Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Locations, locations
Ulster hosts 3 of year’s biggest TV programmes
THE body which promotes Northern Ireland as a filming location is celebrating after the region hosted three of the most talked-about TV shows of 2019.
Derry Girls, Line Of Duty and Game Of Thrones were all shot here.
In its yearly review, NI Screen found the third episode of the HBO smash was the most tweeted TV episode of all time.
The final episode of GOT was the biggest series finale ever for Sky with a cumulative audience of 5.8 million viewers and broke HBO records with a US audience of 19.3 million.
The series won 12 Emmys, with local workers Ronan Hill (sound), Simon Kerr (sound), Carla Stronge (casting) and
Pamela Smyth (make-up) among the list of winners.
The first season of Lisa Mcgee’s Derry Girls picked up a Bafta nomination before its second season premiered in March, while the cast were immortalised on the walls of the city in a mural.
The second series attracted 3.2 million viewers for its first episode, making it Channel 4’s biggest comedy for 15 years.
The final of the big three, Line Of Duty, returned to BBC One in March for a fifth series. The first episode was, at the time, the year’s most watched programme in the UK with 13.2 million viewers.
NI Screen chief executive Richard Williams said: “We had three of the biggest, most talked-about TV dramas of the year broadcast; Derry Girls, Line Of Duty and Game Of Thrones. A variety of content we supported across film, animation and games has been selected for some of the most prestigious festivals and conference and picked up much coveted industry awards.”
Mr Williams said there is much to look forward to next year, including the new BBC drama Bloodlands starring James Nesbitt, a third series of Derry Girls and a sixth of Line Of Duty.
Northern Ireland also played host to scores of other productions including much of the crime thriller Dublin Murders. This list includes thriller The
Deceived, ITV drama
Marcella and the region also doubled for the Lake District for filming of The Windermere Children, which recalled hundreds of child survivors of the concentration camps were brought there to recuperate.
Three children’s drama series were filmed here last year comedy Flatmates, the second series of Almost Never and the fourth series of Secret Life Of Boys.
The first animated feature film to be made here went into production. The Puffin Rock movie is being made by Derrybased Dog Ears.