PI Week 4 January 19 - January A Monumental New Series Adam Hills hosts a brand new comedy panel show on BBC One Northern Ireland

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1 PI Week 4 January 19 - January A Monumental New Series Adam Hills hosts a brand new comedy panel show on BBC One Northern Ireland

2 Programme Information New this week A Monumental New Series Page 3 Adam Hills hosts a brand new comedy panel show on BBC One Northern Ireland An Ode To Burns And Ulster Page 4 Presenter Neil Oliver explores the connection between his national poet Robbie Burns and Ulster Eddi Reader s Rabbie Burns Trip Page 5 In a Burns Night special, singer Eddi Reader journeys across Ulster to discover the Bard s influence on Ulster poets of his time 2

3 A Monumental New Series Adam Hills hosts a brand new comedy panel show on BBC One Northern Ireland Monumental, begins BBC One Northern Ireland, Friday, January 25, 10.35pm Monumental, a new comedy panel show celebrating the great, the good, funny and peculiar side of Northern Ireland launches on BBC One Northern Ireland. Presented by Australian comic Adam Hills (Channel 4 s Last Leg ), the six-part series produced by Green Inc Film and Television for BBC Northern Ireland, begins on Friday, January 25 at 10.35pm. Combining comic discussion and debate over a series of games with surprises, each episode also features a special guest receiving Monumental status an entertaining tribute to honour their career and an acknowledgement for being a Northern Irish national treasure. Adam presides over two competing teams, as each week international stand-up star Jimeoin ( Michael McIntyre s Comedy Roadshow, Royal Variety Performance ) pairs up with award winning actor and comic Michael Smiley ( Spaced and Luther ) in an entertaining battle of wits and one-liners, playing against comedy circuit favourite Andrew Maxwell ( Have I Got News For You, Live at the Apollo ) and exciting local newcomer Micky Bartlett ( Sketchy ). In each show, recorded in front of an audience in the BBC s Blackstaff studios, the regular teams are joined by two special guests, one of whom is an established Northern Irish hero who gets awarded Monumental status at the end of the show. The first in the series features Eamonn Holmes and Helen McConnell (MUTV Adam Hills (centre) with the Monumental team members. The series begins on BBC One Northern Ireland, Friday, January 25 at 10.35pm presenter/reporter) followed by Dame the special guest, celebrating their career Mary Peters and Diarmuid Corr (BBC achievements and confirming their Monumental NI s Sketchy ); Denis Taylor and Eleanor status to Northern Ireland. Adam Tiernan (RTE s The Savage Eye ; Gerry Anderson whisks them through their career com- and Aisling Bea (BBC3 s Bad Boss ); edy highs and lows with funny anecdotes, Roy Walker and Yasmin Akram (Channel 4 s memorable archive clips and a few surprises, Peep Show ); Barry McGuigan and Jayne including recorded messages from Wisener (Channel 4 s The Inbetweeners a celebrity fan, including Sir Alex Ferguson, and BBC Northern Ireland s 6 Degrees ). Mo Farah and Gary Lineker, Len Goodman, Daniel O Donnell, Patrick Kielty and Ricky Competing over a series of rounds, each Hatton. designed to reveal comical facts and opinions about bizarre and brilliant aspects of Series Producer Keith Martin commented: Northern Irish life; from a round celebrating It s great to be doing something funny a mystery world champion or record which looks for the positives in this place. breaker from Northern Ireland, to a round We re buzzing about the talent line-up and where team members lament Monumental the audience seemed to really enjoy the reland things they miss about Northern Irecordings, so high hopes. that no longer exist. Monumental begins on BBC One Northern Before Adam declares the winning team at Ireland, Friday, January 25 at 10.35pm. the end of the show, he leads a tribute to 3

An Ode To Burns And Ulster Presenter Neil Oliver explores the connection between his national poet Robbie Burns and Ulster An Ode To Burns And Ulster, BBC Two Northern Ireland, Friday, January 25 at

4 An Ode To Burns And Ulster Presenter Neil Oliver explores the connection between his national poet Robbie Burns and Ulster An Ode To Burns And Ulster, BBC Two Northern Ireland, Friday, January 25 at 9pm He s a Scottish national treasure who has been voted the greatest Scot of all time and is regarded as the country s national poet; but why does the work of Scotsman Robbie Burns resonate so strongly with people in Ulster? In An Ode To Burns And Ulster, on BBC Two NI on Friday, January 25 at 9pm, Scottish presenter Neil Oliver crosses the Irish Sea to see why his fellow countryman s poetry and songs have had such an impact in Ulster. Born in Ayrshire, Scotland in January, 1759, Burns became - among other things a poet, a farmer and a father of nine children to his wife before his death in Dumfries in 1796, aged just 37. And as a Dumfries man himself, presenter Neil Oliver has grown up feeling a strong connection to Robbie Burns and his work. Since his death more than 200 years ago Burns has, of course, gone on to be celebrated worldwide and his work has meant different things to different people over the years; with some seeing him as a romantic poet and others as a political radical. And in this new documentary by DoubleBand Films to mark Burns Night, Neil Oliver explores the connection between Robbie Burns and Ulster in a new documentary to mark Burns Night Neil meets some of UIster s best known Neil Oliver says: This has been an intriguing journey for me. Hearing how people and most-respected poets to ask why Ulster people feel a particular connection here, in Ulster, have been affected by Burns to him. Neil also asks if Burns has inspired has allowed me, as a Scot, to see my own the writings of poets here and, if so, how? national poet in a different light. It has added new dimensions to the man and his work. In the programme, Neil talks to poets Seamus Heaney, Tom Paulin, Frank Ormsby, An Ode To Burns And Ulster is a Chris Agee and Adam Gillis and Miriam DoubleBand Films production for BBC Gamble and traditional singer Len Graham. Northern Ireland. 4

Eddi Reader s Rabbie Burns Trip In a Burns Night special, singer Eddi Reader journeys across Ulster to discover the Bard s influence on Ulster poets of his time Eddi Reader s Rabbie Burns Trip, BBC

5 Eddi Reader s Rabbie Burns Trip In a Burns Night special, singer Eddi Reader journeys across Ulster to discover the Bard s influence on Ulster poets of his time Eddi Reader s Rabbie Burns Trip, BBC Two Northern Ireland, Friday, January 25 at 9.30pm In a special Burns Night programme for BBC Two Northern Ireland, Scottish singer and Robert Burns enthusiast Eddi Reader travels across Ulster to discover how the poet influenced his peers on this side of the Irish Sea. In Eddie Reader s Rabbie Burns Trip, On BBC Two NI on Friday, January 25 at 9.30pm, Eddi takes to the road in a camper van to share her love of Robert Burns and to learn about Ulster s Weaver Poets and the language and themes they shared with him. Interspersed throughout the programme are performances by Eddi of her own acclaimed interpretations of Burns songs such as Charlie Is My Darling, My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose and Auld Lang Sayne, from a recent concert in Belfast s Ulster Hall. Just as Robbie Burns worked as a flax stresser, the Weaver Poets of Ulster worked in the linen industry and were largely contemporaries of Burns. Eddi starts her journey by visiting the Irish Linen Centre in Lisburn where she discovers how the rhythm of the machinery may have influenced the poets in their writing. Then, in the Linenhall Library, Belfast, she finds rare works of Burns donated by his great-granddaughter who lived in the city. Eddi Reader hosts the Burns Night special, Eddie Reader s Rabbie Burns Trip, which also features Eddi s performances of some of Burns classic songs While in Belfast, she is introduced to the Eddi says: I d have loved to have met works of Weaver Poet James Orr the Robert Burns. I d love to take him by the Bard of Ballycarry who wrote a eulogy hand and take him to all these places that to Burns when he died and she also learns know him. I think he would have been about the lauded Ulster poet Samuel amazed. Thomson, who travelled to Scotland to see Burns. What Burns did for me, which is I think what he did for the poets, was reveal Eddi then heads to Ballymena to meet a to them that it was okay to sing in your relative of Weaver Poet David Herbison own voice. Of course, I was aware of that the Bard of Dunclug and visits the cemetery before but certainly, with the Weaver where an impressive memorial has Poets it sounds like, to me, that things that been erected in Herbison s honour. they may have been told to tone down they were allowed to erupt and make bloom and In Rathfriland, Eddi learns about the poet make flow, kind of in a beautiful way. and farmer Hugh Porter and hears one of his works in which he writes from the Eddi Reader s Rabbie Burns Trip is a Tern perspective of Burns widowed wife, Jean. Television production in association with And in Donegal Eddi ends her jaunt by Northern Ireland Screen s Ulster Scots learning about of one of the few female Broadcast Fund for BBC Northern Ireland. Weaver Poets, Sarah Leech, and enjoys hearing some of her poems. 5

1859: BELFAST BURNS CENTENARY

USA Burns Roller Stands AW 22/1/14 09:07 Page 7 7 1859: BELFAST BURNS CENTENARY 1859 was the centenary of the birth of Robert Burns, and commemorative events were held all over the world. The Northern