For anyone who is Irish, who grew up in the 1960-70's, the Quirke series is like getting a flashback to the time that our parents came of age. For all of us, there was a dark overhanging gloom that we had nothing to do with but had to fight against. That dark gloom is aptly described here.Lately, a whole lot of attention is given to the impending retirement of Daniel Day-Lewis. He is a great Irish actor but I haven't even seen the last three movies that he has been in. Gabriel Byrne, on the other hand, is the actor whose work I do follow. He has mastered the role of the Everyman, faced with all of the sorrow and joy of life, and the negotiation in between. I have never seen him in a role that disappoints, and he is certainly worth watching in the Quirke series.I wish that the series could be continued, especially because Irish social history needs that kind of exploration, with exactly the kind of character that Gabriel Byrne delivers in the Quirke series.I'm giving it 10 out of 10 because it's a great work that has no reliance on anything but the acting performances delivered. It's as if everyone involved had sat down together and agreed about exactly what to do. That kind of intimacy is usually only possible with stage performances. Somehow, the cast and crew of Quirke have managed to achieve that.There is no reason to not watch all three episodes of Quirke, against a multitude of reasons to sit, watch and study. You'll be glad that you can say that you saw it.

Someone said I should post my comment as a review, so here goes...There are so many procedurals,and cop shows out there,doing the same thing over and over again. This is not one of those regular TV- shows. Crime plays a part of course, but more than that, this is a series that is driven by character development. For each crime we also delve deeper into Quirke's family relations and history. There is a logical development in the way the story is built,so that the plots of the different episodes combine into a whole. And consequences are far from as clean cut, as it would have been in an ordinary cop-show. I have tremendous respect for Gabriel Byrne and Michael Gambon as actors, and I think this material may well have provided the foundation for some of the best acting of their career. The supporting cast is also uniformly excellent, and that nearly all actors in this series is Irish, also makes it that much more convincing.I enjoyed the mood set by the music,and the portrayal of the era. From Smoke-filled streets and bars, to the clothes they use, the cars they drive, and all the small details that make up this wonderful mini-series.

The new BBC drama 'Quirke' takes us into postwar Ireland - seedy, drunken, dominated by the twin evils of the church and the wealthy and corrupt. It's a somewhat clichéd view, made palatable by the series' muted tone, although at times in the first episode I struggled to follow the softly spoken dialogue and relatively (for a murder drama) understated plot. Unlike many such series, there's an overall narrative as well as individual stories; the fact that Quirke's niece has a separate, personal connection to all three murders reduces the overall plausibility. The cast is an impressive one, but the scripts don't really call on them to do anything extraordinary; the detail with which their characters' feelings are observed is often weaker than its symbolic depiction (endless booze and cigarettes). To me, 'Quirke' fell between two stools: too low-key and gloomy to be fun family entertainment, but not truly deep either.

How low is the lowest common denominator in this. John Banville seemed to me to be a writer of Ireland past and present that you might learn something from. Holy mother of God, Quirke is terrible. I've never seen such a transparent plot line, such poor and shallow acting from stellar marquee names, so many faux hospital passes. Can I write the next episode - just gotta check Wikipedia for some autopsy references and come up with a 'startling' revelation regarding a hard drinking long lost relative of some sort or the other and then mix it up with production values ranging from low to medium allied with an occasional exotic non-1950's sounding name and they're ye are Quirke , working title Dublin Dud.