Synopsis

Jack and Darragh are hired by the head of a large software company to find out who has stolen valuable games data from the company. Jack takes an liking to the main suspect, but when she is killed, Jack suspects his employer and vows to bring him down. Meanwhile, the private eye is annoyed to discover that Kate is in a fledgling relationship with an old schoolmate.

Reviews

Jack doesn’t strike us as a man who’d like computer games, but our hero is this time hired by the boss of a software company to find out who’s been stealing their valuable data. Jack, of course, takes an immediate liking to the main suspect, Skyler. When she’s killed, Jack reckons her employer is responsible and vows to bring him down. Jack’s personal life again takes a turn for the worse as the recovering Kate annoyingly begins a relationship with an old flame.

TV Times

Glen is at the top of his game in Jack Taylor, one of the most intriguing detectives on TV.

Credits

Iain Glen

Jack Taylor

Siobhán O’Kelly

Kate Noonan

Jack Monaghan

Darragh Noonan

Christopher Fulford

Mason

Laura Aikman

Kelly

Sean Mahon

Tom Farrell

Sarah Jane Seymour

Skyler

David Herlihy

Mr. Egan

Peter Campion

Anthony Bradford-Hemple

Erin Gilgen

Debbie

Rory Fleck Byrne

Alan

Conor Quinlan

Ivan

Eva-Jane Gaffney

Fiona

Cian Ó Baoill

Aidan

James O’Sullivan

Nick

Patrick O’Brien

Francis

Cathal Pendred

Xavier

Writer

Marteinn Thorrison

Director

Charlie McCarthy

Cinematography

Billy Keady

Producer

Paul Cummins

Synopsis

A troubled young man is kidnapped, seemingly for ransom from his wealthy parents, who have hired for the case a cocky London investigator. When the victim’s severed finger is separately sent to his girlfriend, she approaches Jack for help – even though the man and Jack have some very murky shared history. In the meantime, Kate has to face a personal struggle of her own.

Reviews

The evil in anyone’s heart can grow, can manifest to the point where they become unrecognisable to themselves as well as to others. The fate of many becoming a secondary thought to the battle that rages between the one who has lost their mind and the person they want to seek retribution against, the Nemesis will claim many lives.
Iain Glen arguably gives his optimum performance in the series overall in this particular episode, the range of emotions he is forced to go through, from the realisation of the stirrings of love for Kate, through to horror of being deprived of a digit, of being considered untrustworthy, of not trusting his own gut feeling to realise that something was terribly wrong in the situation that he found himself in and the dawning concern that all is not well in his world; all of these aspects made Iain Glen’s performance one of fulfilled enjoyment.
The question should be asked exactly who is the Nemesis in Jack Taylor’s life, with a sense of trepidation in the air, it should perhaps be noted that whilst there are many in the Galway area that could take claim to be enough of an enemy of the former detective, there are none that truly get in the way of the man’s happiness than Taylor himself. It is the far reaching aspect of the series that makes the continued issues, the negativity of his life more palatable, more honest, to the viewer and their sense of enjoyment in the writing.
With Jack Monaghan coming into the series with big strides, the spark between dogged detective and clever but addicted to danger student is one that carries the situation on to great heights and with Christopher Fulford adding superb weight to the story line as the bitter former British detective, Nemesis is by far the most superior of all the stories recorded for television.
A disturbing look at the violence that resides in the hearts of those that are cruelly left to fend for themselves, those that feel let down, not only by society but those they trust or trusted; violence can be inherent but as Nemesis shows it can also be learned with severity. Rating * * * * *

Liverpool Sound, Ian D. Hall

Iain Glen is brilliant as troubled Jack Taylor, one of TV’s best private eyes. This time Jack is asked to find a former nemesis who has been kidnapped and held to ransom. Jack always finds himself attracted to trouble and things look no different here as he faces a race against time to track down the kidnappers.

TV Times

In this week’s instalment of the Irish noir thriller, Jack (Iain Glen) is on the hunt for a former nemesis who’s been kidnapped and held for ransom, and it’s a race against time to find him, whether he likes it or not. But there’s an obstacle in a rival private eye, the tough-as-old-boots James Mason (Christopher Fulford). The two cross paths. And swords. Elsewhere, Jack’s new assistant is worth his weight in gold.

Credits

Iain Glen

Jack Taylor

Siobhán O’Kelly

Kate Noonan

Jack Monaghan

Darragh Noonan

Christopher Fulford

Mason

Ian Beattie

David Meyers

Fiona Bell

Brenda Meyers

Diarmuid Noyes

Ronan Meyers

Roisin O’Neill

Bethany

Peter Campion

Anthony Bradford-Hemple

Simon Boyle

Jimmy Bennett

Barbara Adair

Sara Bennett

Garrett Keogh

Supt. Ned Whelan

Hilary Bowen-Walsh

Girl at Till

Deborah Wiseman

Receptionist

Paraic Breathnach

Father Malachy

Synopsis

Jack is asked by Kate to meet with the family of a young man that is murdered by crucifixion. The killing sparks a series of biblical retributions and revenge attacks.

Reviews

To take and consider revenge is the point where lives become meaningless, that you may as well take the whole Human Race with you in a blaze of remorseless fury for the want of practising the harder emotion of forgiveness. To want revenge is natural, it is perhaps inherent in us all but to actually physically take a life for a slight, for an accident which robbed you of someone you loved; the question being could you truly want to keep perpetuating the agony and pain just to satisfy blood lust.
The return of the dark but enjoyable Private Detective, the gum shoe of Galway, Jack Taylor opened up its third series with the notion of revenge, of the never ending cycle of ill will in the dramatic and emotionally stirring Cross. Not everything is as it ever seems in Galway, the reminders of a past way of life are never far from the surface, the prospect of punishment dealt out by the gang a thought perhaps that symbolises the point of blood being thicker than water, and whilst a retribution from those with clubs and knives is bad, the castigation from a relative for not adhering and sticking to the family line is infinitely worse.
With the superb Killian Scott enjoying success elsewhere on television, it is only right that his character, Cody Farraher, is left to find his own way to pastures new and in his place is an actor who does the role of sidekick to Jack Taylor just as much justice that Killian Scott brought to the role. Jack Monaghan’s Darragh is something different though, not a trace of the wide eyed expectancy, of the hero worship and eventual downfall that would become Cody, instead this a man hardened by blood in a different way, whose inner peace and reflection, his lust for danger could lead Jack into more jeopardy than at any time in his life.
The point of revenge always becomes lost, some find it hard to let go of some parts of their lives, Jack Taylor is not immune to that struggle and as he balances the issues surrounding both families that have become embroiled in a war that was avoidable, so to must he find a way to reconcile his own feelings against something that his hurting his best friend.
A welcome return for one of the most interesting detectives, gritty, damaged and dark, Jack Taylor finally breaks the monotony that had settled in on television during 2016.

Liverpool Sound, Ian D. Hall

Iain Glen is back as the hard drinking Galway sleuth, tackling cases his old Guard pals won’t touch with a bargepole. In this one, a guy has been found crucified – can you blame them? The killing sparks a series of biblical retributions and revenge attacks. Jack Monaghan and Siobhan O’Kelly co-star.

Daily Express

Iain Glen returns as the world weary Irish investigator in this enjoyable nourish drama. Taylor (Glen) and keen new assistant Darragh (Jack Monaghan) are caught up in the death of a young man found crucified and the vengeful fallout from the killing.

Daily Telegraph

It’s a great twisting script and the charismatic Iain Glen is brilliant as Jack in a drama packed with delicious dark humour.

TV Times

Made more than watchable by the stark beauty of Ireland’s west coast and Iain Glen as the maverick whiskey quaffing ex policeman.

The Independent

A combination of beguiling Galway locations and the wizened charms of Iain Glen make two hours I the company of Jack Taylor as comforting as an ice cold Guinness. Since we last met him, ex-cop Jack has cleaned up his act and acquired a new side kick, but his knack for stumbling into tricky cases remains undiminished: fist up, a killing with disturbingly Biblical overtones.

Metro, Keith Watson

This Irish-made crime drama leans heavily on the considerable charms
Of Iain Glen as its gnarly hero. Jack is a whiskey loving ex-cop who wanders the streets of Galway like a shaggy old lion patrolling his patch. But Jack is no longer the shambles he used to be. He has come into money and moved into a neat pad with a coffee machine and leather sofas. He also picks up a keen young side kick: Darragh is the cousin of his Garda contact and sometimes love interest Kate. He is a surprising combination of ex-con and herbal tea-drinking Buddhist. It shouldn’t work but it does.

Radio Times

Credits

Iain Glen

Jack Taylor

Siobhán O’Kelly

Kate Noonan

Jack Monaghan

Darragh Noonan

Killian Scott

Cody Farraher

Elva Trill

Gail Mitchell

Ross McKinney

Sean Mitchell

Alan McKee

Bob Mitchell

Deirdre Monaghan

Nora Mitchell

Shane Robinson

Rory Willis

Michèle Forbes

Mary Willis

Enda Oates

Dan Willis

Sinead Watters

Aisling

Des Carney

Gary

Paraic Breathnach

Father Malachy

Garrett Keogh

Supt. Ned Whelan

Lalor Roddy

Padraic

Marteinn Thorisson

Writer

Stuart Orme

Director

Bill Keady

Cinematographer

Paul Cummins

Producer

Synopsis

The opening of the last in this first series finds a guilt-ridden Jack on the outskirts of Dublin where he meets a girl from the travelling community who might have witnessed her mother’s murderer. The Irish Guards, prejudiced against the Travellers and their rival clans, are only barely interested. Jack takes up their cause. The answers seem to lie in the little girl. But she remains silent. What is she hiding? Did she identify the murderer? Is her life in danger? Jack’s investigations lead him into a dangerous world of blood feuds and drug trafficking.

Reviews

The last in this short run of gripping dramas finds a guilt-ridden Jack on the outskirts of Dublin where he meets a girl from the travelling community who might have witnessed her mother’s murderer. Is the killing part of a long-standing fed among the travellers?

The Mirror

The award-winning Scottish actor Iain Glen stars in another gritty murder mystery in the last of the current series based on Ken Bruen’s acclaimed crime novels set in Ireland. Blaming himself for the shooting of his partner and friend Cody, the alcoholic ex-Garda is desperate to keep away from Galway and distract himself from his own anguish. On the outskirts of Dublin he finds himself in the middle of a Traveller’s feud as he tries to unlock the mind of a young girl who witnessed her mother’s murder.

The Mail

These adaptations have been A-Class all the way through.

The Daily Express

Credits

Iain Glen

Jack Taylor

Nora-Jane Noone

Kate Noonan

Killian Scott

Cody Farraher

Hazel Doupe

Róisín Mangan

Garrett Keogh

Ned Whelan

Barbara Bergin

Kathleen Mangan

Martin ‘Beans’ Ward

Jimmy

Michael Collins

Sweeper Mangan

Karl Shiels

Eddie ‘Slaps’ Mangan

Emmet Kirwan

Ron Bryson

Eamonn Hunt

Jonjo Kelly

Stephen Cromwell

Hugh Kelly

Mark Butler

Christy Flynn

Ruth Magill

Sinead Mangan

Donna Dent

Bridie

Rúaidhrí Conroy

Mikey

David O’Meara

Harry

Stuart Orme

Director

Marteinn Thorisson

Writer

Ralph Christians

Producer

David Collins

Producer

Ciaran McKeon

Cinematographer

Synopsis

A priest who had just returned from 20 years of working overseas is found beheaded in his church. Father Malachy confesses to Jack that now he himself fears for his life and reveals a tragic story about the murdered priest. The latter had committed a terrible deed before being moved overseas – Father Malachy suspects an act of revenge. After the discovery of another dead body the Guards think they found the priest-murderer. But for Jack and Cody too many questions remain unanswered.

Reviews

When people ask me what sort of crime fiction I like I always reply ‘local’. I am not particularly interested in people being killed in innovatively gory ways. Nor am I that bothered about solving a puzzle or for that matter the fine detail of forensic investigation. For me a crime is a symptom, a boil on the face of a sick society and it’s the societies that I am really interested in. I like Nordic crime because it tells me something about life in Scandinavian. Ditto Chinese, French, Swiss-German, Mongolian crime thrillers, all of which grace my bookshelves. I’ll shortly be adding some novels by Ken Bruen, whose Jack Taylor series is making for great viewing right now. These stories are not much about fear or fantastically cunning plots as describing an absolutely unique place. Taylor, an ex-cop turned private eye, hangs out in the small city of Galway. People know him there, he is forever bumping into friends and foes from his past. The same themes trickle through every tale like the ever present rain.: the power of the priests, the “Celtic Tiger” boom years gone sour, the drink, the bigotry and the poetry. James Joyce, the famous novelist, who spent most of his life painstakingly describing what was wrong with Ireland while not living there , would have liked Jack Taylor. Last night’s tale, The Priest, was particularly seeped in local detail. Father Royce, a very bad Priest indeed, was found murdered in a church after returning to Ireland after a long exile in Boston. Suspicion fell on the boys he’d abused decades ago.: now troubled men., one was a heroin addict with assorted criminal convictions, the other a rising star of the new recovering business world. In away that ‘s typical of Bruen’s tales, Taylor (Iain Glen) suffered almost as much with his investigation: not one goes by it seems, in which he doesn’t sustain life threatening injuries, lose a loved one or permanently part company with a dear friend. In this one the grizzled ex-policeman couldn’t see eye to eye with his usually rather slow witted assistant Cody (Killian Scott) who perhaps for once had better instincts than his boss. It always works out in the end but you feel every mystery brings Taylor closer to the great pub in the sky.

Daily Express, Matt Baylis

Thrones star Iain Glen is immensely watchable as the troubled ex-copper who goes looking for clues others have missed. Here he investigates the possible revenge killing of a priest.

Daily Mirror

When Father Royce returns to Galway following two decades of overseas duty, he rather unluckily finds himself the victim of decapitation. Jack is called to investigate and it soon becomes clear that several former members of Royce’s congregation have been anticipating an opportunity to get even with the clergyman since his emigration., leading to some uneasy confessions for the priest’s former conspirators. Extracting the truth from a world of fiercly protected ecumenical secrets proves to be a tricky task.

The Guardian

Credits

Iain Glen

Jack Taylor

Killian Scott

Cody Farraher

Nora-Jane Noone

Kate Noonan

Midie Corcoran

Jeff

Paraic Breathnach

Father Malachy

John Kavanagh

Father Royce

Ingrid Craigie

Una Tracy

Lovis Baum

Young Michael

Dion Arensmann

Young Tom

Ronan Leahy

Michael Clark

Eithne Ní Enrí

Mrs. Clare

Nina Borey

Clare Daughter #1

Pippa Borey

Clare Daughter #2

Valerie O’Connor

Nuala

Chris Connors

Hoodie 2

Aaron Monaghan

Tom Reed

Gary Hetzler

Brian

Martin Linnane

Business Man

Fionn O’Shea

Peter Gannon

Gavin Drea

Christian Tracey

Andreas Krämer

Two Rings

Ray Quinn

Barman

Jakob Benkhofer

Young Father Malachy

Jana Ibing

Young Una Tracey

Tammy O’Leary

News Anchor

Susanne Schrader

Female Cleaner

Stuart Orme

Director

Marteinn Thorisson

Writer

Ken Bruen

Original Novelist

Ralph Christians

Producer

Edwina Forkin

Producer

Synopsis

Iain Glen returns, playing troubled ex-cop Jack Taylor, who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. In the first of three, feature length films, adapted from Ken Bruen’s best-selling crime novels, Jack’s interest is aroused when a young student falls to hear death from a university roof. Traces of Morphine are found in her blood. At first it’s assumed her death was a tragic suicide. But her professor is adamant she would never have taken her own life and asks Jack to investigate.

As always hard-drinking Jack, who amazingly has been on the wagon for six months, is keen to get stuck into the case and enlists the help of a former colleague Kate. His trademark rookie methods and meticulous attention to detail immediately start getting results when he makes a literary connection from a piece of paper found tied around the students wrist to a quotation from the great Irish dramatist JM. Synge. As Galway born Jack probes deeper into what happened a second student is found dead. There is a particularly bizarre and horrible ending to this intriguing mystery.

Reviews

Where would writers of murder thrillers be without academic settings and literary allusions to lend their tales of brutality an air of intellectual profundity. Iain Glen returned as Galway City’s maverick gumshoe, a recovering alcoholic who used to be a Garda., and found himself instantly immersed in a tale soaked in thhe richness of Irish mythology. JM Synge’s Deidre Of The Sorrows rippled through the plot like blood pulsing in a vein. No surprise that novelist Ken Bruen, who’s stories inspired the series, used to be an English Teacher. Quotes from Synge’s play were scrawled all over this tale, titled The Dramatist, which had Glen’s shambling yet well-read sleuth tangling with Galway’s alarmingly psychotic academic elite, a bunch who specialized in gross moral turpitude. A PhD in Synge would have helped to get all the references. At heart though, this was a good old fashioned revenge tail, lifted a cut above by Glen’s finely judged turn as eloquent Taylor and it’s sharp take on modern Ireland. Glen is at the top of his game in Jack Taylor, one of the most intriguing detectives on TV. He’s a man who can even get away with the line “when I trust people, shit tends to happen.” Can’t quite see Synge penning that one.

Metro, Keith Watson

Ken Bruen’s novels brought here to winning life by Iain Glen as Jack, do as the best do, which is to say nothing particularly different, just better.
The ending was a true shocker, the acting and story had a sheen of extra class, and Glen, with his big ex-Gardai coat and big deep broth of an accent (I’m no expert on the Galway demotic and stand correctable, but I loved it, particularly the way in which his pronunciation of “hesh” made the drug, perhaps rightly, sound like sweeties) elevated it to a mesmeric 90 minutes. I used to watch, not unjealously, in my school-uniform drinking days in the Antiquary, deep in the bowels of Edinburgh’s St Stephen Street, Nicky Campbell and Iain Glen, best friends possessed of a slightly more expensive school and slightly too in preening love with their individual selves, as is the way with 17-year-olds. And occasionally wondered in my odd way what would become of them as men. I’m unjealously delighted to report that both seem to be making quite the grand fist of things.

The Observer, Euan Ferguson

Based on the novels of Ken Bruen, the first series of this Irish crime drama was a bit of a hit for Channel 5. Back for a second run of three episodes, it stars Iain Glen as the eponymous hero, a maverick former Garda turned private investigator, a trouble herd-drinking loner who takes on cases that the police won’t touch. Thanks to a pithy script and Glen’s convincing performance this is more like a homage to Hollywood noir.

Daily Mail

Gripping.

The Observer, Mike Bradley

Credits

Iain Glen

Jack Taylor

Killian Scott

Cody Farraher

Nora-Jane Noone

Garda Kate Noonan

Niall Buggy

Prof. Gorman

Michael Burton

Packie

John Cronin

Rory

Ann Marie Horan

Lynda Farraher

Roisin Loughlane

Girl

Klaus Lüninghake

Coroner’s Assistant

Aine Ni Mhuiri

Mrs. Taylor

David Murray

Prof. Doyle

Sonya O’Donoghue

Sheena

Tomas O’Suilleabhain

Griffin

Kathleen Rayner

Sarah Bradley

Emma Eliza Regan

Karen

Muireann Ryan

Isolde

Fionn Walton

Ronan Meyers

Colm Ward

Drunk Boy

Orla Bell

Uniformed Garda

Eoin Bourke

Handsome Student

Stuart Orme

Director

Marcus Fleming

Writer

Ralph Christians

Producer

Edwina Forkin

Producer

Stuart Orme

Producer

PJ Dillon

Cinematography

Synopsis

Galway Private Eye Jack Taylor is hired by the daughter of a former inmate of the infamous Magdalen Laundries to find the identity of a nun, known only as Lucifer, so called for the pleasure she took in torturing those in her care.

But files that would have shown her identity are missing from Church Records and Jack is immediately warned off further investigation by local hard man Bill Cassell. The threat serves only as red rag to a bull. As the mystery deepens it seems someone is out to avenge themselves on Lucifer by killing those she holds most dear. It’s a race against time for Jack to discover the nun’s identity and stop the clinically executed murders.

Reviews

In this latest episode, a harrowing tale involving former inmates of the notorious Magdalen Laundries, the script went deeper, telling us why Jack’s mother Mary is such a difficult woman who finds it so hard to love. Novels go into that sort of detail but when they’re adapted for TV, it’s often left out in favour of sex and violence. Not here. Another reason why these adaptations have been A-class all the way through.

Daily Express, Matt Baylis

In tonight’s episode of these sharply observed, well acted stories Jack, wonderfully played by Iain Glen, is hired to find a nun who tortured her charges at one of the infamous Irish laundries.

Daily Mail

It’s the last case for Ken Bruen’s gruff, drunken, foul-mouthed detective with a heart of bile, Jack Taylor (Iain Glen), as he’s hired by the daughter of a victim to track down the nun who terrorised her mother. As ever there’s a complication; and this time it’s personal. Expect lots of bleak Irish atmosphere and razor sharp one-liners from the ever-eloquent Taylor.

The Daily Telegraph

Credits

Iain Glen

Jack Taylor

Nora-Jane Noone

Kate Noonan

Killian Scott

Cody Farraher

Muireann Bird

Geraldine

Paraic Breathnach

Father Malachy

Josie Carlin

Mary – Young

Liam Carney

Bill Cassell

Midie Corcoran

Jeff

Nick Lee

Detective Kavanagh

Stella McCusker

Rita Monroe

Orla McGovern

Eileen Flood

Aine Ni Mhuiri

Mrs. Taylor

Síghle Ní Chonail

Mrs. Bailey

Darine Ní Dhonnchadha

Maggie McCarthy

Sarah O’Toole

Lucifer

Eoin Thornton

Seamus Flood

Stuart Orme

Director

Clodagh Freeman

Producer

Ralph Christians

Exec Producer

Marteinn Thorisson

Writer

John Conway

Cinematography

Synopsis

Jack Taylor returns to Galway after a year away. He is clean, sober and determined to stay out of trouble.

But when the father of a man who was brutally murdered asks Jack to take on the case, he finds it difficult to refuse. Jack soon uncovers a group of vigilantes calling themselves The Pikemen. Local men who are sick of what Galway has become and want to return to the old ways; a safe city, governed by the Twelve Tribes, who meted out justice to anyone who overstepped their appointed mark. Jack is pushed to the brink with the dawning realisation that the only way to gain justice is by doing the very thing that so enrages him – to exact a self-prescribed vengeance. Will Jack become a Pikeman himself?

Reviews

This is a gem from the emerald isle. Can there be a more brooding private eye on television these days than the melancholic Irishman JACK TAYLOR. Somehow I doubt it. For those of us never happier than when watching a good murder mystery, this was true. This gem of an episode managed to pull off something else with great success. For we met a youthful, would-be PI in the shape of Cody (Killian Scott) who hero-worships Jack and wanted to work with him.

It could have been toe-curling but was actually rather touching as Jack initially rejected him then decided he might as well put him to good use and finally accepted him when the lad done good.

This was a darkly atmospheric thriller, with an imperfect anti-hero at its centre, brilliantly played by Iain Glen. “I need protection!” one bad guy implored him. “Check the Yellow Pages,” growled Jack before hitting the bottle for the umpteenth time.

Daily Express, Virginia Blackburn

The second of six impressive, gritty dramas based on the novels of Irish writer Ken Bruen finds troubled ex-cop Jack Taylor returning to Galway a year after walking away – as he says, enigmatically, ‘without looking back’. But if our antihero decided that ‘wild horses couldn’t drag me back’, what has him returning now? What starts out intended to be a lightning visit quickly becomes more protracted, as Jack finds himself entangled with a violent vigilante gang as his past catches up with him. Though initially repelled by their take on justice, he soon realises that he may not be so different after all. And if you can’t beat them, perhaps you should join them?

Daily Mail

Iain Glen at his finest with a brilliant script.

The People

Iain Glen is terrific here as Galway private eye Jack Taylor. This thriller is beautiful to look at and well played …the perfect diversion for a cold Friday night.

The Australian, Ian Cuthbertson

Credits

Iain Glen

Jack Taylor

Nora-Jane Noone

Kate Noonan

Killian Scott

Cody Farraher

Paraic Breathnach

Father Malachy

Tara Breathnach

Ann Henderson

Nick Lee

Detective Kavanagh

Stuart Graham

Tim Caffrey

Frank O’Sullivan

Superintendent Clancy

Ann Marie Horan

Mrs. Farraher

Sam Keeley

Frankie

Eamonn Draper

Mr. O Shea

Moya Farrelly

Sorcha

Dessie Gallagher

Ted

Ann Marie Horan

Mrs. Farraher

Aine Ni Mhuiri

Mrs. Taylor

Síghle Ní Chonail

Mrs. Bailey

Frank O’Sullivan

Superintendent Clancy

Paul Valentine

Detective 2

Camille Yourell

Drug Dealer

Stuart Orme

Director

Clodagh Freeman

Producer

Ralph Christians

Exec Producer

Marteinn Thorisson

Writer

John Conway

Cinematography

Synopsis

Set in and around Galway on Ireland’s rugged western coast, Ken Bruen’s bestselling novels leap to life in this series of TV movies featuring the straight-shooting, big-hearted Jack Taylor.

He used to be a cop with a minor drinking habit. Now he’s a private eye with a major habit for getting into trouble. Still reeling from the global economic crisis, Galway offers the perfect backdrop for criminal activity. And for those untouched by the economic downfall, there’s still enough criminal energy fermenting since the 60s and 70s, when the traditional social and political fabric of Ireland came apart, leaving rifts that still plague the country today. Taylor’s cases reflect these upheavals, and lead him to the very abyss of human malevolence and evil…

The Guards is the opening film. When beautiful Anne Henderson comes into Jack’s local pub and asks him to find her missing daughter, he is taken into the seedy underbelly of Galway’s middle-class. Four girl’s bodies turn up in the river. Jack’s paratrooper friend Sutton washes up in Galway too. And when Jack’s surrogate father and barman dies in mysterious circumstances, everything he believes in begins to unravel, making Jack question those closest to him.

Reviews

WHEN you visit much of Ireland, it’s easy to sense the wariness its novelists once wrote about, which came from years of answering questions usually posed by a soldier with a pointed weapon, though seemingly it was non-existent in the gorgeous university city of Galway when I visited a few years ago. I found it a place of civic facelifts, new luxury apartments, refurbished hotels that shimmered like mirages, where even the tinkers had moved from caravans to houses, set amid ancient views, soporific and mesmerising.

In Ireland, they reckon the greatest sin is to have ideas above your station, to “lose the run of yourself’’. Galway, when I was there at least, was full of self-esteem, confident, smart and a bit raffish. As with so much of Ireland then, the new exploded with colour, energy and folly.

How wrong I was, the whole caboodle undermined in recent years by the European economic downturn and a black underbelly firmly entrenched, to judge by this great crime series being revived tonight. It’s based on the novels of acclaimed Irish crime novelist Ken Bruen, whose overriding preoccupation is the dark side of Ireland’s recent economic prosperity and the legacy it bequeathed, as well as the death of the old ways.

Bruen’s central character is Jack Taylor, a Galway Guard-turned-PI, played by Scottish actor Iain Glen, husky-voiced and red-eyed from drink, one of the most enjoyably irresponsible characters doing the mean streets. In the series’ first episode “The Guards”, Anne Henderson (Tara Breathnach) comes into Jack´s local pub to ask him to find her missing daughter after the bodies of three young women wash up in the river. The word is suicide but Henderson fears one of them may be her daughter. Before long, Jack is submerged in the grimy secret lives of Galway´s outwardly respectable middle-class citizens, teaming up with an old paratrooper mate, though, like many boozers, he’s hardly a good judge of character.

For me, one of the delights of the series is the Galway accent, which is full of a love of words, for their sounds.

The Australian, Graeme Blundell, June 11th 2014

Starring the charismatic Iain Glen and stylishly shot amid Galway’s starkly beautiful landscape, this gritty fast-paced series had me gripped from the first episode. With his rugged, lived-in face, heavy drinking habit, and hard-grained integrity, Jack Taylor evoked Raymond Chandler’s classic privet-eye antiheroes, but with a unique Irish flavor. This is a totally compelling production, of the very highest quality.

TV Guide

It’s a great twisting script and the charismatic Iain Glen is brilliant as Jack in a drama packed with delicious dark humour.

TV Times

The ever watchable Iain Glen stars as hot- headed policeman turned private investigator Jack Taylor in the first of a series of feature- length dramas based on the books by Ken Bruen. Having been kicked out of the Garda – Ireland’s police – for punching the lights out of a government minister, Taylor’s scratching a living when we first catch up with him roaming the streets of Galway. Or, roaming the pubs to be more precise. Taylor’s fondness for a drop of the hard stuff means his judgment’s a touch wobbly in a case involving an old artist mate, a missing teenage girl and a glamorous woman interested in taking down his particulars.

Metro, Carol Carter and Larushka Ivan-Zadeh

THERE is a new TV investigator on the block. Not quite the “new kid” as actor Iain Glen is now in his middle youth but Jack Taylor (Channel 5, Thursday) is undoubtedly a contender for one of the hardest private eyes we’ve seen on the television. Ray Winstone would even run away from him.

Sunday Express, David Stephenson

This new series brings Ken Bruen’s hard-boiled detective to the small screen. Jack Taylor (the always excellent Iain Glen) is a disheveled boozy detective with a soft side, who takes on cases that the Garda won’t touch. Tonight’s opener introduces us to the dark, seedy underbelly of Galway as Taylor goes on the hunt for a missing girl.

The Telegraph

One of the drawbacks of the current fad for moody European crime dramas is the subtitles. If you don’t speak a Scandinavian language, you’re going to spend half your time following the words at the bottom and not enjoying what the writer, director and actors want you to be enjoying further up the screen. The splendidly rain-soaked Jack Taylor : The Guards offers fresh hope, with a series of English-speaking crime stories (based on the Ken Bruen novels) set on the far western edge of the continent, in Galway. Centre stage is a gumshoe every bit as hard-bitten as the wettest, chilliest Swedish policeman, the eponymous Jack Taylor (Iain Glen). . . Jack’s city comes over as one just clinging on to Europe by the tips of its fingers, forever blasted by Atlantic gales, biting recessions and assorted scandals. The latest pulled Jack in when his old mate, Sutton, an ex-paratrooper, sailed into town, seemingly now making a decent wage as a rather bad artist. There were of course a few things fishier than Sutton’s paintings going on in Galway at the time, not least a string of young girls apparently committing suicide by drowning in the same spot and a mysterious wealthy woman who’d hired Jack to look for a daughter who didn’t seem to have existed. A plot thicker than Jack’s mum’s Irish stew saw the sleuth pitted against businessmen, police and, finally, close allies, although in the best of noir traditions Jack’s most formidable foe was always himself.I’ve never been sure what the Gaelic word craic means. It seems to be a concept for the walls of fake Irish pubs and ads for the tourist board. If, on the other hand, it means utter absorption in something thoroughly entertaining, Jack Taylor’s your man.

Daily Express, Matt Baylis

Credits

Iain Glen

Jack Taylor

Ralph Brown

Sutton

Tara Breathnach

Anne Henderson

Nora-Jane Noone

Kate

Frank O’Sullivan

Clancy

Paraic Breathnach

Father Malachy

David Heap

Lampert

Seamus Hughes

Young Guarda

Aine Ni Mhuiri

Mrs Taylor

Bill Murphy

Ford

Lalor Roddy

Padraic

Marcus Seoige

Garda

Stuart Orme

Director

Clodagh Freeman

Producer

Ralph Christians

Exec Producer

Tom Collins

Writer

Anne McCabe

Writer

John Conway

Cinematography