In Sunshine or in Shadow was a landmark documentary about Derry/Londonderry made by UTV to celebrate the West of the country being able to receive the station. For the first three years, UTV was only available in more easterly parts of the country. However, a new transmitter in Strabane brought the station to those in the West. To celebrate, UTV commissioned several evenings of programmes with a focus on the West of which this was one. 

Unfortunately, the programme itself is now lost. However, a reel of offcuts from the production of the documentary have survived and they show alternate shots of much of what would have featured with observations on the people of the city going about their working days - or even looking for work at the labour exchange. Schoolchildren and college students are shown in the places of study, shoppers window shopping the latest record players, factory and docklands work going on and the streets of the city centre are all captured. Meanwhile, the great playwright Brian Friel looked sadly in on the remains of the Opera House on Carlisle Road.

While it's disappointing that the original documentary has gone, we can celebrate what is left of this great snapshot of the city in the early 1960s.