A career flashpoint

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This article was published 13/07/2009 (6162 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hugh Dillon’s single-handedly saving Canadian television.

“The shallow part of me would like to take all of the credit,” he says jokingly of the success of Durham County, his award-winning and critically acclaimed series that returns for a second season Monday on Movie Central.

Combined with the cross-border success of Dillon’s other TV series Flashpoint, and an upcoming debut solo album, the 46-year-old actor/singer seems to have the golden touch.

Durham County, for instance, won three Geminis last year. Set in suburban southwestern Ontario, Durham County is almost the anti TV-crime procedural. Gone are the cheesy one-liners, rapid-fire camera cuts, the bodacious beach bodies and the cases that are wrapped up in 60 minutes in a neat, tidy package. What you see feels dark, gritty, eerie and very, very real.

As troubled, morally-challenged suburban detective Mike Sweeney, Dillon plays one of the most complex, intriguing protagonists on television. Sweeney is quite literally sleeping with the enemy in the new season, and was childhood friends with the serial killer from Season 1. What’s with the company he keeps and what does that say about him?

“I think he is kind of a monster magnet,” Dillon says, before crediting writer Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik for his character and the dangerous world he inhabits.

Sweeney may be the first cop in TV history to drive a station wagon. His backyard is a suburban community that is a myriad of lonely greys, sinister shadows, Stepford subdivision homes and towering power lines.

The new season finds Sweeney’s family shattered in the wake of the arrest of serial killer Ray Prager (Justin Louis is replaced in the role this year by Romano Orzari), and his daughter Sadie Sweeney (Laurence Leboeuf) dealing with the post-traumatic effects of her abduction at Ray’s hands. Michelle Forbes joins the cast as forensic psychologist Penelope Verity — who quickly develops a dangerous, intimate and destructive relationship with Sweeney.

Dillon credits the show’s writing and production team, including director Adrienne Mitchell, for its addictive quality.

“The truth is, (when I get a script), I read these stories like a fan of any novelist — it’s like getting a whole series of Stephen King’s books — it’s hypnotic,” he says.

Dillon’s character, Sweeney, is coping with violent instincts, a dark past, the death of his former cop partner, the death of his mistress at the hands of Ray, and the splintering of his family. He’s a man of many demons, and Dillon did his research before tackling the role —- talking to real men with real badges.

“I remember when I first got the part there is a homicide cop I know up north of Toronto and, within a day, I was talking to him — talking about crime scenes, talking about the psychological impacts of the job, talking about how it affects his family, his daughters, how it effects everything,” he says. “It’s just the way I work, lots of people do it differently. For me the only way to feel authentic about it and to be truthful is talk to the guys who really know this shit.”

Durham County takes advantage of the emptiness and seeming vastness of suburbia to bring a lonely, haunting atmosphere to the series.

From Ray Bradbury’s novel Something Wicked This Way Comes to the film Children of the Corn, pop culture is littered with stories about darkness lurking outside of cities in small communities.

Dillon says it’s the banality of those places that make them ripe for horror.

“There is something that is unnerving about ‘normal’…,” he explains. “It’s stark contrast when something does erupt… when you see crime in suburbs. It goes back to that old human trait of ‘It can’t happen to me, not in my house, not in my backyard, not in this neighbourhood’.”

Every character on Durham County seems to harbour secrets, but what about Dillon himself?

“There is an old adage about you’re as safe as your secrets,” he says after a short a pause. “So, you know, I’m pretty healthy.”

Beyond starring in Flashpoint and Durham County, Dillon — who first gained notoriety as the lead singer of Canadian band Headstones — is returning to his other passion. His first solo album, Works Well With Others, will be released this October. He describes the sound as “a little more Leonard Cohen and a little less Lemmy from Motorhead.”

As for the current renaissance of Canadian television, with shows like Flashpoint and The Listener being picked up by American networks, Dillon believes Durham set the benchmark.

He says recent Canadian successes show we have “fearless” talent in writing, producing and acting to match American projects.

“It’s here, like any other movement. That is what this is. It’s a huge thing for Canadian television… for it to happen on a number of levels shows it isn’t a fluke.

“When Nirvana broke, everybody went to Seattle to look for music and it changed the face of American music and the face of music worldwide… we’ve been here making television for a long time.”

— Canwest News Service

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