Showrunner spent year in Long Kesh after RUC man was shot dead in Rathcoole in 1974 Ronan Bennett attends the UK premiere of The Day Of The Jackal in London A screenwriter who was wrongly convicted of an IRA murder has broken the record for viewing figures on Sky TV — with a series about an assassin. The Day of the Jackal, starring Eddie Redmayne and based on the Frederick Forsyth novel of the same name, has been written and created by Belfast-born Ronan Bennett..
