John Banville's crime series hero could have been written for the lugubrious features of Gabriel Byrne. We're in familiar territory, but noir with a capital N and handsomely mounted. 50s Dublin and 50s Boston probably never looked this good but who cares when it's 90 minutes of pure escapism and Byrne's craggy features?
Quirke is a man of mystery and lots of alcohol. In common with his fellow crime protagonists he has no discernible first name, comes from shady origins and has suffered loss and loneliness. He has enough of the Marlowesque about him to enliven proceedings, however, and this first of three feature-length tales starts very close to home, with Quirke's complicated family. He finds his adoptive brother in his path lab late one night, forging a death certificate of a young woman, and this leads to a chain of violence and disclosure of old family secrets involving hidden identities and the brutal treatment of young, pregnant women. From these basic ingredients, Banville's story weaves a mesmerising spell. If the next two are as good as this, Quirke must be here to stay.
Apparently "very loosely based on" 'A Very British Coup', a book previously dramatised with the late Ray McAnally in 1988. This seems to have more in common, on the strength of the first episode, with a 1985 film also starring a young Gabriel Byrne, albeit as poacher rather than nominal gamekeeper, 'Defence of the Realm'. One of those stodgy, ponderous, chase-the-zeitgeist conspiracy thrillers that thrive on shots of the scared and sinister in the corridors of power and dingy back-alley rendezvous. This has the usual cast of characters. Gabriel Byrne is Tom Dawkins, Deputy Prime Minister who finds himself in very deep, dark waters after an explosion at the Petrofex chemical plant and the death of the Prime Minister, Charles Flyte (Tobias Menzies) in a mysterious plane crash. Yes, nice mix of Charles Ryder and Sebastian Flyte to represent the establishment. A host of known faces portray the other usual characters: Charles Dance, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Lia Williams and Rupert Graves as shadowy, power-hungry ministers; Gina McKee as the journalist investigating corruption and cover-ups; Douglas Hodge as the jaded, alcoholic ex-MI5er.
Tom has a a history as a soldier in Bosnia and a self-possessed, bruised ex-wife (Sophie Ward). After faltering faith in the government, a new poll suggests that he is a popular new leader, which makes his colleagues wary and even more distrustful of him. Unknown to him, GCHQ are listening in to his every conversation with both the press and the pathologist, who has found high levels of toxicity in the explosion victims, and ends up hanging from the ceiling of his lab.
Worth watching just for Byrne's craggy face, which holds such gravitas it wouldn't be out of place on Mount Rushmore. Also great to see Ruth Negga back onscreen after her revelatory tour-de-force as Shirley Bassey. As for the story, you don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to be sure that greed and self-interest frequently outweigh any nobler and compassionate concerns where global corporations and elements of government are concerned. It's just a wonder that after having been a cliche for so long, it's still in the news as well as drama, and accepted by a voting public.
