Republic of Doyle ‘love song’ to St. John’s
Changes coming in fourth season, creator says
Jake’s thing is keeping the Republic of Doyle safe for the average Newfoundlander. But Allan Hawco, who plays Jake Doyle and created the character and the show around him, said change is inevitable as the CBC-TV series enters its fourth season. Not only is it airing on a new day, moving to Sunday from Wednesday, but there are also new challenges for the characters.
“It’s partly about the boy becoming a man,” said the 35-year-old actor who was in Toronto this week promoting the show’s fourth-season debut Sunday at 9 p.m.
“The fun element of Jake is that he acts without thinking. But that’s not me. I tend to over-think things.”
Set on the streets, back alleys and waterfront of St. John’s, Hawco’s hometown, Republic of Doyle is not your typical police procedural. It bristles with everything Newfoundland, from the salt in the air to the salt in the humour.
And it’s private eye Jake Doyle who sets himself the task of trying to keep a lid on some of the crime. He’s helped by city police officer, and serious love interest, Sgt. Leslie Bennett, played by Krystin Pellerin.
“It’s fun to watch the character of Jake go through all the changes,” Hawco said. “We know he doesn’t want to live that way all his life, and he knows it, too.”
The humour of Republic of Doyle comes from the sometimes childish and self-centred antics of its hero.
“What comes with his impulsiveness is a sense of mischief and a tendency to live in the moment.”
That won’t suddenly disappear as the characters move on in the fourth season. But Mal Doyle (Sean McGinley), Jake’s father, has been exonerated of the murder charge that haunted him through Season 3, and there are other challenges to the Doyle clan of private investigators.
The opening episode finds Pellerin’s Sgt. Bennett embarking on a dangerous undercover mission.
“My character goes to a really dark and gritty place and it was really exciting to play that,” Pellerin said.
For both Hawco and Pellerin, who are native Newfoundlanders, it is essential that St. John’s and the province be represented with honesty and integrity.
“More than anything,” Pellerin said, “Newfoundland should be represented authentically. The real spirit of the place and its people must come through.”
Jake, said Hawco, is as Newfoundland as can be. “He loves where he’s from, he has no interest in living anywhere else and he has no interest in being anywhere else.”
Republic of Doyle is in a small way a chance for everyday Canadians to visit the Rock.
“I’ve always thought of the show as a kind of love song to St. John’s,” Hawco said. “Our country is a mass of land with 30 million people spread across a huge area. Not a lot of people in Windsor, not a lot of people in Victoria or anywhere get to go to St. John’s. And the same’s true of St. John’s. Not a lot of people there get to go to other parts of Canada. It’s an opportunity and a privilege to share it with the rest of the country.”