Northern Uproar

Like the long-running radio programme from which it was spawned, Across The Line TV, Northern Ireland’s main (for that read, only) music television show has picked up a loyal following since it aired for the first time last year. Mixing established acts, promising local faces, and the odd, enlightening feature, it’s a show that values the loyalty of its audience over its size. Not all its viewers, however, look forward to each episode with the same anticipation.

"I’ve watched a few and it’s very surreal and distracting,” admits presenter Donna Legge. “You could be giving the interview of your life and still be thinking: why am I holding my arms like that?”
“All I could think of was that in a couple of shots I look pretty handsome,” says Legge’s co-host David ‘Rigsy’ O’Reilly. “But on most I look like a real spindly freak.”
At a time when most school children would prefer to be television presenters than astronauts, the 'ATL two' offer a heartening departure from the TV norm. Smug-free and self-deprecating, they put you in mind of mischievous imps who have crawled under the fence and annexed the studio for their own amusement. Both confess that radio remains their first love. It seems that the television series, rather than being a culmination of a long-held strategy, was an unexpected opportunity they couldn’t turn down.
“We were thrown totally into the deep end,” says O'Reilly. “Someone like John Daly, presenting-wise, he’s spent years getting experience in front of camera – we turned up one day, someone shouted ‘Action’ and we splashed around for half an hour. It was hard taking a step back from the simple fact that you’re on telly – I kept looking over my shoulder expecting to be dragged off. But then you wise up and get on with it and try to have as much of a laugh as you can.”
There may well have been slicker programmes than ATL TV (the set, according to O'Reilly, “looked like one of our bedrooms”), but what the first series lacked in flashy production values, it more than compensated for with its sense of fun and enthusiasm.
In providing an outlet for local bands and film-makers, it also had a hugely productive effect on the wider creative community in Northern Ireland. This is a claim that few youth shows in the grim history of regional television can plausibly make.
“The first series was almost like they’d given us the ball and told us to go off and entertain ourselves, ruffling our hair as we went away,” says O'Reilly. “I think they were surprised to see what we came up with. We put an awful lot of ourselves into it – probably too much – but it had its own personality and it didn’t look like anything else that BBC Northern Ireland was putting out. We were busting our balls not to make it a typically cheesy Northern Irish programme, so it was great that we pulled that off.”
The announcement that the powers-that-be had commissioned a second season was greeted by the crew with as much astonishment as delight, he says.
“There was an air of disbelief – we thought someone was winding us up. When you think of the situation at the BBC at the moment – it’s a pretty tenuous time with the job losses, so to find out that they were willing to commission a youth music show for a fairly marginal audience; we were like: no way. Then it was a case of how do we improve things and make the show better?”
Changes? Well, the studio has certainly benefited from a lick of paint and a few flashy light-bulbs, and the quality of guests (Oasis, Coldplay, The Chemical Brothers) has gone up a notch or two. Legge also stresses that there is a greater emphasis on Irish acts from outside the North (there will be sessions from The Chalets, Republic Of Loose and Fred). On the whole, though, ATL TV has managed to maintain the same clued-in, wired-up vibe that powered it during its initial run. And while most shows are blurring into a pristine but generic whole, ATL TV seems prepared to develop its own personality – one that reflects all the quirks and awkward angles of its creators.
“For better or worse it’s our show,” declares O'Reilly. “Between me, Donna and Paul (McClean – producer), we do everything from the opening titles to the closing credits. It’s kinda like being signed to an indie label.”
Legge says: “We’re not just fronting something, we’re part of it. We don’t just get handed clipboards. It means we’re exhausted most of the time – but it doubles the satisfaction.”

ATL TV is on BBC2 at 10.00pm every Tuesday night.