Northern Ireland

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland and Lyra McKee documentaries win gongs at prestigious UK Broadcast Awards

Works by Co Antrim’s Alison Millar and London’s James Bluemel named winners at London ceremony

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland was screened on BBC One last year.
Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland was screened on BBC One last year.
By Paul Ainsworth

Documentary works based on the Troubles and the murder of Lyra McKee have won awards at a UK television industry event.

The 2024 Broadcast Awards were held in London on Friday evening, and saw miniseries Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland named winner of the Best Documentary Series category.

Created by director James Bluemel, it was screened on BBC One last year, and was a follow up to the London film-maker’s Bafta award-winning Once Upon A Time In Iraq 2020 miniseries.

The critically acclaimed five-part series charts the history of the Troubles, from the outbreak of conflict during the Civil Rights movement to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

Ahead of its release, Bluemel said the show was “made for an English audience that might have fatigue and a wilful apathy about the Troubles, which is shameful”.

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A Broadcast Awards judge said it was an “extraordinarily descriptive and emotive first-person testimony, bringing the horrors of recent history to life more than any other documentary series I can remember”.

Meanwhile, Lyra, by director Co Antrim-born Alison Millar, won the award for Best Documentary.

Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Derry in 2019.
Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Derry in 2019.

Released in cinemas in 2022, the film was broadcast last year on Channel 4 and focussed on the life, career and death of 29-year-old writer and aspiring investigative journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead while observing a riot in Derry in 2019.

The shooting was blamed on the New IRA group.

A Broadcast Awards judge said of the film: “The director’s intimate knowledge of Lyra’s life underscored the story and we all fell a little bit in love with her.”

Another said it was “not only a stunning tribute to a remarkable young woman, whose story had only just begun, but a seamlessly interwoven tale of Lyra’s life and life in Northern Ireland”.

Both Lyra and Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland also won gongs at the last year’s British Documentary Awards.