John Finn is undoubtedly a familiar face to most of you, he has appeared in a whole host of American TV shows and movies from CSI and Coldcase to The X Files and EZ Streets, while the Dawson Creek fans amongst you will know him as Pacey Witter's firm-handed dad. He's also not shy of the odd movie role or two and appeared in the likes of Catch Me If You Can, Carlito's Way and Glory. Not a bad CV, 'ey?

The star is now going to grace our screens over on this side of the pond in a brand new five-part TG4 drama series called An Bronntanas, which airs tonight for the first time. Finn plays a local Garda Sergeant who is part of an investigation into a boat load of drugs that is found off the coast of Galway. A plot which mirrors one or two news stories on this island in recent years, although it definitely doesn't play out as you'd expect, with the residents faced with the dilemma of selling the drugs to save their recession riddled town, or reporting it to the authorities.

Hailing from New York, Finn himself even speaks as Gaeilge in the role too - in fact, this series wasn't even the first time he had given it a bash. He told entertainment.ie that he began learning it as far back as the seventies, when he joined the Irish Arts Centre in New York. They had classes there and given that both his grandparents were Irish, he took it upon himself to start learning it. "I realised it was never something I was going to become fluent in, but I would always have a lifelong interest in it. So when this thing with Tom Collins (Prod/Dir of An Bronntanas) came about, I said I'd love to do it. They had a guy called Peadar Cox on set who was a language coach, so it worked out well."

So how do you go about learning lines and then acting them out with a language that is not even your mother tongue? It wasn't a problem for Finn it seems, he told us; "We went over and over the lines in all my off time, Peadar would record it and I would listen to his recording and then I would just keep going over it until I was comfortable with it. Whether that's proven or not we'll see!" he joked.

Finn's interest in Ireland and the language stems from his own deep connections with our little island, as we said, both sets of his grandparents were born in Ireland - his grandmother is in fact from Obama's ancestral home of Moneygall, Co. Offaly! Leading John to quip "We're probably related!"

He's also no stranger to our shores having first come in the seventies and has been here virtually every summer since, with even an Irish passport to his name too, he told us. Sure he is practically one of our own really!

Considering the amount of roles he has played down the years in many a TV show, we had to know which ones were a highlight for him. One of his biggest roles was that of John Stillman in Cold Case which he said was interesting to play because "the character evolved over a six year period..... it was an opportunity to grow into a character, which you normally don't get."

 

Of course, we had to ask him about his days on Dawson's Creek as Pacey's dad, he told us though that himself and Joshua Jackson haven't kept in touch; "I've run into him a couple times, he has Irish roots too. Josh Jackson is a great fella, but haven't got to speak to him in years. It's such a huge business it's difficult to keep in touch with people, I have a large family and I barely get to stay in touch with all them!"

We have no doubt John Finn will be returning to our shores again soon, however whether it will be for another season of An Bronntanas as of yet remains to be seen; "There's talk of a second season, I haven't heard anything specific. It was a big bite for TG4, I think this is probably the biggest thing they've done drama wise, and they do some really good things there, so it's certainly a possibility."

The drama, which was shot all around Connemara, begins on TG4 tonight at 9.30pm.