What's on TV: Screen debut for The Long And The Short Of It among highlights of BBC NI Autumn schedule launch

​Over the course of four 30-minute programmes Tim and David investigate Irish history from different perspectives.

In the first programme they consider ‘The Siege of Derry – Was Lundy a traitor?’.

The pair will also ask ‘Would you have voted for the Act Of Union?’, ‘Was the Larne gun running justified?’ and ‘Michael Collins – hero or villain?’

Tim McGarry said: "I'm delighted that David and I can finally bring ‘The Long And The Short Of It’ to television.

"After seven series on radio people will at last get to see how the show got its title.

"It was great to bring our brilliant radio producer Helen Bamberry with us to ensure we kept the essence of the show which is basically David Hume being wrong about stuff!"

David Hume says: "It has been great fun to make the series and hopefully viewers will find it enjoyable and informative.

"I try to exercise as much patience with Tim as possible even when, metaphorically speaking, he goes off down the wrong road.

"At some point he will realise I am right. But I can only reflect that the answer to that recurring journey question ‘are we nearly there yet’ remains 'not quite'...”

He added: "Seriously though, we have got lots of very positive feedback regarding the radio series over the years, and the key message is that people from different perspectives can bicker and disagree about Irish history, but still be friends."

The Long And The Short Of It begins on Friday, September 8 on BBC One Northern Ireland at 7.30pm. The entire series will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer after broadcast of the first programme.

Also coming soon to BBC NI will be ‘Jailed: Inside Maghaberry Prison’ which will see Stephen Nolan get unprecedented access to HMP Maghaberry, one of the UK’s most high-security jails.

He talks with prisoners in their cells and investigates the pressures facing staff and the prison system.

Another interesting series is ‘The Year That Rocked Irish Dancing’ which follows a group of dedicated and talented young dancers from Northern Ireland and America as they train hard for the biggest competition of their year, the Irish Dancing World Championships 2022 in Belfast. Unbeknownst to them, however, an secret lurks just below the surface – something that becomes public when allegations of widespread cheating explode onto the internet.

Other highlights include ‘The Crime I Can’t Forget’, a six-part series featuring retired and serving police detectives who recall some of the standout investigations that shaped their careers. The series includes the investigation into the abduction and murder of Jennifer Cardy in 1981.

BBC NI are also set to air a documentary on the 1994 Chinook helicopter crash that killed a generation of NI’s top intelligence personnel.