The 92-minute drama-documentary, produced by Ireland’s Tile Films, will air in the UK tomorrow (April 14) at 6pm on History UK with a repeat later in the evening at 10pm. It has been renamed as ‘Heroes of the Titanic’ for the History UK broadcast.
To mark the day that the Titanic sank, Channel 4 will show ‘Saving the Titanic’ the following day (April 15) at 4pm.
‘Saving the Titanic’ proved a rating success for RTÉ when they aired it on Bank Holiday Easter Monday. The film drew an average viewership of 344,600 and an audience share of 23.87 per cent, according to the broadcaster.
The film will also be screened in Dublin’s Lighthouse Cinema from today (April 13) and runs until Sunday.
Speaking to IFTN, Tile Films’ Stephen Rooke, producer of ‘Saving the Titanic’ said: “It’s fantastic that we are getting such a good reaction to the film. We had the world premiere in Cineworld at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, the US TV premiere on Sunday April 1 on PBS and the Irish TV premiere on RTÉ last Monday.
“The audience reaction has been phenomenal. Everyone seems to really relate to the personal stories of the Titanic’s engineering crew. It is the bravery of the men as they fought courageously to hold back the power of the sea and keep the power systems running, even when they learned that all was lost. I think the audience really get that it was the actions of these men that saved many lives.”
‘Saving the Titanic’ seeks to answer the question of what happened in the engine and boiler rooms after the collision.
IFTA award winning filmmaker Rooke (Waterways) and director Maurice Sweeney’s film tells the story of the disaster from below deck, with the action taking place between the time the crew embark the Titanic at Southampton and the eventual sinking of the ship.
The stellar ensemble cast of leading Irish actors includes David Wilmot (The Guard), Owen McDonnell (Single Handed), Ciaran McMenamin (Primeval), Jonathan Byrne (Primeval); Andrew Simpson (Notes on a Scandal), Hugh O’Conor (Killing Bono), Stephen Hogan (Earthbound, The Tudors) and Conor MacNeill (Five Minutes of Heaven). The script for the drama re-enactment is written by Britain’s Colin Heber-Percy and Lyall Watson.
Shot on Red cameras, ‘Saving the Titanic’ features CGI created at Windmill Lane Pictures. Production began last August using purpose built sets in Ardmore Studios. It was shot by director of photography Richard Kendrick (Treasure of the Bogs).
‘Saving the Titanic’ was produced by Tile Films in Dublin and is a co-production with Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion in Germany, produced in association with the Irish Film Board, RTÉ, BAI , Windmill Lane Pictures Ltd., Section 481, AETN/History UK, ZDF and ZDFE Enterprises. International distribution is handled by ZDF Enterprises.
