Tag Archives: CBC

CBC’s Scout & the Gumboot Kids named Prix Jeunesse International 2018 finalist

From a media release:

Imagine Create Media is thrilled to announce that its kid’s TV series, Scout & The Gumboot Kids has been named as a finalist for the PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL 2018, children’s TV’s highest honour.

Scout & The Gumboot Kids is broadcast on CBC Kids in Canada, ABC Australia, JEI TV in South Korea, Blink in the Philippines and in the US on Houghton Mifflin’s streaming platform Curious World, ComCast Xfinity’s Kidstream and Amazon.  

The aim of the PRIX JEUNESSE Foundation is to shine a spotlight on the world of outstanding television productions for children. The bi-annual festival, the PRIX JEUNESSE INTERNATIONAL will be held in Munich, Germany from May 25-30, 2018.

Scout & The Gumboot Kids is endorsed by both The David Suzuki Foundation and the UCLA Global Media Centre for Social Impact (GMCSI).

Imagine Create Media is currently in production on Season 3 of Scout & The Gumboot Kids and two spin-off series, Daisy & The Gumboot Kids and Jessie & The Gumboot Kids.

 

 

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Murdoch Mysteries: Graham Clegg and Paul Aitken break down “The Great White Moose”

The Day of the Jackal, For Your Eyes Only and Predator are the three movies Graham Clegg drew on while co-writing Monday’s newest episode of Murdoch Mysteries. I’m always fascinated to hear what inspired a particular story, so it was fun to hear Clegg recount how he and co-executive producer Paul Aitken broke the story for “The Great White Moose” and then fleshed it out.

Monday’s newest instalment was a rollicking adventure involving fan favourites Allen Clegg (Matthew Bennett) and Terrence Meyers (Peter Keleghan) trade barbs—and bullets and crossbow bolts—in a tale involving President Teddy Roosevelt (Marty Moreau).

The duo discuss the inspiration for the episode, which cartoon characters Clegg and Meyers resemble and what makes Aitken jump off his couch.

Graham, you were a writer on Murdoch Mysteries a few seasons ago. What have you been up to?
Graham Clegg: I worked on a show called The Pinkertons and that was a great load of fun. We had enough money for one-and-a-half horses and one gun. I think we did quite a good job and it, unfortunately, lasted one season. Then I went off and started working on some of my own projects and they continue. One of them is a feature film and one of them is, hopefully, an upcoming series that will be shot in England.

Marty Moreau as Teddy Roosevelt

How did you end up co-writing this episode?
GC: Peter Mitchell and Paul very kindly came back and asked me if I’d be interested in working with them again and doing another Murdoch script. Of course, I jumped at it and said, ‘Yeah, let’s go!’ [Laughs.] They came up with the premise of the episode and then Paul and I were set loose to crack the story. As we have done five or six times on Murdoch scripts, it’s a process and we hit some of those moments. [Laughs.] Paul will play the guitar and think about things. He has this great whiteboard in his upper office and past that is his balcony. We would do the writer’s thing, pacing back and forth, going ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, but what if?’ Paul also has a huge screen downstairs and we were able to project where we were going with the story, whether it be ideas or story beats.

I remember when we were breaking ‘The Great White Moose,’ we were trying to figure out what the personal connection would be between Clegg and Roosevelt. I’m a research junkie and I’d found that he was at Harvard and in the navy. Paul and I came up with the idea of, ‘Of course! This is fantastic. Clegg and Roosevelt knew each other at Harvard and they almost came to blows—some of the dialogue was cut—what it meant for the United States to extend their power. I remember Paul jumping off the couch and then jumping up and down saying, ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes!’ We found the emotional link between the history of Clegg and Roosevelt and that was a fun moment.

I remember talking to Paul, saying ‘You have to watch The Day of the Jackal!’ because we have a foregone conclusion. We know Roosevelt is not going to be assassinated. That’s not the emotional thread to the story. What we don’t know is, throughout the thriller, who could die? What we have, really, on the plate is [Meyers] and we also know that Clegg could die.

Sam and Ralph a.k.a. Meyers and Clegg

Paul, how often do you jump off the couch when a story is broken? Does it happen a lot?
Paul Aitken: Yes. I think I do but I’m not fully aware of it. I do get excited. When you’re breaking story you’re looking to solve problems.

GC: If he gets up off the couch, you know you’ve got something.

PA: If someone suggests something that opens a path to solving a problem I do get excited. That’s part of the fun in the whole business of writing.

Paul, how did it end up that Graham and yourself were teamed for this episode?
PA: This was an episode that we thought Graham would be good for. I think it was because it was the action-adventure part of it that we thought he was well-suited for. He also knows the characters. Clegg was named after him, for God’s sake!

GC: This has to be said! Seasons ago, when I was on staff, we were coming up with an American spy character. We came up with different character traits. He’s wily, he’s covert. What do we call him? Paul said, ‘Clegg!’ [Laughs.] What was a joke in the story room then made it to script and I said, ‘Please guys, don’t.’ And they said, ‘Nope, it’s Clegg.’

The Bolograph. Image courtesy of Craig Grant

There were a couple of things that I fought for and Paul said, ‘Whatever.’ I’m so thankful and massive kudos to director Leslie Hope. She just nailed it. One thing I fought for and it was kept in was the final shot of the legendary great white moose alive on its own. I said, ‘We’ve got to have that’ and Paul said, ‘OK.’ In terms of Clegg using a crossbow, I didn’t want any muzzle flare coming from anything, so it’s creepy. And that partially came from my love of the film For Your Eyes Only, the James Bond film, where Melina uses it in the first act. The other thing is, and Paul helped me out greatly with this, is the bolometer [Editor’s note: The script refers to it as a bolograph.]. Paul and I were talking and trying to figure out how to get some Murdochian technology in. I sent Paul a link to Predator, the 1987 film with Arnold Schwarzenegger. I said, ‘I want Predator technology when you see heat registry.’ Paul came back and said, ‘Well there is something,’ and it could see up to 400 yards through the darkness. It couldn’t see heat registry but it could sense something. That’s the way the bolometer came in and it was so fun to work with. Craig and the visual effects people in post-production nailed it.

Paul, the relationship between Clegg and Meyers is an interesting one.
PA: I always thought the relationship was a working relationship, kind of like the sheepdog and the coyote, Frank and Ralph. One of them is charged with saving the sheep and the other is interested in killing the sheep. They respect each other and, deep down, some fondness for each other. But they exist to take each other down and we’ve done several incarnations where they try to do that quite directly. It’s a fun relationship and it’s fun to write for because of these inherent complexities. At the same time, we don’t take either character too seriously. As a writer, I am very fond of both of them.

Murdoch Mysteries returns with new episodes on Monday, Feb. 26, at 8 p.m. on CBC.

 

 

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Link: Frankie Drake Mysteries’ Rebecca Liddiard on Mary’s growing confidence

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Frankie Drake Mysteries’ Rebecca Liddiard on Mary’s growing confidence
“She has this puppy dog-like quality where she’s just willing to take anything, whereas by the end we see her taking matters into her own hands. For instance, she just decided to go to New York all by herself to pursue the case that Frankie didn’t even ask her to do. She just took it upon herself to do it. I think that fits with the bigger theme of independence and women doing what they think is right and best. You really get a nice sense of that with Mary.” Continue reading. 

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Preview: Frankie Drake Mysteries closes out Season 1

On Monday, Frankie Drake Mysteries rides into the sunset with its first season finale. And what a ride it’s been. It has been a personal pleasure to see all of the hard work co-creators Michelle Ricci and Carol Hay and showrunner Cal Coons pay off big-time. Launching a television series is difficult enough, but placing it in the timeslot after Murdoch Mysteries—a program it will always be compared to—is not easy.

It’s only been an 11-episode season, but a wonderful world has been established, full of engaging characters in Flo, Mary, Trudy, Wendy and, of course, Frankie Drake herself. CBC hasn’t made it official yet, but I’m pretty sure Frankie and her pals will be back for the second round of crime-solving in the fall of 2018.

As for Monday’s finale, the CBC has released the following information for “Once Burnt Twice Spied.”

When Frankie gets a mysterious call from a British spy, Mary discovers how she and Trudy met, and how Drake Private Detectives was formed.

And here are more details after watching a screener of the episode, written by Michelle Ricci and directed by Peter Stebbings.

Origin stories
Rather than reveal how Drake Private Detectives came to be in Episode 1, we’re getting it in the season finale. An odd move, but with a great payoff. It’s meant fans have fallen in love with the characters already and the mystery as to how it all came to be could be saved. Viewers are flashed back in time—you know, before 1920—to tell the tale. For Frankie, that means a return to Toronto for a very special assignment; for Trudy, a change in career.

Pay attention to the props
In particular, a newspaper that is being read by many and frustratingly hard to decipher.

Forget 007
Frankie Drake predates James Bond when it comes to cool gadgets and weaponry.

Slasher stars, Take 3
Those actors from Slasher clearly can’t get enough of Frankie Drake Mysteries because, for the third week in a row, one appears. This time it’s Christopher Jacot as Clive Harper, a Toronto baker.

What are your thoughts on Season 1 of Frankie Drake Mysteries? Let me know in the comments below.

The season finale of Frankie Drake Mysteries airs Monday at 9 p.m. on CBC.

 

 

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Links: Crawford, Season 1

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Crawford’s Alice Moran on CBC’s “Joyful and Kind” new comedy series
“Wendy has the most normal problems of anyone in the family, but she is the least chill in dealing with them. Her parents are being blackmailed, her brother thinks he can talk to raccoons and in Wendy’s brain the biggest problem is that her boyfriend isn’t committed. It’s a real treat to play a character who thinks like that.” Continue reading.

From Tony Wong of the Toronto Star:

Link: Jill Hennessy plays matriarch of weirdly dysfunctional family in Crawford
“When I got the script I had to read the first three episodes first a couple of times to get a through line; I couldn’t figure out what was happening. But that’s what I loved. I had no clue where this is going. All I knew was that in the first episode my character walks in with a police officer and they say, ‘Mama, we’re not sure what happened, but somebody peed in the sink.’ That got me. They had me at someone peed in the sink.” Continue reading.

From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Link: CBC’s Crawford is weird, in a beguiling and hopelessly sweet way
The 10-part series is indeed weird, but in the most beguiling, hopelessly sweet way. It has a fine cast and a style and tone that is bonkers but seductive. As with all of Clattenburg’s work, it’s really about getting along, being decent to other people no matter how strange they are and being kind to animals. Continue reading.

From Norm Wilner of Now Toronto:

Link: TV review: new CBC comedy Crawford isn’t remotely funny
Crawford, the new ensemble comedy from Mike Clattenburg and his frequent collaborator Mike O’Neill, is similar to Clattenburg’s cult smash Trailer Park Boys in that it’s also a show about eccentric characters played by unquestionably committed comic performers.

I suppose it is also similar in that I did not find it funny – like, at all. Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Crawford’s Kyle Mac on CBC’s eccentric new family comedy
“Even after reading the scripts, performing them on the day and seeing the show I didn’t really know what to expect. I was super stoked to get this part, but I thought the script was super weird. I dig weird things, but I also know Mike Clattenburg is a brilliant man so I was optimistic.” Continue reading.

From Bill Brioux of the Canadian Press:

Link: CBC launches new comedy ‘Crawford’ digitally first, TV later
Whether it’s the father “Dre” on “Black-ish,” “Appa” on “Kim’s Convenience,” or especially Homer Simpson on “The Simpsons,” when sitcom dads talk, nobody seems to listen.

Here then is a novel TV twist: a dad who cannot talk but won’t be ignored.

That’s the deal on “Crawford,” a new CBC comedy that begins streaming this Friday. All 12 episodes can be binged before the show is broadcast this summer on the main network, making this CBC’s first major series to launch first digitally. Continue reading.

From Alexandra Pope of Canadian Geographic:

Link: Q&A: Director Mike Clattenburg on “Crawford,” a comedic tribute to raccoons
There’s one scene where he rescues a raccoon out of a tree. It was pretty incredible; the raccoon felt safe enough to climb down the tree and jump into his basket. We didn’t expect it to go that far, but Kyle continued to act the scene with the raccoon trying to climb out of the box to sniff him. He really engaged the animal and it really had a relationship with him personally, moreso than anyone on set. Continue reading.

From Ron Johnson of Post City:

Link: Actor Jill Hennessy talks Toronto hangout spots, raccoon invasions and new TV show Crawford
“The raccoons invading the home in the first episode throws everyone into chaos in a necessary way. It was necessary to upset the balance of this family to reinvigorate relationships. The raccoons are the instigators of a lot of really good positive stuff and a lot of comedy. It’s really emotional and it’s hilarious.” Continue reading. 

From Sean McIntosh of the Red Deer Advocate:

Link: Former Red Deer Advocate papergirl starring in CBC show
Alice Moran went from delivering the Red Deer Advocate to delivering lines on television.

Moran, 29, stars in CBC’s Crawford, which debuted Friday. Before she made it on the screen, Moran lived in Red Deer for a few years when she was growing up, attending Holy Family School. Continue reading.

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