Soft Border Patrol

Soft Border Patrol
Genre	Sitcom Mockumentary
Written by	The Ulster Fry Joe Hullait Stephen G Large Ciaran Bartlett PJ Hart Susannah McKenna Marc McElroy Matthew McDevitt Bryce Hart
Directed by	Iain Davidson
Starring	Alan Irwin Diona Doherty Patrick Buchanan Neil Delamere Eline Van der Velden
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	3
Production
Executive producers	Justin Binding Rab Christie Gavin Smith
Producer	Marie McDonald
Editor	Simon Hamilton
Running time	approx. 28 minutes
Production company	BBC
Original release
Network	BBC Northern Ireland
Release	2 March 2018 (2018-03-02) – present

Soft Border Patrol is a British mockumentary sitcom in the style of a reality television programme based around the subject of the Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border in a post-Brexit world. It shadows the Soft Border Patrol, a fictional border agency backed by governments in London, Dublin and Belfast, and the European Commission in Brussels. The title is a play on the desire at the time of writing for the outcome of the Brexit negotiations for there to be a Soft Border between the Republic of Ireland and the north. Much of the series was unscripted, with broad ideas given to the cast by the writers

It was written by the Glasgow-based The Comedy Unit and the first episode was broadcast on BBC One Northern Ireland on 2 March 2018 at 22:35, with episodes two and three following on the 9 and 16 March.

Cast

• Karen Hassan as Lisa McCoy
• Alan Irwin as Sandy Donaldson
• Neil Delamere as Niall Sweeney
• Diona Doherty as Tracy Jones
• Patrick Buchanan as Connor Lafferty
• Chris Patrick-Simpson as Kris Davis
• Michael Condron as Ben McGregor
• Julie Maxwell as Charlene Dunn
• Faolan Morgan as Derek O'Hara
• Eline Van der Velden as Marianne Van Kesteren
• David Ireland as Farmer Campbell
• Michael Stranney as Craig Carson
• Elaine Malcolmson as Penny
• Keith Singleton as Michael Flynn
• Lucy McConnell as Heather Campbell
• Christian Talbot as Norman Norman

Writers

• The Ulster Fry
• Joe Hullait
• Stephen G Large
• Ciaran Bartlett
• PJ Hart
• Susannah McKenna
• Marc McElroy
• Matthew McDevitt
• Bryce Hart

Additional material by the cast

Episodes

Series	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
1	3		2 March 2018 (2018-03-02)	16 March 2018 (2018-03-16)

Series 1 (2018)

#	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	"Hearts and Minds"	Iain Davidson	Unknown	2 March 2018 (2018-03-02)
Does a plank across a stream constitute an illegal border crossing? Is chorizo still legal in Northern Ireland? Thankfully the SBP are here to provide information and clarification.
2	"The Eyes of the World"	Iain Davidson	Unknown	9 March 2018 (2018-03-09)
The SBP are alert and ready to deal with any border situation. These include deciding if an abandoned fish is a Free State fish or property of the Queen, the Continuity Nine County Sovereignty Committee striving to unify the nine counties of Ulster and identifying animals by their accents. They also deal with a hen party whose Greek member does not have her passport and a report of a tourist from the Continent urinating in a bush.
3	"Not all Heroes Wear Capes"	Iain Davidson	Unknown	16 March 2018 (2018-03-16)
Complex territorial issues addressed by the independent organisation monitoring the thin dotted line between the EU and the UK. The Patrollers carry out a suspiciously lengthy strip-search on a smuggler, dispose of some controlled explosives with a controlled explosion, and suffer some contentious fallout from a visit to a Mexican restaurant. Meanwhile, the 'virtual border' gets a real grilling from a BBC reporter.

External links

• Soft Border Patrol at IMDb
• Soft Border Patrol at BBC Online