If you’ve watched the CBC lately, or taken the Toronto subway, you’ve seen The Republic of Doyle. The network is going all out to raise awareness of its new prime-time crime caper. This heavily-promoted comedy-drama isn’t just hype, though: it’s living up to critical and audience expectations (yes, even earning praise from the Globe and Mail’s exacting TV critic and Doyle namesake, John Doyle).

The face of “Doyle” is Allan Hawco, and when you watch him perform, you’ll understand why it’s resonating so strongly with the viewership. The creator, writer and lead actor of the show carries himself with a roguish, slightly nervous charm on camera. Part Colin Farrell (the resemblance is uncanny), part Magnum, P.I., Hawco doesn’t play a cartoonish version of a “private dick” (the title colourfully spray-painted onto his 1968 Pontiac GTO by the young vandal Des Courtney). There’s a curious sensitivity to his portrayal that shows through his clumsy attempts at seducing the women in his life. And it doesn’t hurt that his banter with his family, particularly his father Malachy Doyle (played by Irish actor Sean McGinley) is cutting and hilarious.

Alex Willis: So are you still based in Toronto?

Allan Hawco: I live in St. John’s now. I still have an apartment in Toronto, and do cross back and forth very regularly. But my home base is Newfoundland. It used to be kind of the opposite. I spent a lot more time in Toronto than here.

AW: You’ve managed to reverse the usual trajectory then. How do you balance that constant back-and-forth?

AH: A long time ago, when I first moved to Toronto, I made myself a promise, that whatever was best for my career, that I would listen to my gut about spending more time at home. Newfoundlanders have a passion about where they come from, and “going back” is a shared dream, I think.

So I just decided to spend at least half the year in Newfoundland. Others might want to go to Los Angeles, to maximize their career opportunities. But I wanted to go home. Especially for winters. I didn’t want to be accused of being a “summertime Newfoundlander,” or a “Christmas Newfoundlander.” Nope: I get to shovel my car out in mid-February like everybody else.

That decision was made a long, long time ago. Whenever I wasn’t home, I would get depressed. But now I’m in a weird situation where I miss Toronto! I developed a whole community there, I had my own Theatre company there, so those things I have trouble leaving behind.

AW: On the topic of the theatre, your stage work really shows through in character interactions on the show – the physical interactions, the snappy dialogue, etc. How does the theatre continue to influence your TV and film work?

AH: I cut my teeth in the theatre, and my heart will always be there. I started my own theatre company in Toronto – the Company Theatre – and I continue to be a part of that as much as I can. The most important thing I learned from doing theatre is not making decisions about how a scene or something will go before it actually happens. You might know your lines in advance, but you can never know 100% how they will come out. A great director I worked with once compared it to killing a fly: the dead fly is your objective, and you need to do that before the end of the scene. You kill that fly once in one way, and that’s one possibility. But a fly, it’s gonna buzz all over the place. You do that scene a second time, you kill your fly, and you’re in a totally different place. So your objective is always the same, but your approach will always vary.

AW: Speaking of directors, you’ve had a chance to work with some well-known Canadian people like Steve DiMarco and Mike Clattenburg. DiMarco obviously has an extensive, I guess you could call it “national” portfolio, while Clattenburg is well-known for his work in Atlantic Canadian productions. What do each of these people bring to your show?

AH: For me it’s all about storytelling. Your director is in charge of facilitating that. Someone like Clatty, he’s one of the most talented guys I’ve ever worked with. He has a great sensibility, and he really understands the place we’re working with – that’s a big bonus on a show like ours, where setting is so important. Now, Steve DiMarco is what I call a “rigid” storyteller. I mean that in the best possible way. He’s so dedicated to the story, that he won’t compromise it in the process of filming it.


^{The cast of The Republic of Doyle. Photo courtesy of CBC.}

AW: Detective shows are a dime a dozen these days, but the vast majority of them seem to be very puffed up, serious dramas with a clinical or forensic edge. With The Republic of Doyle, were you setting out to make the anti-CSI?

AH: I wouldn’t call it an anti-anything. I’m just not at all interested in making something like a CSI-type show. I just don’t think I’d be any good at making it! I’m much more interested in characters and place. A strong and dedicated mystery is important too, but where we are, in small-town Canada, it’s gotta be fun, too. You can’t go about pretending that there’s a brutal homicide here every week. It would get pretty ridiculous.

AW: Are you tired of people comparing your show to The Rockford Files? Every interview I read seems to bring it up.

AH: [laughs] No, no, not at all. It’s a great thing to be compared to! But it’s a real comparison – people aren’t just saying it, they’re going into detail about the show, which means they’re paying attention. To be honest, I would hate it if the comparison stopped at the idea.

I don’t think there’s too many similarities between the shows, except maybe for an overlap in tone. But the characters are not at all alike. I think what people are picking up on are, I guess, three things: private detectives, humour, and a cool car.

AW: And a major difference would obviously be the Newfoundland setting, which is a real change from the California setting of The Rockford Files. So what makes Newfoundland such a great setting for this type of show?

AH: Atlantic Canadians and – well, if I could be frank, Canadians and general – have a strong sense of humour. That’s been helpful in figuring out our identity as a show. But not in terms of making fun of the place. We’re just tapping into an innate sense of humour there.

In terms of the location, St. John’s as a city is going through a dramatic change. It’s a different place now. I never thought in my wildest dreams that in the midst of a recession, that Newfoundland would be a national economic leader.

AW: History’s not without a sense of irony, it seems.

AH: [laughs] I’ve spent many years wondering, “Is everyone gonna have to leave?” or, “Is our culture going to die?” So it’s been great to have a focus on the show on something that traditionally has not been a focus for Newfoundland. There’s a new energy in St. John’s that drives the show.

AW: You really get a sense of that, watching the show. The portrayal of Newfoundland is pretty far from stereotypical. Instead, you get a distinct sense of how the island fits into the country at large. Just within the first two shows, for example, you get references to the Alberta oil boom, but also “come from aways” who are bringing wealth onto the island, either hiding out from crime, or investing and setting up businesses.

AH: Come from aways hiding out from crime? Sounds like our camera department.

AW: [laughs]

AH: I wanted to tell a story about Newfoundland as I saw it. I’ve just always had a particular perspective on things. Perry Chafe, who’s one of the co-creators of the show, shares with me that sense. He comes from a small fishing village, and I come from a small island, Bell Island, and grew up outside of St. John’s. We’re trying to expand how you could look at the place, and we each bring something different to that. And a lot of Newfoundlanders have told me that they appreciate how we’re portraying the place. Now, the fantastical plots and crimes – they’re mostly separate from all that. We try to keep them believable, with a splash of entertainment for good measure.

AW: To look at it from another angle, though, you’re getting a lot of support and funding from the Government of Newfoundland itself. Do you ever worry that this kind of funding will ever influence your portrayal of the place?

AH: Oh god no. Their support is financial, and they’re looking to support this as a cultural venture. We had lots of talks beforehand, looking at what the economic benefits would be for having a TV and film industry in this province. Their decision to support the show follows their mandate to support Newfoundland culture. The Minister of Finance, Jerome Kennedy, made this very clear to me, that economic benefits aside, that this was a cultural venture first.

AW: This kind of support just seems like a byproduct of doing film and TV in Canada, doesn’t it? The financial realities are that support from government is essential.

AH: In terms of financing culture, there’s no way a TV or film industry in Canada, at this present time, can sustain itself. Our market is so much smaller than the American one. But don’t think for a second that the American market doesn’t receive government subsidies, either. In Canada, it’s just a question of whether we want to make these investments or not. If “no,” then we don’t have a TV or film culture. So saying “yes” means support. We’re a relatively new culture here, haven’t been around since before the 1960s, really. It’s not our tradition to be in business, but we’re building that. There’s so much talent here, and we’re trying to tell a story that can be successful as a business, and we’re hoping that will mean success across the world, not just in Canada.

AW: One of the distinguishing characteristics of your show is a very distinctive focus on broken families. All of the primary characters have some troubled family history, and the plot lines often feature broken homes or something to that effect. Why is this focus important to the show?

AH: I think that it’s a realistic portrayal of life for many people. And with a family like the Doyles, well, sometimes they’re really necessary in family situations like that, and people do rely on agencies like the Doyles’ to get information.

I’m drawn to the drama of regular life, particularly of the way that I see things. I try to pay attention to how life unfolds around me. It’s a relatable phenomenon. Everybody has problems, and the lens we look at these things through is often the family.

AW: People have described St. John’s as a “character” within the show. You’ve mentioned in other interviews that the cinematography itself is a character. Certainly, the casual backdrops are completely captivating. But how much of this landscape – natural or cultural – are you deliberately trying to incorporate into the show?

AH: We’ve got a top-notch cinematographer in Michael Storey. We do try to showcase the city and the province’s natural beauty, sure. But I’m not trying to shove this “character” down peoples’ throats. I want that to be a natural absorption of character. It’s a romantic testament to the place. I want the viewer to come to the conclusion on their own.

It’s kind of like our attitude on the show towards accents. I don’t want mainlanders to come on the show and try to pull off a really bad fake Newfoundland accent. I’d rather they just not do it. But those who are from there, well, we let them have free reign. Krystin Pellerin, who plays the police officer on the show, she’s from Newfoundland – that’s the way she sounds. She’s gotta hide her accent on her other TV and film projects, so she was delighted to speak in her “regular” voice here.

It’s funny: we’ve been criticized for having mainlanders do accents. Well, none of our mainlanders do accents. Nobody on the show is “putting on an accent”, except for Sean McGinley [Jake Doyle’s father], and he’s Irish, so he’s barely even trying.

AW: The show’s receiving tremendous promotion here in Toronto. When you come here, can you ever take the subway anymore? Your face is plastered all over it.

AH: Yeah, but nobody “cares.” I mean, they do in a positive way! People in Toronto are just really nice about it. Nobody’s going through my garbage, nobody cares about my personal life. It’s not like Hollywood! [laughs] I’m just a regular guy in Newfoundland and Toronto, and that’s fine with me.