Paul Kennedy
Ivan Cutler is a man on a mission - he spreads the good word throughout the town lands of Ireland in the 1950s. But he hides a sinister secret - he has a penchant for murdering those who are kind enough to invite him into their homes. However, when he calls to the rural farmhouse of Ma and Da Taggart, he meets two people who prove more than a match for him.
In 1970's Belfast two young boys discover the facts of life aided by the help of their pet chickens.
Set in Belfast against the backdrop of the 1986 World Cup, Shooting for Socrates tells the story of a momentous time in Northern Ireland's football history through the eyes of players, fans and the media. The film also follows the lives of passionate football supporter Arthur and his son Tommy from East Belfast. The lead up to a momentous day in the life of a young boy (his 10th birthday) mirrors the build up to the big day for the Northern Ireland football team as they play the greatest match of their lives.
When Captain Fred Roberts discovered a printing press in the ruins of Ypres, Belgium in 1916, he decided to publish a satirical magazine called The Wipers Times - "Wipers" being army slang for Ypres. Full of gallows humour, The Wipers Times was poignant, subversive and very funny. Produced literally under enemy fire and defying both authority and gas attacks, the magazine proved a huge success with the troops on the western front. It was, above all, a tribute to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming adversity. In his spare time, Roberts also managed to win the Military Cross for gallantry.
Jack Kelly is a successful novelist who leads a reclusive life in his apartment in Paris. His first novel, Made in Belfast, was a critical and commercial success – there was only one problem: it exposed the private lives and innermost secrets of his close friends and family, and none of them have spoken to him since he ran away. But when circumstances conspire to bring him back to his hometown for a few days, he decides to spend that time putting things right with the friends he betrayed, the brother he abandoned, and the fiancée he jilted.
In the hours after the Titanic struck an iceberg 100 years ago, a team of shipbuilders and engineers raced against time to save the stricken vessel. Based on eye-witness accounts, this film reveals what went on below decks in the hours before the Titanic sank, telling the previously relatively unheralded stories of engineers who fought courageously to hold back the power of the sea and keep the power systems running, even when they learned that all was lost. Most of these men died but their actions bought enough time to save many lives. This drama-documentary tells a poignant story of self-sacrifice by the Titanic's engineers, stokers and firemen in the face of impending death.
P.J`s in a pickle, his parents are missing, he is a spectacular failure at running their bakery, 'Cup Cake', and he is up to his neck in debt with the local loan-Sharks. To add to his misery, he has been duped into marriage by their impossibly tanned and serially jilted sister, Kitty. Enter Gala, a mysterious, beautiful artist with a few tricks of her own. P.J. , a robot-obsessed dreamer and his hapless friends, aided by the ever resourceful Gala, set about cooking up the revival of 'Cup Cake's' fortunes, and spicing up P.J`s love life along the way.
Best – His Mother’s Son (BBC Two) was a gloomy drama about Ann Best, mother of George, who was strictly teetotal until her mid-40s, when she had her first sip of sherry to celebrate her son’s footballing success. Ten years later, she was dead from alcoholism-related heart disease. The recreation of late-Sixties Belfast was accurate and, thank goodness, intelligently subdued: no comedy Ulster accents and no point-scoring subplot about the Troubles.
The story of former UVF member Alistair Little. Twenty-five years after Little killed Joe Griffen's brother, the media arrange an auspicious meeting between the two.
It's 1989, and in a Belfast torn apart by conflict and terrorism, petty criminal Marty McGartland is recruited by the British police to infiltrate the IRA. Guided by Special Forces officer 'Fergus', McGartland gains unparalleled insight into the organisation's dealings, providing his British handler with priceless, life-saving information. Based on a true story.
