Ulster expats invited to join the Kelly gang

THE Northern Irish diaspora are being invited to tune in to a new weekly chat show hosted by veteran Belfast broadcaster Gerry Kelly.

An intrepid team of TV professionals who worked on the iconic Kelly Show have joined forces with students from Belfast Metropolitan College’s e3 studios to bring the king of chat shows back. The new show is being broadcast on Belfast's community TV station, NVTV, but also on YouTube (the first edition is linked below).

A dozen former UTV staffers - including Gerry Kelly himself and former news presenter Lynda Bryans - have been collaborating with the next generation of media professionals to produce a brand-new programme, Tonight with Gerry Kelly.

The show is filmed in front of a studio audience, the well-known presenter will bring his own brand of wit and charm to this eight-week pilot series, which can be watched on YouTube with guests from across the entertainment scene.  

Kelly originally ran on UTV from 1989 until 2005 and launched the career of golfer Rory Mcilroy who appeared on the programme as a child protégé, aged 9.

Gerry Kelly is back with his own talk show, thanks to a team at our e3 Studios!

Our College is training the next generation of media professionals & what better way to get industry experience than to work first-hand on producing a brand-new programme, Tonight with Gerry Kelly. pic.twitter.com/AHTWQr2Ahz

— Belfast Met (@bfastmet) October 27, 2022

Speaking as the new show launched, Gerry Kelly said: "What a joy it is to be back working with many of my former colleagues on this new weekly show that will be broadcast around the world on YouTube. And what a delight it is, for us all, to be in a position to pass on our many years of broadcasting experience to the next generation of TV, radio and film makers."

Executive producer Michael McAdam said: “This is a real labour of love for all of us. Once you’ve worked in the buzz of a television studio, it never really leaves your system. Everyone poured their time and experience into this project, sharing their skills with young people who are just about to start their careers.”

The highly experienced team have now founded Havelock Street Productions, a nod to UTV’s former home at Havelock House where the Kelly Show had been filmed from 1989 to 2005.

Everything fell into place when the group contacted Lynda Bryans who now works as Coordinator of the Factual Television and Journalism Higher National Diploma course at Belfast Met’s Film and Television School. 

Lynda was delighted by this amazing opportunity for the HND Creative Media Production students to get hands-on experience producing programmes that will be recorded in the college’s state of the art television studio in front of a live audience. 

“Rather than writing a dissertation about programme production, our students are actually doing it - producing their own content, so it’s fantastic that these highly experienced professionals are sharing their time so freely with this new generation of programme makers,” she said. 

“The whole college has got involved in this collaborative project with HE students from other departments including graphic design, motion graphics, music performance and production, commercial photography and videography, make up, event management, hospitality and fashion all participating. It’s giving real job experience to hundreds of young people.”