Single-Handed

Jack Driscoll (Owen McDonnell) is transferred from Dublin back to his birthplace in the remote west of Ireland as Garda Sergeant, the role recently vacated by his father, Gerry (Ian McElhinney).

Single-Handed was first transmitted on RTE and subsequently shown on ITV1 in Summer 2009. Six more hours, filmed on location in Connemara in 2010, produced by Clare Alan, are due to transmit on ITV1 from Thursday 14th July 2011.

Series 1

Garda Sergeant Jack Driscoll (Owen McDonnell) has just been posted to the remote coast of West Ireland - the area where he was born and raised. His first case concerns the mystery surrounding the death of Sylvana, a young immigrant. His efforts to find out who she is and why she died lead him into the dark heart of the local community, revealing shocking secrets that threaten to engulf everyone, including his own father Gerry (Ian McElhinney). Jack must summon all his courage to bring the law to a place which has lived by a different set of rules.

Single-Handed was shot on Hi-Def, on location in Connemara, County Galway, in October 2006, and following its March broadcast it has been recommisioned for a second 2 x 60’ series.

Series 2

Garda Sergeant Jack Driscoll (Owen McDonnell) is back for another investigation in the Single-Handed Series.

JACK is handed charge of the search for a toddler snatched from his home by his estranged father after a county-wide search is scaled down. As concern for the boy mounts, JACK’S new lover, local GP, DR MAGGIE HUNTER (Caroline Catz), becomes embroiled in the investigation, putting their relationship under increasing strain.

Meanwhile, a national Tribunal into allegations of police corruption has reached this remote corner of Western Ireland, and Jack’s father, former Garda Sergeant GERRY DRISCOLL (Ian McElhinney) has been called to account. He’s running rings around the lawyers until Garda FINBARR COLVIN (David Herlihy) inadvertently drops him in it. Gerry’s life is further complicated when an unwanted ghost from the past, MALACHY DORAN (Mark Lambert), turns up. Over thirty years ago, Gerry accused MALACHY of child molestation and chased him out of town.

Jacks’s diligence and compassion ultimately crack the case but he still has a lot to learn about his father on the way.

Single-Handed 2 was filmed in Connemara, Co.Galway, in October 2007, on Hi Def.

Credits
Written by Barry Simner
Directed by Anthony Byrne
Produced by Clare Alan
Executive Producer Rob Pursey

Series 3

A national undercover operation into a drug trafficking ring brings death and destruction to Jack Driscoll’s district of Connemara.

When GARDA SERGEANT JACK DRISCOLL (Owen McDonnell) receives a midnight call to investigate activity on an isolated beach, he unwittingly stumbles into the middle of a Dublin run undercover drugs operation.

Jack’s search for justice for Daniel O’Mally, the youngest son of a local trawlerman, who dies in his arms that night, meets resistance from the Dublin detectives as they seek to bring down the bigger National prize of the drug traffickers.

To complicate matters, MAURA DOOLEY (Marcella Plunkett), the love of Jack’s life, and the reason he was forced to leave Dublin, is one of the undercover operatives.

When Jack uncovers evidence that the undercover operation has a mole he becomes CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT LYNCH’S (Michael McElhatton) only hope of bringing the traffickers to justice.

Credits
Written by Barry Simner
Directed by Anthony Byrne
Produced by Clare Alan
Executive Producer Rob Pursey

Series 4

Owen McDonnell reprises his role as police sergeant Jack Driscoll in six more hours of the critically acclaimed drama Single-Handed.

This series will see Jack Driscoll (Owen McDonnell) facing new challenges as he continues the lonely role of policing his rural terrain in the West of Ireland. Jack lives above the Garda station now. His deputy, Finbarr Colvin (David Herlihy) is opportunistic and venal which often leaves Jack working single-handed with back-up a very long way away.

There are many occasions when there is no time for the due legal process; natural justice is what Jack has to impose. And that is when he is morally tested. The community is watching him…and judging him.

While Jack continues to delve into the secret life – and past – of his Connemara community in order to solve crimes he also has cause to look into his own family secrets. Matthew McNulty joins the cast as Brian Doyle, a cousin Jack never knew existed. Brought up in England, Brian returns to Ireland to discover the truth about his family. Simone Lahbib is Brian's girlfriend, Gemma who joins him on his voyage of discovery and finds herself drawn to staying in Connemara for her own reasons.

Sean McGinley is Costello, a retired Guard who has taken over Mallon's bar but has more sinister ambitions and readily exploits former police colleagues in a bid to undermine Jack. And award-winning actor Stephen Rea guest stars in the first two-parter.

Credits
Written by Barry Simner, Colin Teevan, Clive Bradley
Directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan and Charlie McCarthy
Cinematography by Darran Tiernan
Production Design by Derek Wallace
Music by Niall Byrne
Produced by Clare Alan
Executive Producer Rob Pursey

Regular Cast
Owen McDonnell, Simone Lahbib, Matthew McNulty, David Herlihy, Sean McGinley, Ruth McCabe

Guest Stars Stephen Rea, Diarmuid Noyes, Cathy Belton, Conor Mullen, Denis Conway, Lorcan Cranitch, Charlie Murphy

Barry Simner talks about the inspiration for his story in the new series Peter Tyrell and 'The Lost Boys'

'The Lost Boys', like our three previous stories in the series, shows Jack Driscoll unearthing painful secrets in a small community on the West of Ireland. Irish themes but common to all of us: the desire to find out who we are and where we’re from; the agony that comes from finding out.

In April 1967 the body of a man who’d burnt himself alive was found on Hampstead Heath. I was a student nearby and the death troubled me. Who was this man? What had driven him to such a terrible end?

Our unit base for the first series was the old Industrial School in Letterfrack. I’d heard stories of its brutal regime, talked to locals, visited the place where the bodies of children who’d died in the ‘care’ of The Christian Brothers lay in unmarked graves. Then I came across a remarkable book. ‘Founded on Fear’ is Peter Tyrrells’s vivid account of a tormented childhood spent at Letterfrack.

The manuscript was found among the papers of social reformer, Owen Skeffington. Despite repeated attempts in the 60’s, Skeffington failed to find a publisher and the manuscript was lost till after his death. Nothing was known of the author apart from one clue: a half-torn card found with the body of a man who’d burned himself alive on Hampstead Heath. Here was the man whose death had haunted me for forty years.

Peter Tyrrell was a brave man determined to talk about the most extreme institutional child abuse at a time when no one would listen. He turned his suffering into a moving and dignified testimony, was finally crushed by its constant rejection, and died a lonely and painful death a long way from home.

A police drama might not seem a suitable place to tell Peter’s story; it’s certainly not the place to give him any sort of justice. Thousands suffered under that system but Peter’s story is the inspiration for the first two hours in this series and Stephen Rea’s performance as Sean Doyle captures his dignity and his quiet heroism. “The Lost Boys” is dedicated to Peter Tyrrell.