Check it Out

Now available on the Digital Film Archive, Check it Out, UTV's hugely popular magazine programme of the early 1990s.

Check it Out emerged as a lighter companion-piece to the long-running UTV news and current affairs programme, Counterpoint. At the time,  Producer Jamie Delargy felt there was a need for Counterpoint to provide a broader perspective on Northern Irish life, with topical features to go alongside the hard-hitting, politics-heavy content that the flagship series was already renowned for. Initially, this would see the scope of Counterpoint expanded, with episodes covering a variety of issues, from the workplace to the environment, “Are we dealing with waste?”, from health to education, “Are our kids being pushed too hard?”

Eventually, there was a recognition that there was a TV audience for both the hardball politics long-associated with Counterpoint and the wider public interest, consumer culture and societal features that Delargy had latterly introduced.

Check It Out was greenlit, with Delargy and Jacqui Berkeley co-producing the series. Berkeley would also assume co-hosting duties, alongside a young Eamonn Holmes. Soon, Check it Out, became the highest rated (non-news) regional programme in the entirety of the UK.

The Check It Out collection can be accessed here.