Born into a farming family in rural Northern Ireland, Seamus Heaney became the finest poet of his generation and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1995, but his career coincided with one of the bloodiest political upheavals of the twentieth century, the Northern Irish ‘Troubles.’

Six years after Heaney’s death in 2013, his wife Marie and his children talk about their family life and read the poems he wrote for them, and for the first time his brothers remember their childhood and the shared experiences that inspired many of his finest poems. What emerges is an intimate portrait of the poet and an insight into how his work continues to resonate today.

A DoubleBand Films production in association with Lone Star Productions.
BBC Northern Ireland / BBC Arts / Northern Ireland Screen

Seamus Heaney and the music of what happens will be available to watch worldwide on QFT Player from Fri 24 - Sun 26 July. In Conversation: Catherine Heaney and Glenn Patterson will also be available from Friday. Both free to watch, no subscription necessary.