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| Belfast-set thriller The Fall joins the few dramas to tackle the Troubles | Belfast-set thriller The Fall joins the few dramas to tackle the Troubles |
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| In The Fall, which began on Monday night, Gillian Anderson, displaying her Streepian facility with accents, plays an English detective from the Metropolitan police who is sent to review an unsolved murder investigation in Belfast. And Alan Cubbitt's five-part thriller marks the latest phase in one of the most historically fraught issues in British broadcasting: the question of how Northern Ireland should be depicted on screen. | In The Fall, which began on Monday night, Gillian Anderson, displaying her Streepian facility with accents, plays an English detective from the Metropolitan police who is sent to review an unsolved murder investigation in Belfast. And Alan Cubbitt's five-part thriller marks the latest phase in one of the most historically fraught issues in British broadcasting: the question of how Northern Ireland should be depicted on screen. |
| At various times in its history, it has been a piece of luck for the BBC to be generally known by its initials rather than the full trading name: the British Broadcasting Corporation. A current problem, for example, is what it means to be an officially British broadcaster in an era of increased independence for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In an independent Scotland, would Alex Salmond or a successor preside over a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation? And, if so, would the BBC provide it or would there be a separate Caledonian licence fee? | At various times in its history, it has been a piece of luck for the BBC to be generally known by its initials rather than the full trading name: the British Broadcasting Corporation. A current problem, for example, is what it means to be an officially British broadcaster in an era of increased independence for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In an independent Scotland, would Alex Salmond or a successor preside over a Scottish Broadcasting Corporation? And, if so, would the BBC provide it or would there be a separate Caledonian licence fee? |
| Until the Scottish question, though, it was in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, that the tension between UK remit and viewers in a constituent nation was at its greatest. The word behind the BBC's first initial was explosive to many nationalist viewers and yet the loyalist audience was often appalled by what it perceived as republican sympathies in some programmes. These irresolvable pressures led to such crises as the events in the summer of 1985, when a documentary in the Real Lives series, which featured Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, was postponed for four months by the BBC governors under pressure from the Conservative government. Three years later, the Thatcher government failed in its attempt to prevent transmission of the Thames TV documentary Death on the Rock, which investigated the killing by the SAS of three IRA members in Gibraltar, but, probably not coincidentally, Thames later lost its ITV franchise through a new Thatcherite bidding process. | Until the Scottish question, though, it was in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, that the tension between UK remit and viewers in a constituent nation was at its greatest. The word behind the BBC's first initial was explosive to many nationalist viewers and yet the loyalist audience was often appalled by what it perceived as republican sympathies in some programmes. These irresolvable pressures led to such crises as the events in the summer of 1985, when a documentary in the Real Lives series, which featured Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, was postponed for four months by the BBC governors under pressure from the Conservative government. Three years later, the Thatcher government failed in its attempt to prevent transmission of the Thames TV documentary Death on the Rock, which investigated the killing by the SAS of three IRA members in Gibraltar, but, probably not coincidentally, Thames later lost its ITV franchise through a new Thatcherite bidding process. |
| But, as well as having to negotiate the conflicting sensitivities of various politicians and their constituents on both sides of the Irish Sea, broadcasters also faced the problem that while viewers in Northern Ireland were prone to watch programmes about the Troubles with exaggerated attention, viewers outside of the province were often disinclined to pay any attention at all. During the 70s and 80s, many BBC and ITV executives would admit that there was nothing more likely to make most UK viewers switch off than a play or documentary about Irish terrorism. As a result, and with considerable editorial regret on the part of some executives, British broadcasting frequently ignored what was more or less a civil war within its borders. | But, as well as having to negotiate the conflicting sensitivities of various politicians and their constituents on both sides of the Irish Sea, broadcasters also faced the problem that while viewers in Northern Ireland were prone to watch programmes about the Troubles with exaggerated attention, viewers outside of the province were often disinclined to pay any attention at all. During the 70s and 80s, many BBC and ITV executives would admit that there was nothing more likely to make most UK viewers switch off than a play or documentary about Irish terrorism. As a result, and with considerable editorial regret on the part of some executives, British broadcasting frequently ignored what was more or less a civil war within its borders. |
| With occasional great exceptions – such as the long context provided by Robert Kee's and Jeremy Isaacs' Ireland: A Television History (BBC, 1981) – the best analyses have inevitably come during the period since the peace process: such as Peter Taylor's trilogy revisiting participants from the three warring tribes: Provos, Loyalists and Brits. | |
| TV drama, however, consistently took on the subject throughout the worst years of Irish violence, although, given the scrutiny of government and the apathy of most viewers, perhaps understandably preferred to tackle the topic through a more enticing genre or tone. Harry's Game (ITV, 1982), based on a novel by Gerald Seymour, was a thriller in which a British army officer goes undercover to hunt an IRA terrorist. Because of the logistical impossibility of filming in Belfast at that time, Yorkshire played Northern Ireland. | TV drama, however, consistently took on the subject throughout the worst years of Irish violence, although, given the scrutiny of government and the apathy of most viewers, perhaps understandably preferred to tackle the topic through a more enticing genre or tone. Harry's Game (ITV, 1982), based on a novel by Gerald Seymour, was a thriller in which a British army officer goes undercover to hunt an IRA terrorist. Because of the logistical impossibility of filming in Belfast at that time, Yorkshire played Northern Ireland. |
| Apart from thriller plots, comedy was the other sugar often offered to viewers to overcome their instinctive antipathy to the subject matter. Written by the late Stewart Parker (1941-88), I'm a Dreamer, Montreal smuggled the Troubles into ITV peaktime through the story of a night-club singer who is desperately trying to avoid sectarian identification. Two scripts by Ron Hutchinson for the BBC Play for Today strand at the turn of the 80s – The Last Window Cleaner and The Out-of-Town Boys – also humorously depicted people trying to get on with their lives, a frequent ambition of those Belfast residents not directly involved in the fight. | Apart from thriller plots, comedy was the other sugar often offered to viewers to overcome their instinctive antipathy to the subject matter. Written by the late Stewart Parker (1941-88), I'm a Dreamer, Montreal smuggled the Troubles into ITV peaktime through the story of a night-club singer who is desperately trying to avoid sectarian identification. Two scripts by Ron Hutchinson for the BBC Play for Today strand at the turn of the 80s – The Last Window Cleaner and The Out-of-Town Boys – also humorously depicted people trying to get on with their lives, a frequent ambition of those Belfast residents not directly involved in the fight. |
| Play for Today also commissioned perhaps the most enduring fictions from the conflict: the quartet, colloquially known as The Billy Plays, written by Graham Reid in the 1980s, and introducing the then unknown drama school graduate Kenneth Branagh as Billy Martin, son of a Protestant working-class family. Again, these plays made a point of backgrounding the political struggle: the violence in the plays is mainly domestic. Reid has recently written a stage sequel, in which Billy returns to the new Belfast after 30 years, and there are hopes that it will eventually be made for television with Branagh resuming the role. | Play for Today also commissioned perhaps the most enduring fictions from the conflict: the quartet, colloquially known as The Billy Plays, written by Graham Reid in the 1980s, and introducing the then unknown drama school graduate Kenneth Branagh as Billy Martin, son of a Protestant working-class family. Again, these plays made a point of backgrounding the political struggle: the violence in the plays is mainly domestic. Reid has recently written a stage sequel, in which Billy returns to the new Belfast after 30 years, and there are hopes that it will eventually be made for television with Branagh resuming the role. |
| Plays that directly dramatised the Troubles were under considerable internal and external pressure to be "even-handed", although, in practice, this advice frequently meant favouring the British government position. Mike Leigh's Four Days in July, made for Play for Today in 1985, has a structure that almost parodically obeys the concept of "BBC balance" by dividing its time between a Catholic and a Protestant couple expecting their first child. Confounding viewer expectation or fear, nothing terrible happens to either family. | Plays that directly dramatised the Troubles were under considerable internal and external pressure to be "even-handed", although, in practice, this advice frequently meant favouring the British government position. Mike Leigh's Four Days in July, made for Play for Today in 1985, has a structure that almost parodically obeys the concept of "BBC balance" by dividing its time between a Catholic and a Protestant couple expecting their first child. Confounding viewer expectation or fear, nothing terrible happens to either family. |
| The tendency of both television and wider culture to avoid the decades of Irish violence as much as possible is directly taken on in what is probably the greatest drama to arise from the conflict. Elephant (1989), written by Bernard MacLaverty and directed by Alan Clarke, takes its title from the writer's comment that the civil war was an "elephant in the living room" that people pretended wasn't there. Almost wordlessly, the 39-minute film depicts 18 sectarian killings of various stripes: a sort of even-bloody-handedness. | The tendency of both television and wider culture to avoid the decades of Irish violence as much as possible is directly taken on in what is probably the greatest drama to arise from the conflict. Elephant (1989), written by Bernard MacLaverty and directed by Alan Clarke, takes its title from the writer's comment that the civil war was an "elephant in the living room" that people pretended wasn't there. Almost wordlessly, the 39-minute film depicts 18 sectarian killings of various stripes: a sort of even-bloody-handedness. |
| A second phase of Belfast dramas has dealt with the consequences of the peace process, of which the most notable is Oliver Hirschbiegel's Five Minutes of Heaven (2009), with James Nesbitt as the brother of a murdered Catholic man, invited by a TV company to meet his brother's loyalist paramilitary killer. The climax is notably sceptical about the possibility of truth and reconciliation. | |
| The third – and, locals may hope, final – period of Belfast TV drama is typified by The Fall. As Gillian Anderson's DI Stella Gibson discovers, the war is technically over but a long shadow still falls. In the Police Service of Northern Ireland HQ, she passes a memorial to police officers (mainly members of the PSNI predecessor, the RUC) who died in action. She also finds that some in the PSNI resent a Brit coming in to check their homework on the murders. One victim is also related to a prominent Unionist politician. | The third – and, locals may hope, final – period of Belfast TV drama is typified by The Fall. As Gillian Anderson's DI Stella Gibson discovers, the war is technically over but a long shadow still falls. In the Police Service of Northern Ireland HQ, she passes a memorial to police officers (mainly members of the PSNI predecessor, the RUC) who died in action. She also finds that some in the PSNI resent a Brit coming in to check their homework on the murders. One victim is also related to a prominent Unionist politician. |
| For the viewer of The Fall, part of the tension – a version of what happens in much European crime fiction after the second world war – is whether or not the killings are related to the Troubles. Through the genre of crime fiction, TV drama has found another way of getting the elephant into UK living rooms. | For the viewer of The Fall, part of the tension – a version of what happens in much European crime fiction after the second world war – is whether or not the killings are related to the Troubles. Through the genre of crime fiction, TV drama has found another way of getting the elephant into UK living rooms. |
| • This article was amended on 14 May 2013. The original stated that Ireland: A Television History was an ITV production. It also confused the role James Nesbitt played in Five Minutes of Heaven. These have now been corrected. |