Single-Handed is an Irish television drama series, first broadcast on RTÉ Television in 2007. Set and filmed in the west of Ireland, it focuses on the life of a member of the Garda Síochána, Sergeant Jack Driscoll. Three two-episode, single-story series aired one each on consecutive nights in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Series Four, consisting of three stories told over six episodes, began in RTÉ One November 2010. The series is partially inspired by garda corruption in County Donegal.
Production
The first series was shot in October 2006. It was directed by Colm McCarthy; the second and third by Antony Byrne. Barry Simner wrote the screenplay. It was co-produced by Touchpaper Television Productions and Element Pictures. Clare Alan also produced the third series. In 2009, all three series were broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV, as double-length, two-hour episodes on three consecutive Sundays, from 2–16 August. Series 4 began broadcasting on RTÉ One on Sunday, 7 November 2010. It was shown in the UK on ITV from Thursday, 14 July 2011.
Casting
was given the lead role of Garda Sergeant Jack Driscoll after receiving a call from casting director Maureen Hughes. Appearing onstage in The Lieutenant of Inishmore in the Town Hall, Galway at the time, McDonnell, alongside two other cast members, left for Dublin to read a script for the original Single-Handed director Colm McCarthy. He was given the lead role one day later.
Reception
The series has been consistently popular in Ireland since its first broadcast, with the first series receiving a 40% audience share. However, leading actor Owen McDonnell has been able to escape a significant increase in recognition by the general public as, according to him, "once you're out of the uniform you're fairly anonymous".
Irish Critics
Positive reviews
John Boland, writing in the Irish Independent, praised the original Single-Handed for its "taut and suggestive" screenplay. Heralding it as "the real deal" and "that rare oddity—an RTE drama that works" and drawing comparisons to the Roman Polanski film Chinatown, he said "it didn't lose its nerve by resorting to far-fetched plot twists or ludicrous melodrama". Boland's report on the sequel indicated his view that it "wasn't as arresting as its predecessor but it was a superior drama all the same". Boland viewed Single-Handed: The Drowning Man as also being a "superior drama" whilst "a sense of place was arrestingly captured, too".
Negative reviews
Gavin Corbett, writing in the Sunday Tribune, dismissed the original series as "an uninspired piece of writing brought to some sort of lugubrious half-life, superficially engaging for a while, but growing more and more ponderous and pofaced the longer it went on over its two nights". Patrick Freyne, also writing in the Sunday Tribune, called Single-Handed 3 "all puffed up with a melodramatic 'I-can't-believe-it's-not-drama' form of drama in which people glare at one another, shout, are unhelpfully abrasive for no reason, and give each other symbolic bullets".
British reception
The UK debut of Single-Handed received 4 million viewers which is a large viewership number.
Positive reviews
The Daily Telegraph, a broadsheet in the UK, said Single-Handed was "distinctly classy" and "not soft-centred. In fact it's more like biting into an apple only to find there's a worm in it". The regional newspaper, Leicester Mercury, remarked that it "confounds expectations from the very beginning", saying "it was dark, not dreary. And slow, not stupid. There wasn't even a hint of Irish whimsy about it. No-one's eyes twinkled, humorously. No fiddly jigs and reels drifted from the pub. And no-one—praise be—mentioned the damned craic".
Negative reviews
When Single-Handed eventually aired in the UK in 2009, Boland noted the reactions of the British newspaper critics, remarking satirically on how "The Guardians Sam Wollaston and The Independents Tom Sutcliffe couldn't contain their surprise that dark doings lurked behind the 'stunning scenery' of this Irish Hoirtbeat. Faith and, lads, shure we're even in the EU".
Criticism
Owen McDonnell has been criticised for suggesting that alcoholism and depression are widespread in Connemara.
Single-Handed received one nomination at the Irish Film and Television Awards in 2008. It was nominated in the Drama Series/Soap category but lost to The Tudors.
Single Handed 3: The Drowning Man received two nominations at the Seoul International Drama Awards. Anthony Byrne was nominated in the Best Director category and Barry Simner was nominated in the Best Writer category.
Episodes
Episodes
Title
Director
Writer
Original air date
Overseas
Under the name "Jack Driscoll," the series was aired at least twice in Denmark on the primary Public Service channel DR 1. The episodes have been put together in manner customary for Danish TV series, and therefore have a length of around 90 to 100 minutes. In Finland the national broadcaster Yle aired the first three seasons during 2017–2018. The second run was in the spring/summer of 2020, now with the ending fourth season. In Finland "Single Handed" goes under the name "Vastavirtaan", meaning Against the Current, depicting Jack Driscoll's task as a righteous man against the darkness lurking behind the rugged mountain and coast scenery. The typical viewer slot is the same as with many other gloomy Britt-based police drama: late in the Saturday evening. As usual, too, the episodes are cut in halves, so that part 1/2 and 2/2 are aired in consecutive Saturdays, making one season six episodes together, then continuing staight with the next season.
