Gabriel Byrne plays the eponymous Irish pathologist-cum-sleuth in this three-part BBC adaptation based on the novels by John Banville. While fulfilling his duties as chief pathologist at the Dublin City Morgue during the 1950s, the insular and surly Quirke (Byrne) ploughs a lonely course, managing his depression by haunting Dublin’s dank alleyways and bars. But when he begins to notice inconsistencies during routine examinations, Quirke’s natural inquisitiveness to find out the truth soon leads him on a tour of Dublin’s less salubrious areas, where he faces unresolved issues from his own past that would be better left undisturbed.
