Star Trek: Voyager actress Kate Mulgrew will play the lead role in new RTÉ six-part crime thriller, The Yank.
Filming has begun in Conamara, Co Galway, on the series, which is being produced by Two Cities Television, AS I AM Productions and Keeper Pictures in association with Screen Ireland.
Mulgrew, who also starred in prison comedy-drama Orange is the New Black, plays Lieutenant Nora Savage, a seasoned NYPD detective who takes a career break after a traumatic event and returns to her family home on the west coast of Ireland.
She is soon drawn into a murder investigation involving a female climate activist, and finds herself taking on a powerful environmental magnate while confronting her own personal demons.
The cast also includes Colm Meaney, John Connors, India Mullen, Cillian O'Sullivan and Jack Rowan.
The series was created by writer Eithne Verling, in her first television drama script, and written specifically for Mulgrew after the pair met by chance in Galway while the actor was on holiday.
Set in the west of Ireland, The Yank uses Conamara as its backdrop and explores themes of power, control, fanaticism and deception, as well as Traveller culture.
The series was commissioned by RTÉ Head of Drama David Crean, who said he was "so excited to be in production with The Yank".
He added: "Congratulations to Eithne Verling for creating and writing a brilliant set of scripts, and to the team at Two Cities and Keeper for putting a fantastic cast and crew together.
"Good to welcome back directors Joe Lawler and Christine Molloy after their amazing job on KIN. This is the very best of Irish talent and it’s great to showcase it to audiences in Ireland and internationally who love Irish drama."
Verling said the series centres on "a woman’s attempt to find meaning in the world following a deep personal trauma".
She added: "I wrote The Yank for Kate, who I met a number of years ago. Our meeting felt like it had been pre-ordained, a friendship both instant and familiar."
Mulgrew said the project grew out of her love for Ireland and her creative connection with Verling.
She described Nora Savage as "a woman very like myself, had I been slashed with grief, blessed with raw courage and born a natural hunter of that which destroys".
The series is directed by Joe Lawler and Christine Molloy, with James Mather as director of photography.
The Yank is produced for RTÉ in association with Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Coimisiún na Meán, uFund and ITV Studios, which will distribute the series internationally outside the Republic of Ireland.
