A chat with Irish star Owen McDonnell (VIDEO)

A policeman's patch usually covers a neighbourhood, a town, perhaps even a county, but in ITV1's new drama Single Handed young copper Jack Driscoll appears to be covering half of Ireland... After an indiscretion with a senior officer's wife in the city, Jack, a sergeant with the Garda in Ireland, is posted back to the community on the west coast of Ireland where he grew up. And while he tries to rebuild his life and career in the shadow of his overbearing father and massive patch, he's immediately plunged into the thick of a major mystery when the body of a young woman is found in a remote caravan. Jack's played by rising Irish star, Owen McDonnell, 34, who's new to UK TV audiences. He says: "I knew it was a fantastic opportunity. When I read the first episode I'd never done any television before. They took a risk with me and I just didn't want to let anyone down so I worked my a** off... I didn't think about it till afterwards that if I was rubbish then all these 60-70 people around me were wasting their time!" Did they waste their time? You can decide when three-part series Single Handed premieres on ITV1 on Sunday, August 2. In the meantime, watch an interview with Single Handed star Owen McDonnell

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.