Northern Ireland talent win at Edinburgh TV Awards
Date Posted: August 25, 2023
The Edinburgh TV Awards took place last evening, Thursday 24th August, celebrating the very best of television. Northern Ireland Screen was delighted to see Lisa McGee’s Derry Girls win Best Comedy Series and Afro-Mic Productions win Small Indie of the Year.
Derry Girls is about a group of working-class teenagers coming of age in Derry at the tail end of the Troubles. It follows local teenager and wannabe writer, Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson), her cousin Orla (Louisa Harland) and friends Clare (Nicola Coughlan), Michelle (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell), and Michelle’s tag along English cousin, aka The Wee English Fella, James (Dylan Llewellyn). Northern Ireland is growing up and while there’s hope in the air that The Troubles may finally be over, the gang’s troubles are only just getting started as they get ever closer to adulthood.
Derry Girls is a Channel 4 commission for Hat Trick Productions and is a showcase of creative talent from Northern Ireland, entirely set and made locally with funding from Northern Ireland Screen.
Afro-Mic Productions was founded by Emma-Rosa Dias in 2014 and produced short-form digital content for the likes of Channel 4, Real Stories, YouTube, RTE and BBC. The switch to terrestrial TV was made in 2017 with observational documentary series The Search for BBC Northern Ireland, of which there has been three series. Afro-Mic has since produced programming for regional, national and international broadcasters.
In 2020, Afro-Mic secured its first series commission from Channel 5 for Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland in which Adrian takes a tour around the incredible coast of Ireland, along the way exploring the breath-taking scenery, people and food that the Island of Ireland has to offer.
Filming has just wrapped on Afro-Mic’s B&B By The Sea. Set in an authentic guesthouse on the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland run by a cast of exciting new talent alongside Great British Menu’s chef Alex Greene the 15-part series made with support from Northern Ireland Screen will be available on BBC One Northern Ireland, BBC Two and on BBC iPlayer. Each episode will see a different celebrity guest, all with strong connections to the coast, stay at the B&B, each taking a personal journey of discovery and reflection as they make the most of the region’s produce and the restorative location. Celebrities booked into the B&B include Richard Blackwood, Linford Christie, Fred Sirieix and Deborah Meaden.
BBC Three and BBC Northern Ireland recently co-commissioned a glamorous new series from Afro-Mic, Made Up In Belfast, it follows the lives of the charismatic young team behind a local cosmetics brand. This 10 part series goes behind the glitz and glamour of the cosmetics industry, to focus on the employees of a Belfast-based company who are chasing their dreams and building their lives – one makeup palette at a time.
