''Harrigan'' (also known as ''Detective Harrigan'') is a British

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

film, written by Arthur McKenzie and directed by Vince Woods, that premiered on 20 August 2013. Set in 1974, the film stars

Stephen Tompkinson Stephen Phillip Tompkinson (born 15 October 1965) is an English actor, known for his television roles as Marcus in '' Chancer '' (1990), Damien Day in ''Drop the Dead Donkey'' (1990–1998), Father Peter Clifford in ''Ballykissangel'' (1996–9 ...

as DS Barry Harrigan, a no-nonsense copper driven by the sudden death of his wife and daughter at the hands of a vicious local thug. ''Harrigan'' was released on DVD on 13 January 2014.

Plot

After returning from secondment to

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, DS Barry Harrigan (

) finds that an old adversary, Dunstan ( Craig Conway), a local gang leader who was responsible for the death of his wife and daughter in an arson attack, is targeting a young mother, Vickey Frizell (

Amy Manson Amy Manson (born 9 September 1985) is a Scottish actress. She has portrayed Alice Guppy in ''Torchwood'', Abby Evans in '' Casualty'', Lizzie Siddal in ''Desperate Romantics'', Daisy Hannigan-Spiteri in '' Being Human'', Medea in ''Atlantis'' ...

) and her two children. After managing to help Vickey out of trouble, Harrigan makes it his personal mission to clean up

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

's most notorious estate, the Monkshire, by reopening the former police section house in a bid to rid the city of Dunstan and his associates once and for all.

Cast

as DS Barry Harrigan *

Gillian Kearney Gillian Louise Kearney

as DS Bridie Wheland *

Maurice Roëves John Maurice Roëves (; 19 March 1937 – 14 July 2020) was a British actor. He appeared in over 120 film and television roles, in both the United Kingdom and the United States. His breakthrough performance was as Stephen Dedalus in the 1967 f ...

as Billy Davidson * Mark Stobbart as DI Larson *

Darren Morfitt Darren Morfitt (born 12 September 1973) is an English actor who has appeared in ''55 Degrees North'', '' Grafters'', ''Dalziel and Pascoe'', '' Warriors'', '' Making Waves'', ''The Government Inspector'' and the cult werewolf movie '' Dog Soldi ...

as DC Swift * Bill Fellows as DS Colin Moss * Jamie Cho as PC Lau *

as Vickey Frizell * Craig Conway as Dunstan * Ronnie Fox as Cole * Steven Hillman as Stringer * Ian Whyte as Ronnie * John Bowler as Vince Jenkins *

Shaun Prendergast Shaun Prendergast (born 1958) is an English actor and writer. Career He was born in North Shields and holds a BA Hons from Bretton Hall College. He was an actor and playwright in residence for Northumberland Theatre Company before joining the ...

as Ch. Supt. Atkins * Mike Elliot as DC Alan Trimble * Dan Styles as Scott *

Val McLane Val McLane (born Valerie Bradford25 February 1943 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland) is an English actress, scriptwriter, director and teacher. Her younger brother is actor and musician Jimmy Nail. McLane founded the Live Theatre Company ...

as Lily * Niek Versteeg as Gary Cole

Production

''Harrigan'' was filmed on location in Gateshead,

and

Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...

during January and February 2012, and was originally intended to be the pilot for a potentially ongoing television series. The character of Harrigan was based upon writer Arthur McKenzie, who served as a policeman in

during the 1960s and 1970s.

Reception

''Harrigan'' holds a 14% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, on the basis of seven reviews with an average score of 4/10. Notably, the ''

Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...

'' commented that "there are few surprises in this cliché-ridden plucky effort that may have been better as a television production."

References

External links

* * {{Rotten Tomatoes, harrigan 2013 films British crime films Films set in 1974 2013 crime films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films