Tyrone Productions’ Amanda Dunleavy Talks Irish Factual & Co-Pros

Tyrone Productions, based in Dublin and Belfast, has been delivering productions across documentary, factual entertainment and more for over 30 years. Its recent documentary The Cable That Changed the World, which built upon a long-standing relationship between Tyrone and University College Cork, had its widespread debut this summer. Amanda Dunleavy, executive producer at Tyrone, discusses the doc with TV Real, along with how Irish and U.K. co-productions are increasing due to the benefits of the tax credit system, ease in travel, a common talent pool and shooting locations that work for both territories.

TV REAL: How did The Cable That Changed the World come about?
DUNLEAVY: This is an absolutely epic Irish story. It’s a staggering achievement of science that’s been widely known but has never been explored in a documentary before. The story originates in 1858, but it had to be brought to light because what people don’t know to this day is that the majority of our world communications are still run by underwater sea cables. This was the very first transplanted cable: It went from Valentia Island in Kerry, Ireland, to Newfoundland, Canada. It was unbelievable, with some of the best scientific and engineering minds in the world involved at the time. It’s a total saga. There were so many fits and starts, and they failed so many times, and then they got it working. Messages that would have been carried over days and weeks on ships were now able to be sent within hours, leading us all the way through to today, where it takes seconds. It has a huge global reach because it affects the whole world. It began telecommunication as we know it. That’s why there was such an international appetite for the story.

We have had a long-standing relationship with the funders on this production, such as the University College Cork. We have worked with them on numerous productions that have done really well. We did one called The Hunger, which was about the Irish famine of 1848; it was narrated by Liam Neeson. We did one with Cillian Murphy called Atlas of the Irish Revolution. We also did one called The Irish Civil War, which was narrated by Brendan Gleeson. This was a natural progression [from] those three.

History is having a moment and has been for a number of years. What you have to do with history is contemporize it and make it relevant to the present day. That’s what was done with The Cable That Changed the World. It’s shot in a very contemporary fashion. The events happened over 100 years ago, but it’s right up to date in terms of its visual impact, storytelling and resonance in the present day. It’s done really well for BBC Northern Ireland in Ireland, on BBC in the U.K. and ARTE across France, Germany and the whole of Europe. Given that, the story will have a huge resonance in the U.S. and Canada as well. We often summarize [the cable] as the “Victorian Internet.” We all rely on the internet day in and day out for our whole lives.

TV REAL: What are some of the benefits of co-producing with so many players, financially, creatively or otherwise?
DUNLEAVY: This kind of production is a TV documentary, but it’s filmic in quality. It needs a very big budget to achieve that visual impact. It involved a lot of travel as well. The bigger the budget, the more realistic it is to achieve those ambitions because our ambitions for this documentary were nearly as big as those that these engineers and scientists began with. Editorially, it’s always interesting to work with different broadcasters on a project. We don’t have the same version of it for all of the broadcasters. The fundamental story remains the same, but we change things tonally to reflect what each broadcaster wants. The challenge is to be better, more creative, to think outside the box when you have multiple broadcasters involved and the audience reach is much greater.

You’re looking at this as something that has to make sense to a world audience as opposed to a national audience. That drives more quality across the board, so it’s important in terms of storytelling. It’s also important in terms of the impact you want something to have.

Sometimes, production companies can be nervous of that process of repackaging for different broadcasters. It doesn’t bother us in the slightest; it’s actually a very welcome challenge. It just means that you have to be painstaking in your fact-checking. There might be different compliance issues. Once you embrace it, it is very doable. These days, co-production is the cornerstone of everything we do. It benefits everyone editorially, visually and financially across the board.

TV REAL: What makes U.K. and Irish co-production so appealing?
DUNLEAVY: First of all, we’re very close neighbors. There’s a huge amount of mutual understanding and resonance between the U.K. and Ireland in terms of the television that we like, watch and make. We are based in Dublin, but we’ve always had a Belfast office, and we’ve always made U.K. content. Location-wise, Ireland is a very small country, so that can be a friendly thing for filming because you can cover big distances and have huge variations in visuals within a very short space of time. It’s also very easily accessible from the U.K. You don’t need visas for your crew to shoot here. A lot of the crew are working in the U.K. and Ireland anyway, so they’re familiar. There’s a lot of work being put into [tax breaks] here, which depend on the percentage of the production shot in Ireland. Once you have 70 percent of it shot in Ireland, you can access big benefits, which can be worth hundreds of thousands off your overall budget.

It’s a tough industry for everyone right now. Things have been very difficult in the U.K. for a number of years, and I think, because of that, it opens people’s minds up to co-production. Broadcasters aren’t funding it outright the way they used to.

But it’s an exciting time for production. Whenever there are challenges, it raises all the boats. People are looking very much creatively at collaboration because it’s better financially, and it’s better for the quality of the production. Editorially, it raises the bar. Broadcasters have always worked with U.K. and Irish producers. It just works.

TV REAL: Can you talk more broadly about the factual landscape and what audiences in the U.K. and Ireland are craving?
DUNLEAVY: History is having a moment. We’re reflecting on our experiences over the last hundred years, but we’re doing that in a way that completely contemporizes history. Diversity and mental health are massive themes as well, along with climate change and climate-related projects. There are always human interest stories [with] emotional backgrounds that resonate with people.

Our ears are open. We’re actively talking to production companies in the U.K. and using directorial talent that works in both jurisdictions. This thing about the U.K. and Ireland has been happening, but people have started talking about it more, which attracts more interest. Oftentimes, you start with your own idea; then, to broaden it editorially and financially, you’re going to look to other partners.