Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
The Journey
Recognise these two 'Chuckle Brothers'?
Publicity shots of a new film about Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness’s unlikely friendship have emerged.
FILMING HAS BEGUN on a new film charting the development of the unlikely friendship between Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness.
The Journey stars Timothy Spall as the former DUP leader Paisley and Colm Meaney as the Sinn Féin deputy first minister McGuinness.
The film is being billed as a “dramatic comedy” which centres on a fictional journey Paisley and McGuinness take together in which they forge their unlikely friendship.
McGuinness, a former member of the IRA, and Paisley, who was implacably opposed to a united Ireland, came together under a historic power-sharing agreement in 2007.
Paisley served as Northern Ireland’s first minister with McGuinness as his deputy with the pair getting on so well at public events that they were dubbed the ‘Chuckle Brothers’.
Upon Paisley’s death last year, McGuinness said that a close working relationship “developed into a friendship, which despite our many differences lasted beyond his term in office”.
The script for the film was written by the novelist and screenwriter Colin Bateman and is being directed by Nick Hamm. Filming is currently taking place in and around Belfast.
have your say