BBC  (1 x 60 mins)

2008 RTS Nominee

Why bother burning a bra - women's darts is an equally liberating force. Every week hundreds of women leave their personal problems at home and for one night only concentrate on “double top”...

This intimate film follows the lives of the working class women that make up the players in the North Belfast League; women that for many years have been the unsung heroes of a tough community.

We will meet Lilian - the referee and mother figure to many of the women. She takes us into her inner city life and through female eyes she shows us some of the problems that the women on her team face in contemporary Northern Ireland.

We meet Katherine – single mum and reigning champion of the coveted 'Individuals Cup'. Darts is in her family. Her mother taught her how to play and her grandmother – whom we meet in the film – was one of the founder members of the women's darts league back in the 1960s. But will she hold unto the cup this year? We meet her as she struggles with an array of difficult personal problems and the death of a loved one.

We also meet sisters Julie and Mandy who are totally and utterly obsessed with darts. They spend every spare penny of their savings on trips to England to the World Premier League Darts matches to meet their heroes. Their houses and clothes are covered in Darts memorabilia. We follow them on one of their pilgrimages to Blackpool to meet the World Champion Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor.

The pain and tragedy that the women suffer in their private lives is juxtaposed against the humour and fun of the 'girls nights out' at the darts.

Bullseye Belles is a powerful, unique and intimate portrait through female eyes of life inside working class Belfast - a community described by Lillian as “tough but tender”.