News

Their salaries may not be in the same stratosphere, but whether it’s Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Belgravia or Belfast, the fact remains the same – behind every successful sportsman, there’s a smart, glamorous woman.

The wives and girlfriends of Northern Ireland’s top sportsmen have a lifestyle that is the envy of women up and down the country. Fashion shows and football matches, Grand Prix and galas, society weddings and shopping trips to Las Vegas, Best Dressed Ladies’ Day and holidays in the sun, charity auctions and style awards … on and on it goes.

Waddell Media’s glossy new six-part series for BBC Northern Ireland goes inside the hectic social whirl that is the stuff of everyday life for NORTHERN IRELAND WAGS. But it also reveals seven savvy, intelligent, beautiful young women, who are very far from being just an assortment of trophy wives and pretty faces.

In the spotlight over the next six weeks are:

LISA HARRISON (28), fashion stylist and on/off fiancee of A1 Team Ireland’s chief executive Mark Kershaw (style icon – Nicole Richie); solicitor LEEANNE DRUSE (24), whose partner is Armagh GAA player Ronan Clarke (style icon: Victoria Beckham); ZARA SHAW (22), a model, whose boyfriend is former Bohemians and now Lisburn Distillery footballer Chris Kingsberry (style icon: Victoria Beckham); YDELE STEELE (27), a PE teacher, who is married to Irish cricketer Andrew White (style icon: Keira Knightley); LAUREN HOOD (25), girlfriend of Ulster and Irish rugby player Stephen Ferris and hair extensions entrepreneur (style icon: Halle Berry); JULIE MOORE (31), air hostess wife of mixed martial arts champion Rod Moore (style icon: Victoria Beckham); and DEBBY ARMSTRONG (32), a property developer and mother, whose husband is former Northern Ireland football international and TV pundit Gerry Armstrong (style icon: her late mum).

The first programme shows the Wags’ sporty side, as we watch them leaving home to cheer on their men at the A1 Grand Prix in Amsterdam, the football international between Northern Ireland and Iceland in Reykjavik, rugby matches at Ravenhill, cricket at Stormont, a GAA club game and an Ultimate Fight Revolution bout.

In Programme 2, they are on more familiar ground, as they plunge into retail therapy heaven in Las Vegas, shopping and lunching on the Lisburn Road, take their seats in the front row at fashion shows, enter the Best Dressed Ladies Award at the Dublin Horseshow and pick up the prizes at the Belfast Style Awards.

Programme 3 is all about the sheer bliss of partying and pampering. Debby’s daughter Marianna celebrates her first birthday in style, Zara and Chris sip champers in a VIP post match marquee; Ydele eyes up her fiancée Andrew in the Northern Ireland’s Sexiest Man Competition; Debby and Gerry walk the red carpet at an Awards do, whilst Julie’s husband Rod acts as bodyguard to the stars.

Programme 4 goes on holiday with the Wags – to Puerto Banus with Lauren and her galpals, to Las Vegas with model Zara and her footballer Chris, and to Majorca where Debby and Gerry Armstrong visit exclusive stores to kit out their new villa.

Programme 5 sees the Wags at home and at work as Lauren prepares to launch her new hair extensions business, Zara goes for a big modelling casting, Lisa does the buying and styling for a fashion show, Teacher Ydele takes to the pitch with the school hockey team, Debby closes some property deals in Majorca, Julie’s on an air hostess training course at Luton Airport and Leeanne turns businesslike for her high-powered job as a solicitor.

Programme 6 is all about weddings – gorgeous dresses, flowers, proposals, photographs, massive rings and a rummage through the family archive for those unforgettable and oh-so-embarrassing wedding videos.

And what makes this series that bit different – and well informed – is the fact that producer/director Veronica Cunningham knows the territory extremely well. She is married to Ulster rugby full back Bryn Cunningham.


Produced & directed by Veronica Cunningham
Executive Producers: Jannine Waddell (Waddell Media) & Fergus Keeling (BBC Northern Ireland)

NORTHERN IRELAND WAGS starts on BBC One Northern Ireland on Friday 2nd May 2008 at 9.30pm