Discuss Jack Irish
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Missing Specials
posted by avclubSTAFFMOD on July 20, 2022 at 1:10 PM
Adding a new season is locked, I can't add the 3 specials that aired on ABC (Australia):
- Bad Debts (14/10/2012)
- Black Tide (21/10/2012)
- Dead Point (13/04/2014)
ABC: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/jack-irish-specials Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/?curid=34074484
Please unlock or add, thanks.
Reply by a_watcher_of_things
on October 3, 2023 at 1:14 AM
Jack Irish was originally a four-book series by Peter Temple 1:
The original pitch for the Jack Irish telemovies were for "each being an adaptation of the four Jack Irish detective novels" 2. Then, in August 2011, the ABC announced it would be producing "two telemovies - Jack Irish: Bad Debts and Jack Irish: Black Tide" 3, based upon the two first books and released together the following year. Note they appear two movies under Jack Irish Specials on ABC iview 4. The third book, Jack Irish: Dead Point, was then produced as a third telemovie and subsequently released in 2014 2. It appears slightly differently on iview, still as a movie but as its own title 5.
Unfortunately, they didn't think the telemovie format worked particularly well - "We developed the six-parter because the telemovies presented a scheduling issue for the ABC too and also, from a marketing point of view, the broadcaster gets more bang for its buck over a six-week period than with a telemovie that comes and goes overnight" 2. So instead of developing the forth book into a telemovie, they switched formats to a six-part series, the first of which was based upon Jack Irish: White Dog 2. However, they felt there wasn't "enough storylines in the fourth Jack Irish book, White Dog, to sustain a six-part series so we sought permission from Peter to expand the story" 2, leading to the first series carrying no title (see later) with an expanded cast and storyline. As there were only four Jack Irish books written, series 2 was presumably an original story (The Age reported that series two was "inspired by the novels" of Peter Temple 6, who had passed by the time the second series aired, and I cannot find any evidence that Peter Temple had anything to do with the second series). Series three was released in 2021 for a last hurrah7 and put an end to the TV series. The three series originally didn't have names, but were retitled/subtitled (possibly the right word? 8) with 1-3 becoming Jack Irish: Blind Faith, Jack Irish: Last Rite and Jack Irish: Hell Bent. Note that since they were retitled/subtitled, TMDB keeps their original names of Series 1, Series 2 and Series 3.
I hope that history gives you an idea of the split between the telemovies and series and why it happened. So, as of now and the foreseeable future, the Jack Irish motion-picture adaptations are split into three telemovies and three television series. You can find each of them on TMDB here: