Star Trek favorite Kate Mulgrew is leading an Irish TV series about a hard-nosed New York cop in Ireland from Blue Lights producer Two Cities Television.
Mulgrew, who is also known for playing Red in Orange is the New Black, is starring opposite Colm Meaney (Gangs of London) in The Yank for Irish pubcaster RTÉ.
The series is set on the west coast of Ireland and sees seasoned NYPD detective Nora Savage take a career break following a traumatic event and moving to her family home. Expecting a change of pace, Nora is unexpectedly pulled into a murder investigation involving a female climate activist. As the investigation builds to a tense and savage climax, it pushes Nora and the squad into a thrilling hunt for the killer.
The Yank is writer Eithne Verling’s first television drama script and was created specifically for Mulgrew after the pair had a chance meeting in Galway while the actor was on holiday. John Connors (The Gentlemen, Irish Blood), India Mullen (Normal People, Under Salt Marsh), Cillian O’Sullivan (Daredevil: Born Again, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) and Jack Rowan (A Town Called Malice, Wreck) star alongside Mulgrew and Meaney.
Americans in Ireland have provided a rich well of story ideas in the past. Most recently, Sky made Small Town, Big Story about a Hollywood producer who goes to Ireland, which starred Christina Hendricks and Paddy Considine.
Mulgrew said: “The Yank was borne out of my love for Ireland, and the luck and perspicacity I have enjoyed when it came to knowing who will matter to me both emotionally and creatively. That person is Eithne Verling, and the character we contrived is Nora Savage – a woman very like myself, had I been slashed with grief, blessed with raw courage and born a natural hunter of that which destroys. The Yank is the intriguing and unexpected story of a woman who has nothing to lose, and her obsessive attraction to what lies beneath.”
The Yank is a co-production between STV Studios-backed Two Cities, which also makes the BBC’s Northern Ireland cop drama Blue Lights, Keeper Pictures, and AS I AM Productions, commissioned by RTÉ Head of Drama, David Crean. Executive producers for RTÉ are Crean and Dermot Horan (Director of Acquisitions and Co-productions). Executive producer for Screen Ireland is Kate McColgan. The directors are Joe Lawler and Christine Molloy (Baltimore, Kin), and the Director of Photography is James Mather (These Sacred Vows, Kin). The Yank is produced for RTÉ in partnership with Fís Eireann/Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán and uFund; and in association with ITV Studios, which is distributor for the series outside of the Republic of Ireland.
