IrishIndependent: Article on Irish TV industry mentions 'Quirke', show will premiere 'in the autumn'
IrishIndependent: We're making a killing from TV's crime wave [Colin not mentioned]
The three 90-minute drama episodes will be shown on RTÉ and BBC in the autumn and Irish viewers may recognise the streetscapes around the Grand Canal, Baggot Street and the main set at Clancy Barracks.
"With Quirke, you have these wonderful, dark stories set in 1950s Dublin. It's just after the war, it is noir-ish, there will be some familiar elements to British viewers in particular, but again, it's coming from a slightly different angle.
[click to read]We're making a killing from TV's crime wave
The Irish TV industry is in the middle of a crime wave. While we're yet to produce a game-changing Scandinavian drama such as The Killing or The Bridge, we're becoming a go-to filming destination with many international networks and production companies making use of Irish locations, talent and studio facilities.
The industry here has already had some bumper years, thanks to productions like The Tudors, Game of Thrones, Camelot and now Vikings, a 10-part Irish-Canadian co-production for The History Channel and the first major production at the newly built Ballyhenry Studios in Ashford, Co Wicklow, constructed for a reported cost of €22m.
Historical dramas have been a very good fit for Ireland, thanks in part to our gorgeous landscape and easy-to-access locations (it helps to have the wilds of Wicklow or the coast of Antrim within easy reach of the five-star hotels of Dublin and Belfast).
But the newest wave of TV production here is now in crime drama, with the list of major series either in planning, currently in production or already on our screens growing all the time.
As one Irish producer, currently involved in a major BBC production shooting in Dublin, says, "the industry here has never been busier and it is almost all crime drama".
The roll-call includes the likes of The Fall, Ripper Street, Quirke and A Life of Crime, all international co-productions which will be shown in Ireland, the UK and further afield.
Belfast-set drama The Fall, starring Gillian Anderson of X-Files fame, has just been renewed by the BBC for a second season (after only two broadcast episodes).
With an average of 3.5 million viewers on BBC Two, The Fall has been the biggest drama to debut on the channel in eight years.
The first season was directed by rising Nordic Noir star Jakob Verbruggen, who is currently in talks with Oscar-winners Paul Haggis and Michael Nozik about his next project.
And series creator and writer Allan Cubitt says the Belfast setting lent The Fall a unique atmosphere that they might have struggled to find in London or Manchester.
"Some of the best crime dramas have a very strong sense of place. I think we got that with Belfast in a way we might have struggled to in, say, London, or if it had been mostly shot in a studio," says Cubitt.
"With crime drama, it's very difficult to find a new angle on London. But we haven't seen this kind of drama set in Belfast and with myself and Jakob as director coming to Northern Ireland as outsiders, we could approach it, in a way, as if we were setting it in Copenhagen or Stockholm.
"And Belfast has that sense of being familiar but different. It was a great experience for all us of there and the second season will be set back in Northern Ireland."
With The Fall already a success, another big-budget BBC crime drama - Quirke - has recently wrapped shooting in Ireland and is in post-production in Dublin and London.
Quirke stars Gabriel Byrne as the eponymous hero of the noir-ish John Banville novels (written under the pen-name Benjamin Black) about a city morgue pathologist in 1950s Dublin.
The three 90-minute drama episodes will be shown on RTÉ and BBC in the autumn and Irish viewers may recognise the streetscapes around the Grand Canal, Baggot Street and the main set at Clancy Barracks.
Quirke has been adapted from the books by Conor McPherson and Andrew Davies (one of the giants of British period drama) and is a co-production between Ireland's Element Pictures and Tyrone Productions and the BBC.
Ed Guiney of Element Pictures is an executive producer on Quirke - his company also co-produced Ripper Street, the period crime drama set in the foggy London streets of Jack the Ripper's era, but shot entirely in Dublin.
"Crime drama has always been a big part of TV schedules but there is just an insatiable appetite for it at the moment," says Guiney.
"And I think Ireland is benefiting for a number of reasons, firstly because the BBC and others want to take the dramas out into new locations, to give them a different feel and an atmosphere.
"With Quirke, you have these wonderful, dark stories set in 1950s Dublin. It's just after the war, it is noir-ish, there will be some familiar elements to British viewers in particular, but again, it's coming from a slightly different angle.
"The film industry in Ireland now is very strong. We have never been busier. And that means you have a great base of people who are working regularly in all areas, getting the skills and experience that we need."
The co-owner of Element Pictures says there are bottom-line factors that have helped.
"Favourable exchange rates at the moment are very important, especially to investors and partners coming from the US and UK," he says.
Our system of tax breaks for TV and film production (the much-talked about Section 481) have greatly aided the industry here.
However, this is where the one big cloud on the horizon for the film industry in Ireland hovers into view.
The UK Government, last year, introduced their own version of Section 481, a move which has seen major projects from US studios, in particular, move to Britain.
UK Chancellor George Osborne had been under severe pressure from industry figures in the UK who had claimed Ireland in particular had an unfair advantage.
"The new tax regime in the UK makes our job in getting productions and investment to Ireland more challenging, there's no point in pretending it doesn't," says Guiney.
"But the industry here never really took off in the way you might have expected it to during the boom and we have actually, almost in a strange way, done very well since the start of the recession.
"We are used to working in a very, very competitive international industry that is almost uniquely portable. I would be confident that we can continue to find success here."
The three 90-minute drama episodes will be shown on RTÉ and BBC in the autumn and Irish viewers may recognise the streetscapes around the Grand Canal, Baggot Street and the main set at Clancy Barracks.
"With Quirke, you have these wonderful, dark stories set in 1950s Dublin. It's just after the war, it is noir-ish, there will be some familiar elements to British viewers in particular, but again, it's coming from a slightly different angle.
[click to read]We're making a killing from TV's crime wave
The Irish TV industry is in the middle of a crime wave. While we're yet to produce a game-changing Scandinavian drama such as The Killing or The Bridge, we're becoming a go-to filming destination with many international networks and production companies making use of Irish locations, talent and studio facilities.
The industry here has already had some bumper years, thanks to productions like The Tudors, Game of Thrones, Camelot and now Vikings, a 10-part Irish-Canadian co-production for The History Channel and the first major production at the newly built Ballyhenry Studios in Ashford, Co Wicklow, constructed for a reported cost of €22m.
Historical dramas have been a very good fit for Ireland, thanks in part to our gorgeous landscape and easy-to-access locations (it helps to have the wilds of Wicklow or the coast of Antrim within easy reach of the five-star hotels of Dublin and Belfast).
But the newest wave of TV production here is now in crime drama, with the list of major series either in planning, currently in production or already on our screens growing all the time.
As one Irish producer, currently involved in a major BBC production shooting in Dublin, says, "the industry here has never been busier and it is almost all crime drama".
The roll-call includes the likes of The Fall, Ripper Street, Quirke and A Life of Crime, all international co-productions which will be shown in Ireland, the UK and further afield.
Belfast-set drama The Fall, starring Gillian Anderson of X-Files fame, has just been renewed by the BBC for a second season (after only two broadcast episodes).
With an average of 3.5 million viewers on BBC Two, The Fall has been the biggest drama to debut on the channel in eight years.
The first season was directed by rising Nordic Noir star Jakob Verbruggen, who is currently in talks with Oscar-winners Paul Haggis and Michael Nozik about his next project.
And series creator and writer Allan Cubitt says the Belfast setting lent The Fall a unique atmosphere that they might have struggled to find in London or Manchester.
"Some of the best crime dramas have a very strong sense of place. I think we got that with Belfast in a way we might have struggled to in, say, London, or if it had been mostly shot in a studio," says Cubitt.
"With crime drama, it's very difficult to find a new angle on London. But we haven't seen this kind of drama set in Belfast and with myself and Jakob as director coming to Northern Ireland as outsiders, we could approach it, in a way, as if we were setting it in Copenhagen or Stockholm.
"And Belfast has that sense of being familiar but different. It was a great experience for all us of there and the second season will be set back in Northern Ireland."
With The Fall already a success, another big-budget BBC crime drama - Quirke - has recently wrapped shooting in Ireland and is in post-production in Dublin and London.
Quirke stars Gabriel Byrne as the eponymous hero of the noir-ish John Banville novels (written under the pen-name Benjamin Black) about a city morgue pathologist in 1950s Dublin.
The three 90-minute drama episodes will be shown on RTÉ and BBC in the autumn and Irish viewers may recognise the streetscapes around the Grand Canal, Baggot Street and the main set at Clancy Barracks.
Quirke has been adapted from the books by Conor McPherson and Andrew Davies (one of the giants of British period drama) and is a co-production between Ireland's Element Pictures and Tyrone Productions and the BBC.
Ed Guiney of Element Pictures is an executive producer on Quirke - his company also co-produced Ripper Street, the period crime drama set in the foggy London streets of Jack the Ripper's era, but shot entirely in Dublin.
"Crime drama has always been a big part of TV schedules but there is just an insatiable appetite for it at the moment," says Guiney.
"And I think Ireland is benefiting for a number of reasons, firstly because the BBC and others want to take the dramas out into new locations, to give them a different feel and an atmosphere.
"With Quirke, you have these wonderful, dark stories set in 1950s Dublin. It's just after the war, it is noir-ish, there will be some familiar elements to British viewers in particular, but again, it's coming from a slightly different angle.
"The film industry in Ireland now is very strong. We have never been busier. And that means you have a great base of people who are working regularly in all areas, getting the skills and experience that we need."
The co-owner of Element Pictures says there are bottom-line factors that have helped.
"Favourable exchange rates at the moment are very important, especially to investors and partners coming from the US and UK," he says.
Our system of tax breaks for TV and film production (the much-talked about Section 481) have greatly aided the industry here.
However, this is where the one big cloud on the horizon for the film industry in Ireland hovers into view.
The UK Government, last year, introduced their own version of Section 481, a move which has seen major projects from US studios, in particular, move to Britain.
UK Chancellor George Osborne had been under severe pressure from industry figures in the UK who had claimed Ireland in particular had an unfair advantage.
"The new tax regime in the UK makes our job in getting productions and investment to Ireland more challenging, there's no point in pretending it doesn't," says Guiney.
"But the industry here never really took off in the way you might have expected it to during the boom and we have actually, almost in a strange way, done very well since the start of the recession.
"We are used to working in a very, very competitive international industry that is almost uniquely portable. I would be confident that we can continue to find success here."