This preview picks out some of the highlights for the coming months on BBC ONE NI, BBC TWO NI and BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle. It shows a real range of programmes for audiences in Northern Ireland and significant contributions from here for the network channels such as Battlefield Britain, the Natural History of the British Isles, The Culture Show and Messiah III. It also gives a full line-up of our new Saturday schedule on BBC Radio Ulster with The Saturday Magazine and The John Daly Radio Show joining regular favourites Your Place and Mine, Gardeners' Corner and On Your Behalf. In the last year, BBC NI has won five out of the six RTS regional categories, worldwide acclaim for the drama Holy Cross and Radio Foyle was named as Sony Station of the Year. BBC Radio Ulster/ Foyle reached record levels of listening for the first part of this year, coinciding with our most ambitious project ever in Northern Ireland, BBC Music Live. I would like to thank all our programme makers, presenters and, most importantly, the viewers and listeners in Northern Ireland. I hope you enjoy our new programmes for the autumn and winter. Peter Johnston, Head Of Broadcasting for BBC Northern Ireland The Saturday Magazine When Saturday morning comes, The John Daly Radio Show many of us look forward to pouring a big cup of coffee and Saturday favourites There’s no business like showbusiness and when it Your Place and Mine scans the comes to the world of glitz and glamour, there’s no snuggling up on the sofa with the country to bring listeners an better man to keep you informed than John Daly. Saturday supplements hoping to find a good feature to read. intriguing mix of people, places Joining the Saturday line-up on BBC Radio Ulster and fascinating stories. In BBC Radio Ulster’s new The with a new weekly show, John Daly will be Gardeners’ Corner, Cherrie Saturday Magazine quenching the nation’s insatiable thirst for all things McIlwaine and guests visit gardens programme is set to add more entertainment with his new lunch-time show. in Northern Ireland, getting choice into the mix. Lively, John is no stranger to getting up close and topical advice for those green- entertaining and informative, this personal with the stars and for his BBC Radio fingered listeners. Linda McAuley Ulster Show - produced by John’s own radio hour-and-a-half long programme - and her panel of experts give production company OJO-John will not only the only one of its kind in Northern Ireland’s consumers a continue his tradition of chatting to the big Northern Ireland - will bring voice in On Your Behalf. names in entertainment, he will be playing high-quality content with a Listeners can get the Best Of some top music and analysing and weekend touch to the airwaves. Talkback, as David Dunseith dissecting the week’s juiciest Presented by John Toal, The rewinds the spools to find the celebrity gossip to find out Saturday Magazine will be week’s best debates and what’s fact and what’s fiction. giving listeners the best in discussions and Mark Devenport As if all this wasn’t enough, lifestyle and leisure, including will look at the most pressing John will also be predicting features on health, travel, education, political issues in Inside Politics. what’s going to be hit and fashion, cooking, entertainment Adam Coates brings all the latest miss in the worlds of music and shopping. John Toal and our on the weekend matches and and movies before taking contributors will be out and about games in Sportsound, before a look at meeting people in the gym, in the BBC Radio Ulster makes way for the week’s café, and on the road while a an eclectic evening of music with sporting team of columnists will give their Brian Mullen’s Cashclar, Ralph events. take on issues that excite them. McLean’s McLean’s Country Listeners can also get involved in and Colum Sand’s Folk Club. The Saturday Magazine by BBC Radio Ulster will present an phoning, texting or e-mailing their exciting series of half-hour ‘letters’ to the show, to give their programmes each Saturday, the thoughts on the items featured first of which is the new or to share what they do at the landmark eight-part series weekend. The Saturday Eighty Listening Years, presented by John Bennett. BBC Magazine can be enjoyed on the Radio Ulster, 92.4-95.4FM. sofa, while you’re doing the gardening or housework and even on the road. CENTURY FARM Imagine life without supermarkets, television, radio, cars, e-mail, mobile phones and all modern comforts, turning your back on it all to step back in time. That’s exactly what one Northern Ireland family has done, rising to the challenge, in a major new six-part documentary series Century Farm, made for BBC ONE Northern Ireland by Hot Shot Films. The McGraths from Glengormley quite literally left 2004 behind, swapping all their home comforts for six weeks of rural life over the summer. Changing their modern clothes for turn-of-the-20th century clothing, six members of the closely knit family went back in time living the life of a family in rural Ireland of 1904. They lived this truly 1904 lifestyle in Coshkib, a Poker player period farmhouse originally built deep in the How would you feel if your heart of the Glens of Antrim, now one of the livelihood depended on the turn working exhibits at the Ulster Folk and of a card? Would you be prepared Transport Museum at Cultra, outside Holywood, to gamble everything for a chance County Down. Coshkib was closed to the public of winning the jackpot? A new during filming. BBC ONE Northern Ireland The McGrath family is made up of father John, documentary follows a Belfast man mother Marie, daughter Fionnola (12), sons Paul who does just that - professional (18), Conor (17) and Neal (13). poker player Mike Magee. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week the The documentary follows Mike, McGraths totally immersed themselves in 1904 who now lives in London, as he rural farm life, experiencing life struggling to has one final attempt at winning make ends meet, learning how to care for farm the big one - the World Poker animals, gathering in the hay, making all their own Championships in Las Vegas - the food (without a supermarket in sight) and even Poker Olympics. using bicarbonate of soda on their fingers to clean their teeth. Over the course of six weeks, viewers can follow their ups and downs as they come to terms with this dramatic life change, while learning more The McGrath family is made up of father about what life was really like 100 years ago. John, mother Marie, daughter Fionnola (12), sons Paul (18), Conor (17) and Neal (13). SRL BBC Northern Ireland’s Irish Language television series, SRL, returns for a ten-week run this autumn. Presenters Céara Ní Choinn and MotorMouth Michelle Nic Grianna are MotorMouth takes up the together again and as the close Bits of Belfast challenge of helping Northern friends open the series by Former Northern Ireland Store Wars Irish drivers hook up with their jumping out of an aircraft, they International footballer Gerry Built in 1907, Austins department perfect cars. are glad to be side by side. Armstrong returns to his native store has been serving shoppers Presenters Conor Grimes and Fish out of Water Music features strongly in SRL, district in Belfast, the Falls Road. in the north west for almost Alan McKee represent the two This season sees the return of the with acts such as Cara Dillon, Gerry left the Falls area of West a century. sides of every car buyer - the popular series Fish out of John Spillane, Donal Lunny as Belfast when he was only 21 Ireland’s first department store is style-loving devil and the Water to BBC Northern Ireland. well as up-and-coming performers like ‘Mill a h-Uile years old, for the bright lights of now facing intense competition as practical, value for money angel. This year’s ‘fish’ include a BBC NI Rud’, a Scottish Gaelic Punk bank top flight football. UK multinational, Debenhams, Conor has a subscription to Weather presenter swapping with from Seattle. In the programme, he traces his opens a new multi-million pound auto-trader and carries pictures a dog warden, a drag queen with a childhood and teenage roots, un- store within walking distance of of his favourite machines around demolition expert and a top fashion SRL has a video diary for covering the rich cultural, The Diamond. in his wallet, while Alan is a model with a pest control officer. young people and ‘postcards’ political and sporting traditions Store Wars is a new four-part country man with a love for With often hilarious results, find from the USA, where natives of that flow through the veins of BBC ONE Northern Ireland a bargain. out how they survive in their new cities such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston this historic area. 30 years of series following the staff and the Each week, they review three environments on BBC ONE NI. show the places tourists don’t troubles have been captured on business during a decisive year in cars each before recommending usually see. None of the guides the famous wall murals, and Bits the life of one of the city’s best- their favoured choice, given the were born in Ireland, yet all can of Belfast uncovers the man known landmarks as it battles to punter’s tastes and needs.