Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Iain Glen, Nora Jane Noone, Killian Scott, Niall Buggy, Colm Ward, Kathleen Rayner, Aine Ni Mhuiri, Fionn Walton, Michael Burton, Thomas O’ Suilleabhain, Ann Marie Horan, David Murray, Roisin Loughlane, Sonya O’ Donohue, Emma Eliza Regan, Eoin Bourke, John Cronin, Muirann Ryan, Orla Bell.

Jack Taylor may have been one of the surprise television hits in 2013, however it shouldn’t have been a surprise, not when you have the unique picturesque Galway in Ireland giving a great setting, one of the most bankable television actors in Iain Glen in the lead and a series of two hours stories that reek of danger and possible menace that isn’t available in programmes such as Morse, Lewis, Shetland or any number of British detective programmes. In any other way, Jack Taylor would be as lauded as any.

Perhaps it is more to do with the matchless, incomparable way in which Ireland, it’s politics and religious beliefs, is still viewed in many ways as either uncomfortable, exotic or awkward to some this side of the Irish Sea. The reason for its success, which is surely due to the peerless writing and the way Iain Glen captures the very essence of the ex-Garda man. The new series couldn’t have got off to a better start than a story that could have been played out with John Thaw investigating the same murder in the dreaming spires of Oxford. When a production can match the efforts of one of the finest detective programmes of the last 40 years then it surely must be a must see.

Asked to investigate the apparent death of a young student, Jack Taylor finds himself drawn into a world of drama, of long dreamed of plots and also without the benefit of alcohol as he is now six months sober. Some detectives, whether on the force  or acting as a lone gum shoe for hire need a small libation in which to grease the wheels of thought for a while. In Jack Taylor’s case it is refreshing to see an investigator realise his downfall is only a small bottle a way.

Any story-line involving the use of drugs, especially heroin, can be emotive; it brings out the very dirty side in any investigation. When the drug is forced upon those who are to die, whether they have tried it before or not, it makes the case even more horrific. It can make a viewer shake their head as they try to understand the appeal. The same can be said for a long drawn out plan of murder.

In a world where the impact of the Irish community in the U.K. is to be celebrated, Jack Taylor is a shining example of the broad interest in the country that many millions have developed over the last thirty years. Iain Glen is enormously watchable as Jack Taylor.

Ian D. Hall