Spotlight
Season 2019
TV-G
BBC Northern Ireland weekly current affairs programme.
Where to Watch Season 2019
22 Episodes
- Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History - Episode 1
E10Episode 10Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History - Episode 1Northern Ireland’s leading team of investigative journalists reveal important new discoveries about the outbreak of the conflict known as the Troubles, 50 years after troops were deployed. - Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History - Episode 4E13
Episode 13Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History - Episode 4New revelations about how agents of British intelligence infiltrated the Irish Republican Army. By 1979, the British security forces believed the IRA had become so security conscious that they were impossible to penetrate. But reporter Jennifer O’Leary reveals how one weakness in the IRA’s internal security was exploited to unlock many of the group’s secrets. She charts how Britain used informers and combined that advantage in secret intelligence with the use of special forces to take on one of the IRA’s deadliest units – a strategy that culminated with the Loughgall ambush, when the SAS killed eight IRA men attacking a police station. The programme shows that the aftermath of the attack only made the IRA’s informer problem worse. - Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History - Episode 5E14
Episode 14Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History - Episode 5Episode five traces how unionist anger grew as IRA attacks on the security forces killed members of their community. When Margaret Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985, giving the Republic of Ireland political influence in the North, the anger spilled over into talk of insurrection. The programme reveals how loyalist groups rearmed and used intelligence leaks from soldiers and police to boost their campaign of killing, including new information about MI5 agents operating inside the largest loyalist group, the Ulster Defence Association. - Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History - Episode 6E15
Episode 15Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History - Episode 6Revelations from the Northern Ireland conflict. Loyalists killed more people than the IRA in the closing years of the Troubles. Through an insider in one of the most notorious killer gangs, Mandy McAuley discovers that not only was the Ulster Volunteer Force carrying out more attacks, it was also deliberately targeting families of Irish republicans. Revelations about the murders of two young brothers lead to calls for the investigation into the killings to be reopened. - Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History - Behind The Scenes
E17Episode 17Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History - Behind The ScenesThis film shows how the critically acclaimed television series Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History was made. Reporters, producers – even the bosses – were filmed over two years as they uncovered incredible new stories about the past. How did Jennifer O'Leary persuade a former missionary priest to reveal his role in smuggling money and weapons to the IRA? How did Darragh Macintyre find out the British and American intelligence connections to a long-hidden documentary about a senior IRA man? And how did Mandy McAuley discover that a church charity worker was actually a suspect in a series of murders across Mid Ulster? - Fear & Loathing in Quinn Country
E19Episode 19Fear & Loathing in Quinn CountryKevin Lunney, a senior executive in cross border company QIH, who was abducted and tortured by a gang in September speaks publicly for the first time to Jim Fitzpatrick in an exclusive interview for BBC Spotlight. He details the horror of his ordeal and what it’s like living under threat of death. - Death Of A Suspect
E20Episode 20Death Of A SuspectFollowing the death of Cyril McGuinness, the main suspect in the kidnap and torture of cross border businessman Kevin Lunney, Jim Fitzpatrick examines the criminal career of the man nicknamed Dublin Jimmy. Plus he talks to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar about law and order in the border area.
