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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. - There’s no doubt who the top gun is on the new CBC-TV show "Republic of Doyle." The peppy P.I. drama, proudly based in this picturesque city, is the brainchild of Allan Hawco, with the busy young actor serving as producer, writer and star. He plays Jake Doyle, a charismatic loose cannon who has spun a brief stint as a cop into a private-eye business. The series, premiering Wednesday, is a bit of a throwback to the good old gun-and-car capers like "The Rockford Files" and "Magnum, P.I." Hawco, however, has a partner behind the wheel of Jake’s honey of a ride (a blue 1968 Pontiac GTO). It is Sean McGinley, a veteran Irish stage actor who plays Jake’s no-nonsense dad, Malachy Doyle. Malachy is a world-weary type, himself an ex-cop with a much longer and more distinguished service record. He sees his younger self in Jake’s seat-of-the-pants style, and doesn’t like what he sees. On screen, McGinley crackles with an edge that only a stern dad could impose on his scamp of a son. The dialogue between Jake and Malachy sizzles with sarcasm and pointed one-liners, with each giving as good as he gets. Hawco is thrilled with their chemistry both on-screen and off, saying McGinley is the most low-maintenance actor he’s ever met. "I’m a better actor every time I’m with him," says Hawco. That’s good, because it took a while to land this Malachy. Hawco originally envisioned local hero Gordon Pinsent in the role, but the actor was booked (he does turn up later in the season as a guest star). A pilot was shot with East Coast actor Peter MacNeill in the part, but a better fit was ordered for the series. Enter McGinley, a standout at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. He had to sneak away for a few weeks during the "Doyle" production run to keep an Abbey commitment. Off-screen, McGinley seems nothing like his easily agitated character. A soft-spoken, humble man, he is quick to praise Hawco for keeping his head in the mad world that is Canadian television. "He carries a heavy burden very lightly," says McGinley, interviewed in a veterans hall outside St. John’s, a temporary base of operations for that day’s shoot. "I’ve never seen him lose it, not once." He has observed how Hawco and his co-producers, Rob Blackie and John Vatcher, enjoy "incredible solidarity." "I don’t think they’re afraid of each other. They trust each other completely," says McGinley. Sure, "Doyle" has had a few "hiccups and bumps" along the way, he says (including a lost week when Hawco came down with the swine flu), but McGinley says he’s worked in enough dysfunctional situations in the past to know when people are "getting it right." McGinley, who spent his first decade as an actor performing only on stage, says "walking on to a film set for the first time 20 years ago almost to the day was the biggest shock of my life." The film was "The Field," directed by Jim Sheridan. "My first day on a film set and I’m doing a scene with Richard Harris," says McGinley. Even into his 60s, Harris was a "very imposing man, six-foot-four, lean, gangly, athletic." Fortunately, McGinley says, they made an instant connection and the great man took him under his wing. "He didn’t perceive me as any kind of a threat." McGinley feels a great affinity toward Newfoundland, a place he had never visited prior to landing this part. "I came with an open mind and early on was struck by the strong sense of identity with the place," he says. "People here are very happy in their own skin, like few places around the world." He laments that that is vanishing somewhat in his native Ireland. As for the father-son give-and-take between Jake and Malachy, that comes naturally. "I’m sure there are elements of my own father," says McGinley. The actor says he and his dad, who passed away a few years ago, got along better after McGinley left home. "I used to rib him a lot," says McGinley, who admits his dad wasn’t too happy with his son’s decision to pursue an acting career. "I trained as a teacher, did a teacher’s degree," says McGinley, who, well into his stage days, would get letters from his dad with ads for teaching jobs circled along with a note about a good word having already been put in. "I think I dodged a bullet in terms of not being a teacher," says McGinley, "and I think a lot of kids did, too." - While in St. John’s, Bill Brioux was a guest of the CBC. Top of Page |
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September 2, 2010, 8:22 am |