokes on ITMA, but full of happy All too soon, instead of merely listening to and watching a short anthology of writers reminiscing about listening contentment at their parents’ overheard laughter. the news, we ourselves became the News. Martin Lynch, For all the writers, there was a clear link between what and viewing, it sounded like a pleasant enough little on his way to Broadcasting House to talk about David Park called ‘the perfect catalysts of the child’s project. The first indication that it was going to be Sam McAughtry recalled BBC concerts being broadcast a new community play, witnessed an assassination and imagination’ provided by radio and television and their something altogether more interesting was when I tried from the Ulster Museum seventy years ago, and he and found himself in demand for the news bulletin as well as own developing urge to write. And Paul Muldoon, the idea out on a few writers and realised that something his mother stopping what they were doing ‘to listen to the arts programme. Malachi O’Doherty began to beginning his career at BBC NI, found that the power was starting to hum – they could hardly wait to begin. Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, or to switch off Wagner’. realise that the apparently safe world, under the control of the imagination to ‘summon the smell of the sea . . . of Richard Baker’s civilised ‘balance’, was in fact the taste of herring from a few evocative words’ became Then the contributions started to arrive, bringing A.T.Q. Stewart remembered his confusion when his anything but safe. Marianne Elliott, studying in the US the underpinning for his work as a poet as well as with them a buzzing web of recollection and reflection. father said that he had just seen Franco (a neighbour’s when ‘the province erupted’, recognised that ‘from now a radio producer. David Park yearned to hear again, ‘through the dark tide nickname, as it turned out): how had the Spanish on only negative things would be reported about of the ether’, about the laughing policeman and the old general, whose advance on Madrid was being reported Northern Ireland’. Compiling this anthology has been not just a pleasure woman who swallowed a fly. In a startling image, Anne on the radio news, ‘time to go gallivanting on one of our but an unexpectedly moving experience for me, bringing Devlin recalled feeling so spellbound by Miss Havisham old Belfast red trams?’ An early memory for Annie Glenn Patterson had a sudden flashback memory of memories of much-loved programmes and of the half- in Great Expectations that ‘I go up close and push myself McCartney was ‘the rush of happiness from seeing my a car exploding on Scene Around Six and rushed home forgotten voices of family, friends and neighbours, of through the glass wall of the TV’. Ciaran Carson mother in a giddy mood’ waltzing the baby to radio to complete his third novel. Graham Reid’s outraged ‘other days around me’. I hope that it does the same remembered the back being taken off the family radio, music. Christina Reid helped her mother to polish the sense of the difference between the measured tones of for you. allowing him to wander for days in ‘the labyrinth of brasses on Sunday afternoons as they listened to radio the news items and the obscene reality of the maimed colour-coded wires’. The young Medbh McGuckian was comedy shows, without which, ‘I swear to God, I might people he saw in hospital became the spark for his first Anne Tannahill – Editor: Anne Tannahill, managing fascinated that voices could be ‘magically transmitted have died young of boredom in Belfast’. play. In turn, Reid’s Billy plays for BBC television were director of the Belfast publisher Blackstaff Press until her through the air and walls. Into heads’. ‘galvanising’ for Colin Bateman. retirement in 2003, currently works as a freelance editor and publishing consultant. 7 lightened our day. lightened our day. Troubles, might otherwise never have Troubles, created artistic talent that, under the miasma of created I was very nervous. High on fear, instead of answering I was very on fear, nervous. High questions about the book I began to talk antics during his leave of an uncle mine who overstayed and was locked up in Carrickfergus One War World at the glass window. faces appeared Castle. Excited stories asked for more Hunniford Gloria After the show brand was set in concrete. broadcasting like that. My humour around a lot of Protestant wasn’t I suppose there at that time. must work word Radio sets a stern test for writing. Every on this medium helps for a living. An apprenticeship enormously in the task of snipping long nails off radio writing standards reaching Conversely, work. of the means that, when set out on the page, voice author is always there. most covered I have years the last twenty-eight In fields – drama, documentaries, presenting, broadcasting The patience broadcasting. script writing, and religious it. know has been tried, and I well of many a producer Like many a writer I am in debt to the likes of Paul Sheridan, Jim Evans, Paul Bell, Hanna Sam Muldoon, and many others. Boyd John Brims, Bernagh to exist, local talent is vital. broadcasting regional For that it hasn't just says a good deal for Radio Ulster It and it has nurtured dipped into a pool that was there: (Blackstaff Press). (Blackstaff .’ ” ss le e ir w

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ily. and, aspects of Irish (2001) examined various

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i L 3 4 5 3 4 A.T.Q. Stewart A.T.Q. my first been tryingI have out when I heard to work been about the and I think it must have radio broadcast father came home from incident. My time of the Franco had been on the and said that Franco one evening work this. I could not understand how tram. I was puzzled by on general, with four columns advancing the Spanish had time to and a fifth column in the city itself, Madrid trams. red on one of our old Belfast go gallivanting father had nicknamed Later it was explained to me. My a neighbour who looked like the man in news. hearing the radio in my I certainly remember home when one of my aunts, who had a grandparents’ the local from a song recital gave fine soprano voice, in 1939, and changed radio set arrived own station. Our of the wartime memories are clearest My life for ever. and the Ben Listening to the chimes of Big broadcasts. news was a daily ritual, and newsreaders nine o’clock Liddell became almost like and Alvar Belfrage Bruce could, if you 10 pm you At members of the family. version and hear the Nazi wanted, tune in to Hamburg had He Joyce. William the traitor by of the news, read an affected upper-class accent and always began with the cleverly, Very calling’. calling, Jairmany ‘Jairmany words jammed the station, and ‘Lord never the government of fun, a morale-booster became a figure Haw-Haw’ instead of the opposite. 8 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:33 pm Page 11 11 ´, telling his tale to the ‘rapt faces in firelight’. May Street had been a hotbed of sedition, with muskets Street May space! All this my father, in the roof secreted verified. reluctantly an Orangeman, to be a writer, As one who, against the odds, aspired a debt to BBC radio, and not only because it I owe at a fraught time an outlet for my early work provided of the me the voice also brought It few. when outlets were and discussing his work. reading O’Connor, Frank great all his fame, O’Connor For was a revelation. It himself to be in the line of hearthside considered seanchai writer who lost sight of those faces, he said, The ‘literary’ did so at his peril. hearth electronic are of today’s The faces in the glow is to hand. generally rapt – and if not, the remote in the but that other presence may carp, Critics comfort and companion, has become a great living-room not least for the often solitary folk of my vintage. once railed against ‘flannelled Shaw Bernard George fools to whom age brings golf instead of wisdom’. this fool a weekly brought have Age and the box of the and vanity of all the intrigue, greed microcosm that I am football. For eighteenth century: Premiership eternally grateful. . The Brains Trust The Brains and that our own church in church and that our own and listened to that the rebels were Presbyterians were that the rebels ITMA 6 7 written by Sam Hanna Bell, I discovered Bell, Hanna Sam written by rebellion in Ireland. Then, in a radio programme in Ireland. rebellion revolutionary France that I first heard about the 1798 that I first heard revolutionary France John Morrow John guided my infant right hand to the cat’s uncle James My the half of a headphone clutched to my left ear whisker, a fat lady sang (screeched, shockingly, . And suddenly, Wogga, Wogga the toast of Melba, Nellie rather: Dame I learnt later). tutorial And thus began for me a lifelong, haphazard television – and, later, radio, Hollywood by provided schooling in those plus books, of course. ‘Elementary’ monarchs, days meant just that: a litany of English early were patches on an atlas (but we geography the red thanks largely to comics). readers, battery) us an accumulator (wet gave set James Uncle World of the Second the progress followed and on it we laughed at War, mention General Joad vividly hearing Professor I recall wars in and Indian’ and the ‘French at Quebec Wolfe . thinks I, and with . Cowboys?. America. Indians! the help of my library ticket was soon up to my neck in of personalities, politics and mayhem that was the mire the eighteenth century in which, sixty-odd – a mire happily. on, I still wallow years a footnote in condensed history was from of It (1996). The Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole The Confessions of Proinsias The Annals of Ballyturdeen The Annals and he has also presented a number of and he has also presented Bazaar (1979) and

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e programmes for Radio Ulster on the writer’s craft. on the writer’s for Radio Ulster programmes Many of his stories and essays were commissioned for the BBC Radio Ulster series commissioned for the BBC Radio Ulster of his stories and essays were Many John Morrow – Writer and Broadcaster: Writer – Morrow John first novel, His Ireland. industries and later as an administrator with the Arts Council of Northern books include Other (1977) was adapted for a BBC NI broadcast. h

T 10 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:33 pm Page 13 13 My Name Shall I Tell You You Tell I Shall Name My Did You Hear the One About the One Hear You Did (1983), © Darragh Casey © Darragh Tea in a China Cup Tea (radio 1986/television 1987) and The Last of A Dying Race (1986). Writer-in-residence at the Lyric Theatre 1983–84 and at The Young Vic in London Vic Young The 1983–84 and at Theatre at the Lyric Writer-in-residence (1986). Born in Belfast in 1942, Christina Reid is the writer of award-winning plays which examine the effect is the writer of award-winning in 1942, Christina Reid Born in Belfast Joyriders (1985) and (1987). Christina Reid – Playwright: Reid Christina These include communities. of violence, class and sectarianism on Belfast the Irishman? for the BBC include 1988–89. Adaptations Name? My

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a n Town Commander Mac; Uncle Vi; stories and songs of Auntie very ‘Be who ends his broadcasts, King-Hall Stephen Michael Longley Michael huddled inside a faded second- and I are twin Peter My pitched in the middle of have hand wigwam which we I can carpet in our seldom-used living room. the green rather formal baritone laugh, my still hear my father’s listening to They are jolly descant. mother’s of brief progression weekly Handley’s Tommy and whose voices encounters with colourful regulars the national consciousness to entered catch phrases have or two they are such an extent that after only a word the studio audience: Colonel Chinstrap, applauded by Lot (‘It’s sir?’), Mona now, (‘Can I do you Mrs Mop and I are Peter being so cheerful that keeps me going’). feel but we the comedy, to follow far too young Perhaps laughter. on our parents’ happy eavesdropping not understanding the jokes mysteriously increases our contentment. two radios in our house: the large chilly have We all the stations; in the good one that receives living room box Bakelite a wee the cosy kitchen-cum-breakfast-room Service, its dial a parchment only the Home that delivers glow. r r t u t s s l y l a a w lw a m l a il re c w e s h e t un nd t e a re fir tu e a ok n c ig he s t e to th k f ac o b e (1991), m o S Gorse Fires Gorse © BBC (1979), The Echo Gate Gate The Echo (1969), No Continuing City No (2004) and he was awarded the T.S. Eliot Prize in 2000 and the Queen’s Medal for Medal in 2000 and the Queen’s Prize Eliot T.S. the (2004) and he was awarded , a BBC NI profile of his life, was screened in 1988. of his life, was screened , a BBC NI profile Snow Water Snow Corner of the Eye Born in Belfast in 1939 and educated at TCD, he worked for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Ireland for the Arts he worked Council of Northern TCD, in 1939 and educated at Born in Belfast (2000) and The Weather in Japan Weather The in 2001. A long-time contributor to BBC literary Carson on educational he collaborated with Douglas programmes, Poetry in the 1970s. programmes Michael Longley – Poet: Michael poetry 1970 to 1991. His collections include from 14 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 17 17

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TCD and educated at Born 1941 in Dublin Beyond the Studio: A History of BBC Northern Ireland A History of BBC Northern the Studio: Beyond (1992) and Jonathan Bardon – Historian: Bardon Jonathan many books include His QUB. at the School of History, a lecturer and is now Education and Higher of Further Institute scripted a number of BBC NI schools series including of Ulster of Ulster , had Wings of a Wings moved to tears. moved transfixed and some are transfixed Modern Irish History: People and Events History: People Irish Modern , Douglas Carson’s account of growing up in account of growing Carson’s , Douglas His series, His exacting objectives: each programme was to draw on each programme exacting objectives: contemporary event to dramatise just one pivotal sources The hour period. than a twenty-four no more over listeners into another time challenge was to lift young accurate and compelling a coherent, and place to create story of the past. Each programme using the voices out old documents, some the writer to search forced to light for the first time. David being brought long- was usually on hand to resurrect Hammond the enthusiasm up by buoyed were We forgotten ballads. too, had grateful that they, of the actors who were seemed to be We about their past. learned a little more that the real campaign to show in a collective involved countryhistory fractured was not dull of an increasingly but could be gripping and enlightening. I am firmly of the view that the most perfectly Finally, was ever crafted local radio programme Seraphim in modern history during the most terrible years Belfast storming the Normandy while some of his cousins were dying for cousins were beaches and most of his German I play it to my Army advanced. as the Red the Reich without fail, the classes are students once a year: Queen’s , a ballad – produced my – produced 14 15 16 Blues and Greys Blues Today and Yesterday in Northern Yesterday and Today . It was . It Two Centuries of Irish History of Irish Centuries Two programmes being made in the newprogrammes Schools Radio Times very first programme, on the Battle of Clontarf, and he of Clontarf, very on the Battle first programme, strand so to Dollymount insisted on driving me down that I could set the scene as vividly mentor thereafter possible. My Carson. was Douglas documentary on the American Civil War. I was about documentaryWar. on the American Civil my fourteen: reinforce not only did the programme fascination with history but this was the first occasion of the skills and craft when I became dimly aware Recollection to make a compelling broadcast. required with memories of is crowded of my childhood in Dublin radio. Service and Light Programme BBC Home ‘I would try the to start getting them to sit down,’ off by advised shortly after I had Malone, John Principal, in 1964. in east Belfast begun my teaching career I turned for help to the Ireland Department. Would the boys sit quietly? My anxiety was sit quietly? My the boys Would Department. unnecessary: hubbub lapsed into quiet absorption as Hanna they became familiar with the writings of Sam and others. Heaney Seamus Longley, Michael Bell, was in the Schools Department that I cut my teeth as It of the ground- – creator Hawthorne James a writer. breaking Jonathan Bardon Jonathan ought to listen that,’ my father said, pointing ‘We the 16 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 19 19 A big, commanding, standard English voice, that shook voice, English A big, commanding, standard and seemed to possess a the speakers in classroom in Hardy’s at work that equalled the natural forces force landscape, ‘When betumble the chestnut showers spikes,/And nestlings fly’. as the so much the weathers in the end, it wasn’t But longest and deepest in the that flowed forecasts weather most of all. and the shipping forecast channels of the ear, at the moment of close- after year, after night, year Night of the names that solemn invocation down, that the world would be of the sea told you regions operated as a kind woke again. It until you watched over of mantra, and in fact it was only the 1970s, when that I fully Wicklow, I started near the coast in Co. to live the seriousness and consequence of phrase realized after a stormy night I’d all shipping’: ‘attention trawlers at anchor in the sheltered sometimes see French waters of the bay: but still rolling Hélène La Belle Le Guillemot, L’Etoile, their bright names this morning in the bay Nursed was marvellous It That toiled like mortar. haven’, And actual, I said out loud ‘a deepening, clearing, like the sky The word The Faroes. Cromarty, on Minches, Elsewhere 18 from the BBC’s repertory company. repertory company. the BBC’s from 17 Hardy’s poem ‘Weathers’ read by an actor by read poem ‘Weathers’ Hardy’s a mark as the one when I first heard Thomas as the one when I first heard a mark class period in all my years at school left as deep class period in all my years listening to the wireless as a waste of time, but no listening to the wireless Some teachers probably regarded a class period spent regarded teachers probably Some particularly in the realm of language and literature. particularly in the realm

Seamus Heaney Seamus earliest and most unforgettable radio experience: My Service being Home Ireland a play on the Northern in the kitchen, but overheard grown-ups listened to by when I was supposed of the bedroom, me in the dark by to be asleep. told the story of the Cooneen ghost, a Fermanagh It family haunted out of house and home, pursued What the ocean to their newacross home in America. knocking of the terrified me most was the recurrent poltergeist, at first behind the walls of family home menacingly, more and ever and then, unremittingly behind the walls of their cabin on transatlantic from it might just strike me as it now, I heard If liner. sound effect, but at the time it had uncanny, a primitive made a space for nightmare, It unsettling power. a space that opened fitfully and little frightfully for afterwards. years life, which dream into your to flow Radio has the power so effective, proved why schools broadcasts is one reason

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o (1975), , it r f e end he th n the eat d But i the w an North as Out Wintering Born 1939 in Bellaghy and educated at QUB and St Joseph’s College, Belfast. He taught at St Thomas’s taught at St He College, Belfast. Joseph’s and St and educated at QUB Born 1939 in Bellaghy (1966), in 1995, he has also received the Somerset Maugham Award (1967), the Duff Cooper Prize (1975) and the Whitbread Award Award Whitbread (1975) and the Cooper Prize (1967), the Duff Award Maugham the Somerset in 1995, he has also received series including the 1970s schools’ in many BBC programmes has featured work (1987 and 2000). His the publication of to mark Seamus Heaney – Poet: Heaney Seamus collections include Carysfort, Poetry 1962 to 1963 and later at QUB, from and Oxford. School, Belfast Harvard Intermediate of a Naturalist Death 18 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 21 21 was was My Dear Palestrina Dear My Secrets and Other Stories and Other Secrets (2001). His television play (2001). His Born in Belfast in 1942 and worked as a medical laboratory in 1942 and worked Born in Belfast assistant The Anatomy School The Anatomy were memorably adapted for film in 1983 and 1984. Recent novels include novels memorably adapted for film in 1983 and 1984. Recent were Cal and Lamb

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published in 1977 and his novels published in 1977 and his novels Bernard MacLaverty – Novelist and Short-story Writer: and Short-story – Novelist MacLaverty Bernard first short-story to Scotland in 1975. His collection and moving at QUB, taking a degree before Grace Notes Grace produced by BBC NI in 1980 and he is a regular broadcaster with BBC Radio 3 and Scotland. broadcaster BBC NI in 1980 and he is a regular by produced t

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h s t a d w e r I e t v was 2800 words and my story first was 2800 words was far too long. At words that the more Then I discovered I was indignant. took out the better storyyou got. that too far down went you to a point. If Up end up writing nothing. you’d road Everybody was anxious for her – but she fine and we Everybody and Granda her voice recognised all laughed when we to indicate he was in the presence raised an eyebrow of poshness. linked to other which were programmes were There always had a fry we tea on Saturday sensations. For Brighton eat listening to the football results. and we’d – nil. Wednesday Albion – one, Sheffield and Hove – one. Little bits of bacon – two, a slice potato bread later I stopped on a train at platform called years Many And I could nearly taste the fry. End. North Preston was my Adlestrop. End North Preston school off sick from were the days you were Then there bedroom. up to your brought got the wireless and you was a There did in any class. than I ever I learned more dramatisation of the by was scored descent into madness. It Lenz’s swoops of Dr-Who-like – electronic Workshop Radiophonic the wits out of me. its time. Scared music before of mine, That radio play made its way into a novel Notes, Grace the BBC. The first money I earned as a writer was from who did Boyd was John I sent a story which they liked. It the liking and he invited me in – told s o r c i s . f i t d A I Family n e h T 19 20 21 The McCooeys doesn’t sound like herself. sound like herself. doesn’t Is that her? No. Maybe she’s acting. And she she’s Maybe that her? No. Is . And if there was a song she knew she would . And if there Bernard MacLaverty Bernard and and Granda Grandma house was quiet voices. Our was there But my mother and father. Mary, Aunt Great which The only voice in with it. mixed another voice was always It The wireless. accent. a Belfast have didn’t as my mother baked. in the background there Favourites join in, beating the mixture in time to the tune. join in, beating the mixture dancing. even Maybe – they were background weren’t some programmes But Like and listened to. to be sat down Everybody laughing at the goings on of James Young as Young laughing at the goings on of James Everybody as Granda And J.G. Devlin cleaner. the window Derek was a neighbour – And one time there McCooey. teacher a woman two doors away who was an English round all gathered we So and she was actually in a play. and listened. A woman spoke. 20 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 23 23 , The Morning Story Morning that has guided me writer . . . It was a fifteen-minute talk about . It You see, being a writer is one tough business. There really There see, being a writer is one tough business. You I'm If get lucky. is not much money in it unless you truthful, the definition of through the years is crude can’t the years and simple: if you through write and sell, what you support family through your a writer. no means yet by someone with a day-job, you’re writer And for me, the long haul to being a professional A man began about 1967, when I was in my twenties. at the BBC accepted a script called Boyd called John Not Shall Tenant – a house on the new Avenue in to 43 Maralin moving of words Lisburn. No estate being built at Knockmore, amazing it was so how mine had been published before, and hear it on the to write something, send it away, it then, but the know And get paid for it! I didn’t radio. decades to come the three had begun. In years apprentice contributions to would follow there TV and radio, radio plays, scripts for Schools network and special commissions. Corporation Broadcasting doubt about it, the British No quickened the hope that I might be a writer some day, thinking and for creative and has been an open market so. may it remain writing for as long I can remember; as well as as well writer . Mars, I think . Mars, a listener and viewer. . I’ve enjoyed space enjoyed . I’ve Topper Journey Into Space Into Journey I value the BBC as a I value and the 22 23 And now, looking back over forty of years looking back over And now, Eagle having a go at writing myself, I see how much I see how having a go at writing myself, , the Sam McBratney Sam a television in our house until the late have didn’t We of listening fifties, so my early memories of the BBC are to the wireless. me to many things, introduced Listening to the wireless of our back room the wee including science fiction. In delft ducks flying up house in Lisburn, beneath the five of the half asleep in front sits my mother, the wall, there us, while her shins melt in the heat. Behind coal fire announces a dramatic voice a corner of the room, from the next episode of it was. A character called . . . was it Whittaker? . got it was. A character called . was What a boost into a spot of bother with the local aliens. the it was for the imagination – what a step up from Beano stories ever since, and had a go at the genre when since, and had a go at the genre stories ever the ambition to write myself. I developed in 1994 brought © Walker Books © Walker , er he heat. h n t You? I Love Much How Guess , i l t t l o el a m

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v f m i f o o t o e r h n t o k r c h f a t a n b e i n e e p e b e w le e s h a t f n al I h Sam McBratney – Children’s Writer: – Children’s McBratney Sam when the publication of his picture-book years writer for some twenty a children’s first novel, His sales and international recognition. massive (1995) and Griffel include the Silvereen Awards 22 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 25 25 . The Catholics of Ulster The Catholics and Image courtesy of Marianne Elliott courtesy of Marianne Image , she was awarded an OBE in 2000 and elected to the Fellowship of the British an OBE in 2000 and elected to the Fellowship , she was awarded Wolfe Tone: Prophet of Irish Independence of Irish Prophet Tone: Wolfe From Belfast and educated at QUB, she is currently Director of the Institute of Irish Studies Studies of Irish of the Institute Director she is currently and educated at QUB, Belfast From A Citizens’ Inquiry A Citizens’

Marianne Elliott – Historian: Elliott Marianne (1993) Ireland Commission on Northern A member of the Opsahl of Liverpool. History at the University of Modern and Professor and co-author of its report books include in 2001. Her Academy

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Graham Reid – Playwright: Reid Graham with his first play After coming to prominence as a history teacher. plays such as concentrate on writing full time. Subsequent his reputation as a ‘Troubles’ playwright. Between 1982 and 1984 Reid wrote the acclaimed trilogy of Billy plays for BBC NI. the acclaimed trilogy of Billy wrote 1982 and 1984 Reid playwright. Between as a ‘Troubles’ his reputation included the series BBC television work Other

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a whole world in there. When my father took the back a whole world in there. T Ciaran Carson Ciaran was a big square then. Ours homes had a wireless Most it sat on a lace- where alcove, in the fireplace box hummed when trimmed tablecloth on a console table. It of the knob till it turned the milled half-crown you the could tell by You needed time to warm up. clicked. It the sunburst and the noise that would dawn from glow Weather. out the gave fascia. It would be swept it would drizzle, or the News Sometimes spin the big milled knob past I’d the weather. aside by the lit blips of stations, London, Hilversum, and beeping Morse through Moscow, Helsinki, Athlone, of static, orchestras the wind in chimney and waves behind competing urgent in dim-lit rooms that played and fell like languages that rose overlapping voices, collapsing onto shingle, music, or the oceanic swell jazz muezzins crying of Araby, the minarets from jubilees in London, and an silver quartets in Paris, underlying fundamental buzz that came from nowhere. everywhere, from was There was a whole world out there. There Poets from the North the North from Poets (2003) and prose works include works (2003) and prose © Granta Books © Granta Breaking News Breaking (1993) and (1984). First Language First (2001). He also contributed to BBC NI programmes also contributed to BBC NI programmes (2001). He (1990), Shamrock Tree Shamrock Belfast Confetti Belfast (1987), Born in Belfast in 1948 and educated at QUB, he worked for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland until Ireland for the Arts he worked Council of Northern in 1948 and educated at QUB, Born in Belfast Today and Yesterday in Northern Ireland in Northern Yesterday and Today (1997) and the novel (1997) and the novel (1991) and The Irish for No The Irish of Ireland Ciaran Carson – Poet: Carson Ciaran collections of poetry Award-winning at QUB. of Poetry and Professor Centre Heaney of the Seamus Director 1988 and is currently include The Star Factory The Star 30 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 33 33 . Your Cheatin’ Heart Cheatin’ Your © Darragh Casey © Darragh , broadcast by BBC Radio 4. by , broadcast Two Doors Down Doors Two Born in Belfast in 1948 and educated at QUB, she has worked as an she has worked in 1948 and educated at QUB, Born in Belfast (2001) was a BBC Radio 4 World Book Day winner in 2003 and her second novel winner in 2003 and her second novel Book Day World (2001) was a BBC Radio 4 Desire Lines Desire Annie McCartney – Novelist and Broadcaster: – Novelist Annie McCartney for her first play O’Connor Award P.J. in 1994, winning the RTE began her writing career She and on radio. actor in the theatre debut novel Her plays and a comedy series, has had several was published in 2005. She Pick of the Pick The Silver

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M 34 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 37 37 (2004). BBC Radio Ulster broadcasts include broadcasts (2004). BBC Radio Ulster © Paul Sherwood & the Gallery Press © Paul (1984), a programme exploring her life and work, and exploring her life and work, (1984), a programme The Book of the Angel The Book of the Angel Medbh McGuckian Medbh (1988) and (1983), Born Belfast 1950 and educated at QUB, she has held the posts of writer-in-residence at QUB at QUB she has held the posts of writer-in-residence 1950 and educated at QUB, Born Belfast On Ballycastle Beach Ballycastle On (1986), an autobiographical exploration of Belfast. (1986), an autobiographical exploration of Belfast. New Poems from Ulster from Poems New (1982), (1980),

Medbh McGuckian – Poet: – Poet: McGuckian Medbh poetry award-winning includes the collections Her of California, Berkeley. at the University and was visiting fellow TCD and Master The Flower Now Poetry The Wreck of the Hesperus Wreck The

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, h s g d r u o o r W th but on Sundays but on Sundays in her morning We were only allowed to only allowed were We watch children’s television watch children’s could, like God, see her back. could, like God, Twenty Questions, Friday Night is Night Friday Questions, Twenty for Richard Baker who, she fully credited, Baker for Richard Music Night, Music While You Work You While Music Night, Music The tune made her smile and she warmed. But scullery. afternoon of the Saturday not to the up and down The assonance and alliteration of football results. Wednesday – nil, Sheffield Wanderers Wolverhampton The strange mounting excitement – late kick-off. the graceful cricket. of horse racing and boxing, people spoke intimately. where Stories after my 11-plus. arrived walnut-effect Bush The chubby The despair of hunger at the wavy wobbly lines. Our explosions, the bottomless tube that left frequent valves’ granny doing her bun and best slippers My for weeks. Medbh McGuckian Medbh playing ‘Irene Irene, The girl next door, Irene. voices names, people’s Words, on her radio. Goodnight’ the air and – sounds, magically transmitted through heads. walls. Into at nine, the solemn disapproving Ben Chimes of Big my mother send me to elocution learn how news. Did to say such sad things? 36 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 39 39 a good kicking. to but whose shins sometimes need become like a wise parent I am devoted I am devoted become like a wise parent the poles I move between and the BBC has between the poles I move Authoritative poise and anarchic emotion are emotion are poise and anarchic Authoritative and his limited emotional range, from a tight frown a tight frown and his limited emotional range, from to a soft chuckle, seemed sufficient encompass the whole world. understand politics and international didn’t if we Even to bed with a sense that everything went affairs, we was he seemed News, control. Baker’s Richard under control, serial episodes was the opposite of drama. Drama to say, Doubleday, always ended on the brink of crisis. Sergeant in the cinema serial, always died at end and was escaped after all. to have week the following revealed waiting in suspense like keep you didn’t Baker Richard that famine little smile and goodnight told you that. His transitoryand war were things while good sense and maturity endured. since, this poise has been a challenge to me. I rebel Ever at times and launch challenges against the patrician cynicism of balance and tryreassurance to import anger, – including paper reviews and contempt into broadcasts come to being a newsreader. the closest I ever too. Baker I am challenged to find my inner Richard But , irs ffa l a na as io w at g rn in . te h l n t ro i y t d er n we needed to know we an ev co s t ic a ’s suggest that this was all t r li h e o t k p e a from the west. He seemed to He the west. from d s B n n a e d st s r and the broadcasts from Hungary from and the broadcasts

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Malachi O’Doherty Malachi a balance of authority and humour The BBC represents that has intrigued me since the television first came into it was on the wireless our home in about 1961. Indeed, earliest memories of radio include that. My before Diary Mrs Dale’s The BBC mediated a huge invasion. during the Russian also on and complex world but opened that window always were domestic drama in which problems might not get out of Hungary The Russians resolved. would make a good flan. but Mrs Dale family that was calmed by was a big argumentative Ours spoke to us in poise. He the mystery Baker’s of Richard world no adult in the real from heard tones that we even as moody the children; and teachers were – parents – or Robert Baker got it from. the ones we they were n n c e e r v e E w e d n w u . He has fronted . He Belfast Telegraph Belfast I Was A Teenage Catholic Teenage A Was I , the (1998) and Hearts and Minds Hearts and New Statesman New Talkback Image courtesy of Malachi O’Doherty courtesy of Malachi Image The Trouble With With Guns The Trouble Born in Muff, County Donegal, in 1951, he grew up in Belfast and was educated in up in Belfast in 1951, he grew County Donegal, Born in Muff, , which he edited for a number of years. Fortnight several documentaries for the BBC and has written on Irish affairs for, amongst others, the affairs for, documentaries for the BBC and has written on Irish several (2003), he is a regular commentator on political and cultural affairs on BBC NI’s commentator on political and cultural affairs BBC NI’s (2003), he is a regular the city’s Glen Road CBS and later lived abroad for spells. The author of for spells. abroad CBS and later lived Road Glen the city’s Malachi O’Doherty – Writer and Broadcaster: Writer – O’Doherty Malachi and 38 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 41 41 Irish Poetry Irish © Wilfred Green © Wilfred (2002) have earned him numerous awards, including the awards, earned him numerous (2002) have Born in Portadown in 1951, he grew up near the Moy and was educated at QUB. and was educated at QUB. up near the Moy in 1951, he grew Born in Portadown Moy Sand and Gravel Sand Moy (1973) to New Weather Weather New . He moved to the USA in the 1980s, and is currently Professor of Creative Writing at Princeton. His nine collections His at Princeton. Writing of Creative Professor to the USA in 1980s, and is currently moved . He Bazaar

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diet of murder and mayhem for its cameras to feed off; diet of murder feed us on. was on It Yes, saw it yourself. you Maybe becomes less the vehicle ducks just before foreground than the sum of its suddenly lethal parts. I saw and more but that and off, worse things back then, on screen seemed to me the perfect symbol of a society where no everyday they furnished, were objects, and the lives longer reliable. Glenn Patterson Glenn pin it on the person who big medal I’d I had a great If up dreamt that first syllable – sibilant it was intentional. From most of us are was unmistakably of this place, where the slip of the tongue away from an excited only ever (And though end of the seen-saw. wrong Six six.’) saw it around slap: ‘You us a collective to give news before programmes remember I don’t must It much briefer. told they were along, though I’m Ireland Northern seemed a gamble in 1968 to give have where minutes of nightly newstwenty to fill, but, credit to the challenge, rose Ireland due, Northern credit’s serving in up, Fat Lad Fat © Michael Donald © Michael (2004). That Which Was That Which Was (1988) won a Betty Trask Award and the Rooney Prize; subsequent novels include subsequent novels Prize; and the Rooney Award Trask (1988) won a Betty Born in Belfast in 1961, he studied at the University of East Anglia, taking a Creative Writing MA Writing of East Anglia, taking a Creative in 1961, he studied at the University Born in Belfast (1999) and the recent (1999) and the recent Burning Your Own Your Burning The International The International (1992), Glenn Patterson – Novelist: Patterson Glenn in 1988, he took the post of writer-in-the-community Ireland to Northern Returning Bradbury. under the tutelage of Malcolm and East Anglia at QUB. of Cork at the universities and has since been writer-in-residence for Lisburn/Craigavon first novel His 46 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 49

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Sinead Morrissey Sinead Anything to do with poets or poetry on the BBC was in my early life. A dramatisation of the a huge event that my mother had switched on Plath letters of Sylvia (like accident when I was thirteenby had me transfixed of Sylvia heard I hadn’t upon her threshold). March Jo read of her husband, and even heard though I’d Plath, one or two of his poems in the into the camera about school. A woman spoke directly getting up at six every morning, when the sleeping and writing the off, beginning to wear tablets are deeply poems of her life. I was rapt, already greatest as though it was clear to me what that happy for her, bookshop and could mean. I made a trip to Greene’s then until found a copy of her selected poems, and from obsession, I was eighteen, fell headlong into a Plath influence on my own which, for all its decidedly mixed nevertheless clarified one essential thing in early poetry,

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n A Between Here and There and Here Between (1996), Born in Portadown in 1972 and spent her first six years there before moving to Belfast. She was educated She to Belfast. moving before there in 1972 and spent her first six years Born in Portadown Sinead Morrissey – Poet: Morrissey Sinead (2002); she was also Award Strong and Eithne (1990) and the Rupert Award Kavanagh include the Patrick and her awards TCD at collections of poetry: she has published three at QUB, writer-in-residence Currently Award. Eliot T.S. shortlisted for the 2002 Vancouver in Fire Was There 50 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 53 53 in the Offcomer , in 2004. © Jill Jennings © Jill The Mermaid’s Child The Mermaid’s Born 1973 in Lancashire and educated at Oxford and later at QUB, she published her first novel she published her first novel and later at QUB, and educated at Oxford Born 1973 in Lancashire

Jo Baker – Novelist: Baker Jo of has written for BBC Radio 4 and her short been included in a number of anthologies. Artistic stories have Director 2001. She 2001–2003, she published a second novel, from LiteraryBelfast Festival

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a For the rest of term we immersed ourselves in the world immersed ourselves of term we the rest For surviving on and Neil Helen Marie, Me, of that story. collected the new of bounds, in the fields, we planet. Out built ourselves We grass seeds and hips haws. sack-race sacks. with pilfered roofed a shelter, so deep in it, were We extended, evolved. The narrative notice trailing shoelaces, bramble-scratches, the didn’t we need to pee. And then it was the end of term, and leaving service. secondary started we at different schools, September In were games like this and there no-one played where not four. and thirty-two people in my year, a hundred me, this story scar is as indelible the barbed-wire For the on my left calf muscle that I got climbing through part, this is because it was a beautifully-crafted, fence. In challenging, open-ended piece; but it also has to do with who I am as a writer and the fact that this was last as a child. All children game I played epic narrative great it Mostly play. imaginative this facility for creative, have gets shed or withers away under the inevitable pressures r

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A Jo Baker Jo at primary four of us in my year school. were There The school radio was kept and me. Marie Neil, Helen, had to so we moved, and was never in the staff-room, to listen BBC School Radio broadcasts. in there troop in the heard we is the plot of a programme This, in brief, at primarysummer term of 1984, our last year school. no longer habitable: The Earth is so polluted that it’s spaceship has been built to take everyonea vast to two classes of passenger: are another planet. Onboard and the overcrowded housed in luxury, the wealthy, girl and a wealthy A friendship blossoms between poor. steerage. from a boy Scientists develop out amongst the poor. breaks Disease but they cannot make enough for everyone.a vaccine, left to die. the poor are vaccinated; are The wealthy her life, shares The girl, risking her own falls ill. The boy then the wealthy But recovers. medicine with him. He The scientists had miscalculated passengers begin to die. was double the safe level. the dose. It at the new a charnel house, arrives now The ship, take an escape pod to the The children planet. The planet is pristine, unpopulated: surface. there. they must make their lives 52 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 55 55 could rub could run . Or a choice of . Or Mr Benn White Horses Buck Rogers Buck and . Flash Gordon Flash shoulders with an old Abbott and Costello movie, and Costello movie, shoulders with an old Abbott cartoon like or a homegrown Tarzans – Johnny Weismuller in black and white, Ron Weismuller – Johnny Tarzans forbid – have in colour (though that may – God Ely been on ITV). my imagination. the stories that first fired These were the stories that these were read, I could even before From stories They were with storytelling. made me fall in love to the the living room carried from that were folded away and packed there, and on from playground, was because of these stories that It in the memory. I became a writer. alongside the French-dubbed-into-English swashbuckler alongside the French-dubbed-into-English Blade The Flashing of my childhood included people who were, The heroes The BBC used to fill out the to me, long dead. unknown Keaton or Buster Lloyd schedule with old Harold cross- our particular the obscure favourite, or, movies, the BBC no doubt For Turpin. silent comedian Ben eyed just cheap fillers, but for me they were these were the serials from the adventure were Then there magical. 1930s, was non-existent. That I ended up becoming was non-existent. then, has everything to do a playwright and screenwriter, with television. And television was extraordinary then, a strange cultural television especially, children’s where ecosystem of its own,

r e it r w n e re c s d n access to the theatre a t 60 61 62 h n. cinema was limited, g , a 1968 Czechoslovakian i o r isi yw ev long. And if access to the la el p t

Street, and even that didn’t last that didn’t and even Street, a h g it n w cinema left, the Ritz on Market i White Horses m o o d By my time Armagh had only one By ec o b t I was born in 1969 and grew up in Armagh. I was born in 1969 and grew g p n u i d h e t on the BBC in early 1970s. d ry n e e

children’s programme dubbed into English and shown dubbed into English programme children’s v

Daragh CarvilleDaragh everything to television. as a dramatist, I owe As a writer, up with radio, the family Earlier generations grew tuning the dial into the wireless, round gathered Service; or with movies, scratchy sounds of the Home or as small a place Armagh had three back when even four cinemas. my generation was the television generation. But something faintly shameful about there’s now Even the idea drilled into us have we saying that. As children life is TV is a waste of time and that real that watching much of my get me wrong, spent out of doors; and don’t in the open air, childhood was spent scrambling around nettles, getting bloody knees and noses, stung by for all But kind of stuff. Heaney and all that Seamus back into that, my childhood is most vividly conjured say, rush happens – when I hear, Proustian life – the real the theme tune to I e t s a a h h T

in 2003 (BBC Radio 3, 2001) New Soundings New Regenerations Regenerations © Jill Jennings © Jill Middletown. (1999). Radio work includes (1999). Radio work Observatory From Armagh, Daragh Carville Armagh, Daragh was born in 1969 and educated at the University From (1996) and Language Roulette (BBC Radio 4, 2003). He has received numerous awards including the 1997 Stewart Parker Award and 1998 Award Parker including the 1997 Stewart awards numerous has received (BBC Radio 4, 2003). He Dracula Meyer-Whitworth Prize. Writer-in-residence at QUB from 1999 to 2002, he was editor of the anthology from at QUB Writer-in-residence Prize. Meyer-Whitworth and Daragh Carville – Playwright and Screenwriter: and Screenwriter: CarvilleDaragh – Playwright include Plays of Kent. and has recently produced the screenplay for his first feature-film, for his first feature-film, the screenplay produced and has recently 54 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 57 11137 BBC LIVING AIR final 28/10/05 2:34 pm Page 59

Image Index

p 7 Sam McAughtry p 16 Jonathan Bardon p 27 Frank Ormsby p 40 Paul Muldoon 1. Sam Hanna Bell, 14. David Hammond,BBC 27. Jack Loudan, author of 44. Kenneth Horne and BBC NI producer NI producer and presenter Mrs Lally’s Lodgers Betty Marsden, Beyond Our 2. Gloria Hunniford, 15. Douglas Carson, BBC 28. Peter O’Sullevan, BBC Ken, 1960 presenter NI Schools producer, with horse-racing commentator 45. John D.Stewart, a young Rathlin islander and correspondent, 1956 broadcaster p 8 A.T.Q. Stewart 16. James Hawthorne, 3. Tommy Handley producer, at Lowwood p 28 Graham Reid p 43 David Park in It’s That Man Again Primary School for 29. A Matter of Choice 46. Play For Today: (ITMA), 1944 Today and Yesterday, 1966 for Billy, 1983 Bernard Hill and Alison 4. The German identity 30. The Big Donkey: Steadman in Our Flesh papers of William Joyce p 19 Seamus Heaney a tense moment with and Blood, 1977 (‘Lord Haw-Haw’) 17. Trial television weather principal actors Tom 47. Play for Today: 5. Alvar Liddell, the BBC chart, 1936 Bell and Joseph Tomelty, Helen Mirren in Home Service newsreader 18. BBC Broadcasts to 1963 Blue Remembered Hills, 1978 and announcer, 1956 Schools, 1953 p 31 Ciaran Carson p 44 Anne Devlin p 11 John Morrow p 20 Bernard MacLaverty 31.Tuning a wireless set, 48. The Three Musketeers: 6. Frank O’Connor (right) 19. James Young (right), 1934 Brian Blessed as Porthos, 1966 with John Boyd, producer ‘Derek the window cleaner’ 32. George Cowling 49. Great Expectations: of The Arts In Ulster,1966 in The McCooeys, with with television weather Joan Hickson as 7. The Brains Trust team a real-life window cleaner chart, 1954 Miss Havisham, 1981 including, bottom left, 20. Radiophonic Workshop: C.E.M. Joad, 1943 programming a voltage- p 32 Annie McCartney p 47 Glenn Patterson controlled Electronic 33.The Railway Children: 50. Scene Around Six: informing...educating...entertaining...connecting... p 12 Christina Reid Music Synthesiser, 1974 Jenny Agutter as Bobbie and presenter Barry Cowan 8. Jimmy Clitheroe, 21. Grandstand: Frederick Treves as Father, 51. BBC1 Ident Logo ‘The Clitheroe Kid’, 1960 a cameraman films the 1968 52. BBC Television Centre 9. Peter Brough and football results, 1981 34. The Silver Sword, 1970 after explosion of car bomb Archie Andrews, 1955 35. Fluff Picks One: Alan by controlled detonation, 10. Joseph Tomelty, p 23 Sam McBratney ‘Fluff’ Freeman in the 2001 creator of The McCooeys 22. John Boyd, Senior recording studio, 1988 Talks Producer NI, talks p 48 Colin Bateman p 15 Michael Longley to St. John Ervine on his p 35 Martin Lynch 53. Match of the Day: 11. Dick Barton, 80th birthday, 1963 36. Norman Stockton, presenter Jimmy Hill, 1973 Special Agent, 1949 23. A family of radio news journalist and 54. Z Cars: James Ellis, 12. Toytown: ‘Mr Growser listeners in 1951 presenter Frank Windsor and Moves’, 1957 37. The Billy Cotton Band Brian Blessed, 1978 13. The Goons: Spike p 24 Marianne Elliott Show: from the Cotton’s 55. Jackanory: Milligan, Peter Sellers and 24. Maigret: Rupert Davies Capers series, 1963 ‘The Dribblesome Teapots’, Harry Secombe, 1955 as Inspector Maigret, 1961 38. Walter Love, presenter read by Kenneth Williams, 25.Tommy Trinder, host of 1978 Trinder Box, with guest Phil p 36 Medbh McGuckian Silvers (Sergeant Bilko), 39. That Was the Week That p 51 Sinead Morrissey 1959 Was: David Frost, 1963 56. Alan Bennett, 1966 26. Captain Terence 40. Johnny Morris as ‘The 57. John McGahern, O’Neill appearing on the Hot Chestnut Man’, 1962 novelist BBC TV programme 41. Dr Who: Inquiry, 1968 William Hartnell as the p 52 Jo Baker Doctor, 1963 58. Broadcasts to schools: teachers’ booklets Acknowledgements p 39 Malachi O’Doherty 59. Horizon: ‘Mars 1 – 42. Mrs Dale’s Diary Life on Mars’, 2001 Project Manager/Editor: Anne Tannahill cast, 1955 Biographical/Picture Research: Francis Jones 43. Richard Baker reading p 55 Daragh Carville the BBC TV News, 1954 60. Hollywood sign in the Producer: Mark Adair Hollywood Hills, 2002 Design: Genesis Advertising Ltd 61. Thorn 2000 colour television, 1968 BBC NI wishes to thank all those who have assisted in the production of this exhibition including: Stephen Beckett, 62. A selection of remote Clifford Harkness, Keith Baker, James Hanna, Trish Hayes and staff at the BBC Written Archives Centre, Michael Donald, controls, 2005 Jude MacLaverty, Katie Bond, Ellie Clarke, Annalie Grainger, Wilfred Green, Pacemaker Press, The Gallery Press, Conor Morrissey, Caroline Kerr, Dorothy Lynch, Melanie Firman, Nicci Praca, David Knight, Matthew de Ville and friends and colleagues at The Museum and Galleries of Northern Ireland.

Further information about other BBC NI exhibitions is available online at: bbc.co.uk/ni/bbcandyou or from the Accountability, Corporate and Public Affairs Department, BBC Broadcasting House, Ormeau Avenue, Belfast BT2 8HQ.