Irish Crime Drama 'Blackshore' Coming to Acorn TV
Lisa Dwan as DI Fia Lucey in 'Blackshore'
Acorn TV/RTE
Cozy crime series tend to fall under one of three primary tropes. There's the "Secretly a Romance" series, where the "will they or won't they" of the detectives is the key to liking it, think Silent Witness since Season 14; the "Found Family" series, which are ensemble shows like Grantchester; and the "Detective Goes Home, Solves Crimes," such as Lucy Lawless' My Life Is Murder. Acorn TV has several of each type: Madame Blanc and Miss Fisher, for the romantics; The Chelsea Detective and Inspector Ellis for found families. Whitstable Pearl has been the highest profile of the "Detective Goes Home" set, now Acorn adds another show where the investigator in question is protecting the streets they grew up on with Blackshore.
The series, which debuted in Ireland in early 2024 before being picked up in the U.K., has a couple of points of note that make it stand out from the pack. First, it's an Irish-set series, with an all-Irish cast, produced by Ireland's public TV station, RTE. Second, the cop in question is not going home due to a nervous breakdown or an ailing family member, or losing sleep over old relationships that moved on in the intervening years. Played by the ferocious Lisa Dwan, DI Fia Lucey is busted down from her position of a big city detective — bust down so hard she gets sent to her hometown — due to violently beating the crap out of an assailant. She's not sweet, friendly, or lovelorn.
Lucey's an old school grumpy cop, the kind who goes to the pub with a book and glares at anyone who tries to talk to her until they back all the way up. It's a refreshing take on the trope; check out the trailer.
Here's the series' synopsis:
The picture postcard town of Blackwater might be idyllic for some, but it’s hell on earth for DI Fia Lucey. Facing disciplinary charges for assaulting a violent criminal, Fia has reluctantly returned home to a town she left many years before. She starts investigating the recent disappearance of hotelier Roisin Hurley, a case everyone else seems strangely reluctant to pursue. After Roisin’s body is pulled out of the lake, sordid secrets emerge. Could there be a connection between these shocking crimes and the traumatic events of Fia’s childhood?
Dwan (Bloodlands) costars alongside Rory Keenan (War & Peace), Jade Jordan (Kin), Amy De Bhrún (Sanctuary: A Witch's Tale), Stanley Townsend (Becoming Elizabeth), Andrew Bennett (The Quiet Girl), Aidan McArdle (Mr. Selfridge), Barry McGovern (The Tudors), and Dara Devaney (Dead Shot).
Series creator Kate O’Riordan (The Spanish Princess) was lead writer on the series with Tom Farrelly, Marcus Fleming, Sonya Kelly, and Nessa Wrafter. Director Dathaí Keane (The Gone) helmed all six episodes with Rebecca O'Flanagan and Robert Walpole producing. Filming locations included Killaloe, County Clare and Ballina, County Tipperary. The series was executive produced by O'Riordan and Keane, alongside Andrew Morrissey, Michael Parke, Dermot Horan, Andrew Byrne, and David Crean.
Blackshore debuts with a two-episode premiere on Acorn TV on Monday, March 10, 2025, with one a week on Mondays to follow through mid-April.
