I think it's safe to say the Assembly election campaign is well and truly underway at this stage.

Welcome to the first of our Red Lines constituency profile podcasts between now and May the 5th.

We'll be looking in detail at each and every one of the 18 constituencies in the company of a panel of experts

who'll be highlighting the issues and the personalities likely to influence the outcome of the vote in seven weeks time.

David McCann, the Deputy Editor of Slugger O'Toole, will be our resident number cruncher for this series of programmes.

And today, he's joined by Dr. Claire Rice from the University of Liverpool and our political correspondent, Gareth Gordon.

Later, we'll focus on Upper Ban and Yuri and Armagh,

but we begin with what could well prove to be one of the most intriguing

and hotly contested constituencies of them all, and that's Lagan Valley.

And David, this one is so interesting because it's a real bellwether for three,

if not four, of the main five parties. Absolutely. So the fifth

seat there is that it's the third most marginal

in Northern Ireland. Pat Cattany of the SDLP

took it in a slight

surprise win last time

from the DUP. He holds it by

a margin of just 400 votes and

the DEP will, if

they're looking to make a gain anywhere if they're looking to make a gain anywhere, if they're looking

to buttress themselves anywhere, it could, it would be this constituency.

It is the home constituency, of course, Jeffrey Donaldson, the party leader and also the former

party leader, Edwin Puts.

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