Newtownards is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the civil parish of Newtownards and the historic baronies of Ards Lower and Castlereagh Lower. Newtownards is in the Ards and North Down Borough. The population was 29,677 in the 2021 Census.
County Down is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of 961 sq mi (2,490 km2) and has a population of 552,261. It borders County Antrim to the north, the Irish Sea to the east, County Armagh to the west, and County Louth across Carlingford Lough to the southwest.
Emmerdale is a British television soap opera that is broadcast on ITV. The show is set in Emmerdale, a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale Farm was first broadcast on 16 October 1972. Interior scenes have been filmed at the Leeds Studios since its inception. Exterior scenes were first filmed in Arncliffe in Littondale, and the series may have taken its name from Amerdale, an ancient name of Littondale. Exterior scenes were later shot at Esholt, but are now shot at a purpose-built set on the Harewood estate.
ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a claim now held by its sister service ITV3 both of which are freely available to a majority of households.
Donaghadee is a small town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies on the northeast coast of the Ards Peninsula, about 18 miles (29 km) east of Belfast and about six miles (10 km) south east of Bangor. It is in the civil parish of Donaghadee and the historic barony of Ards Lower. It had a population of 6,869 people in the 2011 Census.
DMG Media is an intermediate holding company for Associated Newspapers, Northcliffe Media, Harmsworth Printing, Harmsworth Media and other subsidiaries of Daily Mail and General Trust. It is based at 9 Derry Street in Kensington, West London.
Millisle or Mill Isle is a village on the Ards Peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. It is about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Donaghadee. It is situated in the townlands of Ballymacruise and Ballycopeland, the civil parish of Donaghadee and the historic barony of Ards Lower. It had a population of 2,318 people in the 2011 Census.
Gary Mitchell is a Northern Irish playwright. By the 2000s, he had become "one of the most talked about voices in European theatre ... whose political thrillers have arguably made him Northern Ireland's greatest playwright".
Peter Joseph Egan is a British actor.
Rebecca Ryan is a British actress from Manchester, England, best known for her roles as Carly Hope in Emmerdale and Debbie Gallagher in the Channel 4 comedy-drama series Shameless (2004–2009). Ryan also appeared as Vicki MacDonald in the BBC One school-based drama series Waterloo Road (2009–2011), Gemma Dean in the BBC One medical drama Casualty (2017–2019) and from 2021 to 2022, she appeared in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street as Lydia Chambers.
Philip Jackson is an English actor. He appeared as Chief Inspector Japp in both the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot and in BBC Radio dramatisations of Poirot stories; as Melvin "Dylan" Bottomley in Porridge; and as Abbot Hugo, one of the recurring adversaries in the 1980s series Robin of Sherwood.
Waterloo Road is a British television drama series set in a comprehensive school of the same name, first broadcast on BBC One on 9 March 2006, concluding its original run on 9 March 2015, exactly nine years after the broadcast of the first episode.
Paul Marquess is a television producer from Belfast, Northern Ireland. His credits include Brookside, The Bill, Family Affairs, Hollyoaks, Crime Stories, Suspects and Hope Street. He also originated the idea for the series Footballers' Wives. He currently holds the post of managing director of Newman Street, a label of Fremantlemedia.
Tara Lynne O'Neill is an Irish actress from Northern Ireland, who has appeared in film, theatre and television.
Michelle Keegan is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Tina McIntyre in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street (2008–2014) and Georgie Lane in the BBC military drama Our Girl (2016–2020). Keegan has also starred as Tina Moore in the biopic Tina and Bobby (2017), Erin Croft in Sky Max comedy Brassic (2019–present), Kate Thorne in BBC period drama Ten Pound Poms (2023–present) and Maya Stern in Netflix thriller Fool Me Once (2024).
Jamie Bryson is a Northern Irish loyalist activist who originally attracted media attention as a leading figure in the Belfast City Hall flag protests. He is the author of four books and is the editor of Unionist Voice, a monthly unionist newsletter and online site. He also runs a consultancy business focusing on loyalist public relations, legal work and advocacy.
Sam Retford is an Australian-English actor, known for portraying the role of Cory Wilson on the Channel 4 drama Ackley Bridge. As well as starring in various stage productions, he has also made appearances in television series such as Casualty and Death in Paradise. In 2021, he joined the cast of the ITV soap opera Coronation Street as Curtis Delamere.
The Tourist is a 2022 drama-thriller black comedy television series. It stars Jamie Dornan as the victim of a car crash who wakes up in a hospital in the Australian outback with amnesia. The series premiered on 1 January 2022 on BBC One in the UK, the next day on Stan in Australia, and on 3 March on HBO Max in the US. The second series, set in Ireland, premiered on 1 January 2024 in the UK and Australia, and on 29 February 2024 in the US.
Kin is an Irish crime drama television series, co-created by Peter McKenna and Ciaran Donnelly, that first broadcast on 9 September 2021, on RTÉ One. The series revolves around a fictional Dublin family embroiled in gangland war, and stars Aidan Gillen and Ciarán Hinds as rival gang leaders Frank Kinsella and Eamon Cunningham.
