A BBC programme that unravels the mystery surrounding a 1972 US documentary in which producers were given ‘exceptional access’ inside the IRA is set to air in the coming months.
The Secret Army is a feature-length documentary commissioned by BBC Northern Ireland in which journalist Darragh McIntyre investigates how an inexperienced US crew pulled off the extraordinary production.
During his investigation, McIntyre manages to track down original reels of the film, which had been lost for almost 50 years.
He also speaks to a member of the original US production team as well as IRA men who appeared in the documentary, which was filmed during the bloodiest year of the Troubles.
“In 1972, an unusual film team turned up in Northern Ireland but none of them had any real obvious experience in making documentaries, yet they were given exceptional access inside the IRA,” said McIntyre.
“In our investigation, despite the passage of over 50 years, we’ve tried to find as many of the pieces of the puzzle to reveal how this documentary was made.”
Producer John O’Kane added that in unravelling the mystery of the fascinating documentary, they ‘discovered something that is much more complicated than we imagined’.
“One of the biggest challenges was finding anyone still alive who knew anything about how this was made, or why the IRA agreed to allow this team to follow their operations, given the legal risks of appearing on camera,” he said.
The Secret Army is produced by BBC NI’s award-winning Current Affairs team, which is also responsible for Spotlight and Spotlight On The Troubles: A Secret History.
It will be broadcast on BBC iPlayer, BBC NI and BBC Four in the coming months.