All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.

Link: Want to fight like Lagertha on Vikings?

From Tony Wong of The Toronto Star:

Vikings fans, start signing up now: shield maiden Lagertha wants to teach you how to release your inner warrior.

Canadian star Katheryn Winnick, who has a black belt in karate, told the Star she intends to start a school teaching classes in self-defence.

“Women should learn how to defend themselves in any situation. It’s something every woman should know,” said Winnick. “This is something where I really want to give back.” Continue reading.

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Link: Going undercover with the cast of X Company

From Rebecca Tucker of The National Post:

The cast of X Company admits that, prior to shooting the series, they knew nothing about Camp X, the real-life, ultra-secret facility that operated from the shores of Lake Ontario during the Second World War upon which the new CBC show is based.

“I thought it was fictional until I read the script,”says Canadian actress Évelyne Brochu, who plays Jewish-German/French-Canadian strategist and undercover specialist Aurora Luft on the series. Continue reading.

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Canada’s secret Second World War role uncovered in X Company

It’s a story that has never been told on the small—or any—screen before. The dramatic scripted tale of the role Canada played during the Second World War by training spies in Southern Ontario for missions behind German lines. That history is re-told in X Company, debuting Wednesday on CBC.

“This is an idea that we had 14 years ago, and we couldn’t believe it hadn’t been told,” co-creator Mark Ellis recalls. “And whenever we would tell the story to other people, they couldn’t believe it either.” Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern—who co-created a little drama called Flashpoint—now get their chance.

Starring Jack Laskey (Endeavour), Evelyne Brochu (Orphan Black), Dustin Milligan (90210), Connor Price (Being Human), Warren Brown (Luther) and Flashpoint alum Hugh Dillon, X Company spotlights Camp X, the secret base located east of Toronto where the British and Canadian governments trained spies on surveillance, burglary, interrogation, close combat and killing.

Inspired by real-life tales, Wednesday’s debut begins in 1942, with the Germans in control of Europe. Viewers are introduced to Alfred Graves (Laskey), a Brit with an intriguing medical condition: synesthesia, which has fused all five of his senses together. The result? A man bombarded by his senses all of the time … and the perfect spy because he has nearly perfect memory. Along for the ride are the rest of the team in Aurora Luft (Brochu), a half German/half-French Canadian woman; Harry James (Price), a munitions expert; Neil Mackay (Brown); and propaganda expert Tom Cummings (Milligan) who are under the watchful eye of Duncan Sinclair (Dillon), their commander.

“This is an angle we haven’t seen before,” Morgenstern says. “We’ve seen the epic battlegrounds, but this is about ordinary people who didn’t have a life vocation to save the world but each has a very special skill.”

Ellis describes it as a coming-of-age story about Alfred, a man discovering who he is and, ultimately, a hero. Wednesday’s bow is full of drama and gorgeous cinematography. Sinclair’s squad is dispatched to small-town France to not only assassinate German commanders but destroy a bridge, cutting off an important artery in the Nazi transport route. There is tension, violence, fear and jubilation packed into the tightly-wound, highly entertaining hour.

“We want to pay homage to the truth of what it was to be behind those enemy lines, what the ethical choices were and the shades of grey that you had to live in,” Ellis says.

The long-awaited story starts tonight.

X Company airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

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Link: The Dragons head for the exits on Dragons’ Den

From Tony Wong of the Toronto Star:

The departure of two well-liked judges from the popular series, which features all-too-hopeful contestants creatively pitching judges to invest in their sometimes quirky inventions, means the CBC has some giant entrepreneurial shoes to fill. Finding telegenic Canadian high rollers who have hundreds of thousands in seed money each season is no easy task. Continue reading.

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Link: CBC’s X Company blends Second World War fact with a modern feel

From Bill Brioux of the Toronto Star:

Sometimes success can get in the way of a passion project. That’s what happened to Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern, co-creators of the new spy drama X Company (premiering Wednesday at 9 p.m. on CBC).

Fourteen years ago, the husband and wife team made a short film about a man with a condition known as synesthesia. “His senses were all fused together,” says Ellis. “He feels shapes with his skin, which would leave a taste in his mouth and gave him a near perfect memory.” Continue reading.

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