This was a unusual commission for BBC1. A documentary exploring the legacy of the Good Friday agreement for the people of Northern Ireland, 20 years after it brought a fragile peace to the province, is not what you’d normally expect to see on the channel at 9pm.
So it needed a presenter whose personal story and presence could reach and hold that primetime audience. And in Patrick Kielty that’s what we got. He was concerned from the beginning that his father’s murder during the Troubles at the hands of loyalist paramilitaries should not be the point of the film, but he understood that allowing us to re-explore what happened to him and his family after his Dad was killed in 1988, when Paddy was just 16, would allow us to go far beyond that horrific event and into the heart of Northern Ireland today.
The plan was to take Paddy from his childhood home in Dundrum on a road trip around Northern Ireland to meet people from both sides of the conflict, victims, perpetrators of the violence, politicians and peace campaigners, to discover what the Good Friday Agreement has achieved.
The team at Dragonfly, led by Richard Bond, had already laid a lot of the groundwork but when I and producer Paula Nightingale came on board, we knew that we were going to need experienced local help. This came in the form of Belfast-based producers Laura Doherty and Lena Ferguson who were instrumental in getting such high calibre interviewees, from The DUP’s Arlene Foster to the extraordinary Peace Campaigner, Richard Moore, who was shot and blinded by a rubber bullet in 1972 and later sought out and befriended the British soldier who shot him.
During filming we were also very grateful to Belfast-based soundman Davy Kilpatrick who doubled up as local guide and safety advisor (‘Probably best to stop filming now!’). But every production needs a little luck and ours came in the form of the weather – shooting in Northern Ireland in December and January was always going to be cold but almost every time we filmed the sun came out, with the exception of a very foggy day at Stormont. Even that seemed appropriate given the political stalemate which has paralysed Northern Ireland for the last 2 years.
Back in the edit, at Splice Post in Shoreditch, editor Rick Barker patiently nursed me through the first week or two, reassuring me that we did indeed have the material for a very special film, thanks in no small part to the stunning rushes produced by DOP Lorian Reed-Drake. Executive Producers Ruth Shurman and BBC Commissioning Editor Simon Young were both on hand to help us hone the film and achieve the delicate balance needed on any documentary about Northern Ireland.
Most rewarding of all was the response that My Dad, The Peace Deal and Me received in Northern Ireland itself, where many people described it as the best film about the Troubles and the province today that they’ve seen. I’d like to take all the credit for that but in truth it goes to the wonderful team I worked with and most importantly to its presenter Patrick Kielty, whose father Jack I think would be have been very proud of him were he still alive today.
For more information and clips from Leo's film click here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09y26jk
