RTS Northern Ireland

BBC One psychological thriller The Woman in the Wall won three prestigious prizes at the RTS Northern Ireland Television Awards in November, with Ruth Wilson and Daryl McCormack picking up the Best Actor awards, and David Holmes and Brian Irvine triumphing in the Original Music Score category.

Writer Joe Murtagh’s six-part gothic drama, made by Motive Pictures, tells the story of lives ruined by Ireland’s Catholic church workhouses, the Magdalene Laundries.

Colin Williams, Creative Director of Sixteen South, said he realised early on the benefits of partnering with other studios in different parts of the world to secure funding for getting projects off the ground.

Several guests at an event organised by RTS Northern Ireland – in partnership with the UK Department for Business and Trade (DBT) within its UK Export Academy – said they couldn’t recall a worse time for commissions, describing the current climate in the indie sector as a “drought”.

Chaired by RTS Northern Ireland Futures Vice-Chair Geraldine Smyth, the event saw local media experts share their top tips and hacks for breaking into what is a competitive industry.

When applying for a first job, agreed the panel, the importance of doing your research cannot be overstated. “Do your research very thoroughly on the company that you’re going to meet, know what content it has made and what its strong points are,” advised Kate McGlade, Development Executive at Alleycats TV.

Spring Is Sure to Follow – “a beautiful story of acceptance with great casting and performances”, said the judges – triumphed in the Drama category. The “funny, whimsical and well-acted” Mantis Shrimp won the Entertainment and Comedy prize.

The Animation category was won by Ulster University, Belfast student Patrick Faulkner with Unseen: Alone in Space, and Ulster University, Coleraine’s Nathan Edgar took home the Factual Short-form award with On the Edge.

Discussing the BBC’s Across the UK strategy – which seeks to shift creative spend and decision-making out of London – the BBC’s Chief Content Officer praised Blue Lights and Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland.

Moore said: “What both Blue Lights and Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland demonstrate so brilliantly, is that thinking bigger about how we harness and showcase the creativity of the whole of the UK is paying huge dividends – for us and for audiences.”

Ulster University, Belfast, student Aidan Rafferty was a double winner at the RTS Northern Ireland Student Television Awards. He was part of the team that won the Comedy and Entertainment award for Real Lads of Lockdown – and the writer/director also took home the Craft Skills: Writing prize.

The judges said the film “wasn’t afraid to touch on the more serious aspects of the pandemic, while providing lots of laugh-out-loud moments – a great balance of comedy and pathos”.

Talking to students at Belfast Metropolitan College, Diaz said: “Because we live in a very visual world, design has a key [role] in delivering our content... [and] attracting the attention of our audience.

We can also communicate our content through social media... in a visual way.”

Diaz, a native of Spain, has worked in the UK for the past decade. Good design, he said, should be “integrated in the content.... If nobody notices the design, it’s a good thing.”

Ulster University Belfast picked up the Animation Award for The Forlorn Piscator by Matthew McGuigan. A highly commended award also went to Antisocial Behaviour by Lyndsay Clarke and Phillip Steele from the Northern Regional College, Coleraine.

The Non-Scripted Award winner was The Rising of Jordan Adetunji by Joe Warden, Nathan Emery and Reece Williams from Ulster University. Isolation - Overcoming Adversity as a Community by Aodhan Roberts from the North West Regional College was highly commended in this category.

Making successful factual TV drama is fraught with difficulties. The stakes are even higher when programme-makers tackle real-life events – and no more so when they are as recent and raw as the ones depicted in the summer hit BBC One’s three-parter The Salisbury Poisonings.