Home > Peter Heathwood Collection

Peter Heathwood Collection

The Peter Heathwood Collection is a comprehensive database containing over 9,500 references to audiovisual materials relevant to the Northern Ireland Conflict. You can learn more about Peter Heathwood here.

*Material is added to this site on a regular basis, information on this page may change.

Peter Heathwood Collection Search

Use the search tools below to find audiovisual materials. Results are displayed with the most recent broadcasts first.
Need help? Click here to find out how to use the search tools.

Introduction to the
Peter Heathwood Collection

This section contains details of news programmes, television documentaries, current affairs programmes, and history programmes, about the Northern Ireland conflict and politics, that were broadcast between 1981 and 2015. The information contained within these pages has been provided by Peter Heathwood and is based on his private collection of television recordings.

Important Note: Users should note that only textual information about the programmes is kept on the CAIN Archive. The recordings are not available on CAIN. The recordings of the programmes are held by Peter Heathwood in his private collection.

Peter Heathwood continues to work on his collection (as of 2022), and it is hoped to add further updates to the listing on CAIN.

The textual information can be viewed as listings of programmes arranged by year of broadcast, or the search page can be used to search the database for information on particular events, people, or organisations.

Content of the Collection

This database includes only those programmes that were devoted wholly to the Northern Ireland conflict and politics, and, in the case of magazine current affairs programmes, editions that were devoted primarily to the subject. However, it should be noted that the database is not comprehensive.

The database holds 9,519 entries, which contain approximately 2.2 million words:

  • Most of the major British and Irish documentaries (693)
  • History programmes (187)
  • Current affairs programmes (1,365)
  • Details of news programmes (7,252) broadcast between May 1981 and December 2015
  • A few documentaries broadcast between 1969 and 1980, and also some independent videos during the same period

How the Collection was Created

The listings are based on handwritten notes made by Peter Heathwood. The notes are then typed as plain text files. A program is used to input the text files into the database.

Most of the information for 1981 to 2015 has been entered, but some (213) current affairs programmes and documentaries need to have their entries completely transcribed; these are indicated by text which reads (... ENTRY TO BE COMPLETED).

To secure the private collection Peter Heathwood converted his VHS tape collection to DVD. He is also continuing to record programmes to the present day (2022).

Layout of Tables

The information on each television programme is displayed in a table. An example of the format is provided below:

Date Broadcast: Date of first broadcast Duration: Running time
Broadcast Company: Name of the broadcasting company Channel: Specific channel
Type of Programme: Current Affairs, Documentary, History, News Report, etc.
Series Title: The series to which the programme belongs (where appropriate)
Programme Title: The title of the television programme where given. Many current affairs programs do not have a programme title.
Description: A brief description of the programme contents. This includes the topic area covered, the names of prominent people interviewed or featured, names of organisations featured, geographical locations, etc. Read More
DVD No. DVD disc number Tape No. PH's original tape number
Country of Origin: The country, or region, where the programme was produced Record No. Database ID number

Other Information on CAIN about TV Programmes and the Media