Film based on acclaimed Troubles book Lost Lives to be broadcast on BBC NI

The screening next Sunday on BBC One Northern Ireland at 9pm will be the first time the film which bears the same name as the book has been seen anywhere other than cinemas where it premiered in October of last year.

First published in 1999, the Lost Lives book documents the deaths of all 3,700 people killed during the 30-year conflict in the Province.

Written over a seven-year period by five journalists – David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton and David McVea – the book provides a unique record of the circumstances surrounding the deaths of every person who died as a result of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

The film, commissioned by BBC Northern Ireland with funding from NI Screen and directed and produced by Michael Hewitt and Dermot Lavery of Doubleband Films, reflects on the terrible human cost of the violence and the lives that were lost.

At the film’s cinematic premiere last October Lavery said: “After the conflict here there has probably been no moment more apposite to remind people of Lost Lives the book. If the film can do anything, if it points us towards what Lost Lives the book represented, then that would be a good thing.

“Because here we are on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Troubles, the 21st anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement but yet sometimes it feels that we haven’t moved that far on.”

Through high-end cinematography, an original orchestral score and readings by an ensemble of renowned home-grown actors, including Kenneth Branagh, Liam Neeson and Roma Downey, the tragedies of Northern Ireland’s painful past are reflected upon in this 90-minute film.

The impressive cast of voices also includes Bríd Brennan, Adrian Dunbar, Michelle Fairley, Bronagh Gallagher, Brendan Gleeson, Dan Gordon, Conleth Hill, Ciarán Hinds, Susan Lynch, Des McAleer, Martin McCann, Ian McElhinney, Sean McGinley, James Nesbitt, Emer O’Connor, Stephen Rea, Judith Roddy, Michael Smiley and Bronagh Waugh.

The music is an original score by Belfast based team of Neil Martin, Mark Gordon, Richard Hill and Charlie Graham, and was recorded by the Ulster Orchestra.

Lost Lives is part of BBC Northern Ireland’s wider portfolio of content to mark the 50th anniversary of the troops arriving in Northern Ireland.