BBC Week 4 Week Commencing 19/1/2019

Programme Information Television & Radio

BBC Northern Ireland Press Office

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THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS TELEVISION & RADIO / BBC NI WEEK 4

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MONDAY 21 JANUARY

True North – The Bat Catchers  NEW BBC One Northern Ireland

TUESDAY 22 JANUARY

The Search  NEW BBC One Northern Ireland

FRIDAY 25 JANUARY

Burns By The Lagan  NEW BBC Two Northern Ireland

Places of interest – Bangor, Ballykelly (True North: The Bat Catchers); Londonderry (The Search)

EDITORIAL 2019 ______

MONDAY 21 JANUARY TELEVISION & RADIO HIGHLIGHTS / BBC WEEK 4 ______

True North: The Bat Catchers Monday 21 January BBC One Northern Ireland, 10.40pm

Bat fanatics Robin Moffitt and Karen Healy work 24/7 to save their favourite flying mammals. The volunteers have turned their homes into bat hospitals; draped their living rooms in net to test fly recovering bats; and with their team of volunteer ambulance drivers, patrol the country rescuing bats from the most unlikely places.

Every spare hour they have is taken over by bats, whether it be monitoring them during the summer, rescuing them in the autumn, sheltering them in their homes or even teaching them to fly.

The group receives call outs to rescue bats found in all kinds of places. These little mammals can suddenly appear anywhere – in your garage overnight or in a rural Orange Hall.

Annually, bat-catching is the third highest request for help in the pest control industry, but in the UK and Ireland they are a protected species – so, unlike rats or mice, if they invade your home you have to either live with them or have them removed by specially trained experts.

It’s all part of everyday life for Robin, Karen (the group’s new chairperson) and the team of around 20 volunteers, who are always on hand to rescue and nurse the little mammals back to health so they can be released back into the wild.

However, rescuing bats is only part of the group’s mission. They also educate children and adults about Northern Ireland’s eight species of bats, dispelling some bat myths such as bats being blind, and informing them about the benefits of bats, such as them eating around 3,500 midges per night.

Produced by Erica Starling Productions, True North: The Bat Catchers (Monday 21 January, 10.40pm, BBC One Northern Ireland) brings us into to the passionate and, at times, eccentric lives of the Northern Ireland Bat Group.

AW

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TUESDAY 22 JANUARY TELEVISION & RADIO HIGHLIGHTS / BBC WEEK 4 ______

The Search Tuesday 22 January BBC One Northern Ireland, 10.40pm

A new series for BBC One Northern Ireland explores the impact on families when a loved one goes missing, and meets the Community Rescue Service volunteers who drop everything to find them.

The Search is a three-part observational documentary series beginning on BBC One Northern Ireland on Tuesday 22 January at 10.40pm. It explores the search for Northern Ireland’s reported missing people through the eyes of the Community Rescue Service – Search And Rescue Technicians (SARTEC) - and the loved ones of those affected. Using body cams, first hand interviews and footage from searches, the programme tells the powerful story of the brave and selfless volunteers who put their own safety at risk to locate people who quite often don’t want to be found.

When a person goes missing, often the first port of call for the police is the Community Rescue Service who are experts in search and rescue. They are the unsung heroes who give up their free time to volunteer as search and rescue technicians, responding to a call out system and reacting quickly in their attempt to secure a positive outcome.

The Search, follows SARTEC as they respond to missing person alerts across Northern Ireland. It meets the families they help and reveals what drives them to give up their spare time to help strangers who are desperate to locate their loved ones. It also deals with the impact having a missing person has on their loved ones.

Throughout the series the team are called in after a man is reported missing by his family, there’s a dramatic rescue attempt when a vulnerable man enters the chilly night water in Belfast and the volunteers race against time in an attempt to find an elderly dementia patient missing in freezing cold conditions.

The Search is made by Afro-Mic Productions for BBC One Northern Ireland.

CR

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FRIDAY 25 JANUARY TELEVISION & RADIO HIGHLIGHTS / BBC WEEK 4 ______

Burns By The Lagan Friday 25 January BBC Two Northern Ireland, 9pm

Titanic Belfast is the setting for a musical celebration of the genius of Robert Burns, whose work remains cherished in , Ulster and around the world, even 260 years after his birth.

Scottish musical legends , Phil Cunningham and Aly Bain will be joined by local band Cup O’Joe, Andrew Calderwood and the Ulster- Scots Juvenile Pipe band presenting the songs of Scotland’s national bard against the backdrop of the world famous Titanic staircase.

Burns By The Lagan is produced by Tern TV for BBC Northern Ireland and is supported by the Ulster- Scots Broadcast Fund.

MD ______

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