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Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →RTÉ announced The Lion, The Witch and the Ulsterman, a one-off documentary presented by former Ireland rugby international Andrew Trimble, for Thursday, 8 October 2026, at 10:15 p.m. on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player. The announced schedule does not confirm whether it subsequently aired or remains available to stream.
What the documentary is about
The programme asks why C.S. Lewis is not more widely recognized as an Irish writer, and examines how his Belfast upbringing and Ulster-Scots background shaped his life and writing. RTÉ describes a journey from the Lewis family home in East Belfast to Oxford, where Lewis spent much of his adult life. Childhood trauma and Lewis’s departure from Belfast are among the subjects, with the documentary connecting his life to The Chronicles of Narnia.
RTÉ says the film includes extracts from the Narnia books and Lewis’s autobiography, Surprised by Joy. The announcement frames these works within a broader exploration of the influence of Ireland on Lewis; it does not claim that the programme offers a complete account of his life or literary career.
Presenter and contributors
Andrew Trimble, a former Ireland rugby international and theology graduate, presents the documentary. In RTÉ’s announcement, he said he was surprised by the depth of Lewis’s connection to Belfast and the city’s lasting influence on his life and imagination. Trimble also described the project as personal: he has seen the Narnia books bring joy to his own children and, as a fellow Belfast man, was proud to explore Lewis’s story.
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RTÉ lists these contributors:
- Dr Margaret O’Callaghan
- Jan Carson
- Professor Suzannah Lipscomb
- Dr Frank Ferguson
- Rev Dr Reggie Weems
- Dr David Clare
The programme was funded by the Northern Ireland Screen Ulster-Scots Broadcast Fund. RTÉ’s announcement does not state its runtime or production company.
Why Belfast matters to Lewis’s story
The documentary’s focus is Lewis’s early life in East Belfast and the Irish and Ulster-Scots dimensions of his identity. The connection is not simply a point on a biographical map: RTÉ presents Belfast as a place to consider how Lewis’s childhood and departure from the city relate to the writer he became and to the world of Narnia.
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There is also a public heritage history around Lewis in east Belfast. A Northern Ireland Assembly debate on 19 November 2013 recorded discussion of his local origins, commemoration and a Lewis trail, as well as comments about Ulster-Scots ancestry. Those remarks document how elected representatives discussed his heritage at that time; they are not a current visitor guide or independent biography.
When to watch
RTÉ announced a broadcast on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player for Thursday, 8 October 2026, at 10:15 p.m. The date is the scheduled transmission in the broadcaster’s 6 October announcement. Because that date has now passed, the announcement alone cannot establish whether the programme aired as planned or whether it is currently on demand; check RTÉ’s current schedule or Player listing for availability.
Books connected to the programme
The Chronicles of Narnia is the fiction series at the heart of the documentary’s public association with Lewis. Surprised by Joy is his autobiography and is also identified by RTÉ as source material featured in the programme. The Northern Ireland Assembly’s 2013 debate reproduces passages attributed to Surprised by Joy about Lewis’s childhood community and home; those quotations are presented there as part of the debate record.
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