Transcripts for UTV Rewind: The People Behind the Picture

In its first collection, Media Voices NI is home to the voices and recollections of Producers, Cameramen, Directors, Floor Managers, News Editors who have shaped our TV and Radio industries in Northern Ireland from the first broadcast of Ulster TV in 1959. At the time, Television was an invention that wasn’t expected to surpass newspapers. These reported from the Troubles, a civil war happening in their back yards. And at night, they went back to their homes and their divided neighbourhoods. These men and women defined the craft of television production as we know it today. Filmed in 2022, the 31 interviews in this collection show the dedication of the cameramen, light engineers, editors, studio floor managers, vision mixers, directors, presenters, news editors, secretaries who each worked with passion and determination and remember each other like family.

The interviews were donated to Queen's university in 2024. They were edited and transcribed in May, 2025 when the Media Voices NI website was published. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad and other times harrowing, the they are accounts of real life incidents from the work of these TV professionals as they launched the TV Northern Irish industry as we know it. TV personality Eamonn Holmes, much loved Sports Commentator Jackie Fullerton, Presenter Gerry Kelly, News Editor and Controller Robin Walsh, Presenter Gordon Burns are just a few of these professionals. They talked about programmes like Good Evening Ulster, or UTV's first News show: Roundabout, the Gerry Kelly show and many others. It's an important dive into how recruitment worked in the media industry 60 years ago, gender and workplace rights challenges but also the fun, the parties and the warm family atmosphere they all remember. As one of the interviewees puts it: 'There was never any Monday' in UTV back then.

Here is the full list of those interviewed, sorted by surname and first name:

Bill Armstrong
Tony Axon
Michael Beattie
Bill Brown
Gordon Burns
Keith Burnside
Adrienne Catherwood
Andy Crockart
Gary Dixon
Jackie Fullerton
Alan Hailes
Anne Hailes
Pat Hawkins
Michael Henderson
Eamonn Holmes
Ann Hutchinson
Joan Hutchinson
Paul Irwin
Gerry Kelly
Michael McAdam
David McBride
Jim McGirr
Michael MacMillan
Tom Reid
Robin Roddie
Desmond Smyth
Basil Singleton
Bruce Switzer
Mervyn Waugh
Robin Walsh
Jack Williamson
Joanne Wood

Interview transcripts are included here as pdf files.