A journey into Ulster Television’s earliest archives unveils a forgotten history behind Northern Ireland’s first network drama, Boatman Do Not Tarry.

Synopsis
"The Bannfoot Ferry" is a short documentary by filmmaker Colm Laverty that explores a long-forgotten piece of Northern Ireland’s broadcasting history. Rediscovering a wealth of material from Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive, this non-fiction short examines the first decade of a fledgling independent broadcaster and its impact on Ulster society.

At the centre of the documentary is "Boatman, Do Not Tarry," a 1967 Ulster Television drama, shot near the filmmaker’s hometown of Maghery, on the southern shore of Lough Neagh. The first locally-produced television drama broadcast across the ITV network, “Boatman” is significant not only for its unprecedented scope and ambition, but also for its similarities with numerous political and social tensions seen at the beginning of The Troubles, mere months after its network broadcast.

Exploration into the cultural and social circumstances surrounding “Boatman” unveils a remarkable, continued shared history between the broadcaster and the Bannfoot Ferry, the country’s last remaining hand-operated river raft on the River Bann, which helped inspire the drama. 

Despite proving itself to be a high-watermark of early local broadcasting, and boasting a cast of Ulster’s finest actors, the drama has since faded to obscurity, remaining largely unseen for over 50 years.

Playfully combining archival materials with interviews from local residents, archivists and social historians, many parallels are drawn between the world depicted in “Boatman” and current events in contemporary Northern Ireland.