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Ross Kemp in Belfast
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Loyalist protests
ROSS Kemp believes people in Northern Ireland will continue to hold up the peace process until they let go of the past.
The actor turned documentary maker travelled to Ulster during the marching season last summer for his new series Extreme World.
The TV hardman has dodged bullets and confronted gangs around the world as part of his acclaimed documentary series.
While people have said to him the situation in the north is as bad as some of the places he visited, he said he found it intense when rioting broke out.
“People say it’s not extreme but at certain times on the Twelfth it was pretty extreme standing there with the PSNI.”
He said the show offers an unbiased look at what the situation is in the North 15 years after the Good Friday Agreement.
“There’s more peace walls now than there were before. We found out there are still elements are not happy with the Agreement and feel betrayed by political parties but they are by far in the minority. The majority are happy the Agreement was signed and I think the country has changed for the better.”
However, he said he had to cut out a lot of interviews with people who were only looking back.
“There was a guy who spent time in prison with Bobby Sands but we decided not to use the interview because it spent too much time in the past and what we want to look at is what the future holds.”
They also visited the Bloody Sunday museum and spoke to people who gave vivid descriptions of what happened but this was also cut from the final edit.
“You have to start eventually letting go. It’s not for me to say to somebody who’s lost their children or wife or suffered because of what happened in the past. But I guess that’s the only way things move on.”
He also interviewed two politicians who had convictions for paramilitary operations but decided not to use them.
“I cut them in favour of two taxi drivers who do the tour to the areas like Bombay Street, the Falls and Shankill.
“They’re from two sides of the community and openly admit they wouldn’t be able to drink together but they’re quite happy to work alongside each other.”
Ross also interviewed Derry dissident Gary Donnelly who was a close pal of murdered IRA gang boss Alan Ryan.
Ross and his crew had arrived in Ardoyne four days before the Parades Commission announced that they were going to restrict the marches. “By that stage we were already in with both sides of the community.
“The minute it was announced they were out throwing stones at each other. We got a real good chance to have the points of views from both communities at that point and the views of the PSNI who were stuck between the two.”
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Ross Kemp
He said it was clear that elements of both communities felt they have been wronged.
“People in the Bogside told us they were persecuted by the police. We found no evidence of it but there were enough people saying it.
“There are people from the Shankill saying it’s their democratic right to march. It is entirely up to the viewer to decide whether it’s right or wrong. They say they are exercising their culture. We don’t pass comment on any of it.”
He said while people in Ireland may have a better knowledge of what the situation is in the north many in England have no idea.
“There is a whole generation of people who grew up in places like Milton Keynes who are just unaware of it. Part of the film is to bring it to a wide audience.”
The conclusion Ross comes to is that much good has been done since the Good Friday Agreement but it will take time before people can move on from the past.
“A lot of people died and a lot of people are still suffering. Time is a healer but it takes a long time.”
Ross said they could easily have done five episodes alone on the North but ultimately had to try and get as much as possible into the one episode.
He also travelled to Papua New Guinea where he was held up at gunpoint but managed to end up interviewing his captors.
“We were doing an interview when four guys come out who are blacked up and have military uniforms.
“They had two shotguns and two rifles and said get on your hands and knees. Two of the guys who we were interviewing did.
“It’s a stick up. I end up holding my crown jewels as I try to deflect the gun away. I’m not trying to be macho but I was pushing the gun away asking, ‘are you really going to kill me?’
Ross described the feeling of being held at gunpoint as “like being burgled”.
“You go from the shock of it to the personal loss. You’re heart actually sinks.”
One time he was filming a documentary on pirates and thought he was being kidnapped when the boat he was in went a different way to the boat carrying his crew.
“A guy was with me and all the colour had drained from his face. I asked him if we were being taken and he said ‘yes I’m afraid we are’.”
He said people mistakenly believe he has armed protection when he visits these places.
“The only time I had any kind of that protection was travelling out of a military area in Kabul (the Afghanistan capital) to get to the Taliban to interview them. You can’t travel for insurance purpose unless you have an armed guard with you.”
He also travelled to the favelas in Rio ahead of this year’s World Cup in Brazil and said they were being destroyed by crack cocaine. He also looks at the sex trade in India, poverty in the U.S. and the fragile peace in the Lebanon.
The new series of Extreme World is on Sky 1 on Tuesdays at 9pm.