This Week: The Army in Ulster - The Men in The Middle

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This Week: The Army in Ulster - The Men in The Middle

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Details

Location

Belfast, Beverley Street, Dover Street

Year

1969

Date

18 September 1969 (First transmission)

Length

26min 35sec

Audio

sound

Format

Digibeta

black and white

Source

Digitised as part of Unlocking Film Heritage

Courtesy

British Film Institute

Rights Holder

Fremantle Media

It is illegal to download, copy, print or otherwise utilise in any other form this material, without written consent from the copyright holder.

Description

The fate of Dover Street hangs in the balance. The frustration is tangible and tempers fray on all sides. Meanwhile children play happily with the British Army’s equipment.

Explore the role of the British Army during the early weeks of the 1969 civil disturbances in Northern Ireland. The programme focuses on Dover Street - one place that encapsulates the difficulties faced by soldiers trying to mediate between two communities riven by mistrust and fear. Created from a British broadcaster’s perspective part of the fascination of this film is the range of voices present. Dover St remains severed by a Peaceline that runs along Beverley St.
 

Notes

We have access to the prominent military personnel charged with bringing down the system of makeshift barricades erected by the two communities. See the difficulties everyone face in trying to negotiate the placement of a peace line. Also interviewed are the military rank and file and the ordinary people embroiled in the turmoil of the early ‘Troubles’. This film is from the BFI collection. It is part of the Thames current affairs television series ‘This Week’, broadcasting regional issues to a national UK audience. The series often provoked controversy, reportedly the demise of Thames was not helped by Thatcher’s anger over their coverage in 1988 of the killing of three IRA members in Gibraltar.


 

Credits

A Thames Television production

Directed by Chris Goddard

Produced by Phillip Whitehead

Reporter: John Edwards

Researcher: Martin Short

Digitised as part of Unlocking Film Heritage

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