In 1970, two programmes written and voiced by Seamus Heaney were broadcast on BBC and ITV. Door Into the Dark, filmed for BBC NI’s flagship religious series Viewpoint, gave viewers a tour of the nooks, crannies, and Gallarus oratories that set the poet’s imagination ablaze; Poet in Limboland, for ITV’s Aquarius, offered the poet’s perspective on a city in flames, as Heaney grappled with the violence flaring in Belfast at that time.

Presented together, these programmes offer a remarkable insight into the creative contexts that would uneasily fuse together in what became Heaney’s best-known, and most controversial, collection: North.

Door Into the Dark (Dir. Moore Wasson, UK, 1970, 19 mins)

Poet in Limboland (Dir. Derek Bailey, UK, 1970, 25 mins)

This screening will feature an introduction from the SHC Collections team, who manage and maintain the Broadcast Archive. Thanks to the BBC and BFI for permission to screen these films.