From Bill Harris of QMI Agency:

There are fivefold reasons Jack Laskey volunteered for X Company.

In the new eight-episode Canadian World War II-set series, which debuts Wednesday, Feb. 18, on CBC, Laskey plays a young rookie spy named Alfred Graves who has a condition called fivefold synesthesia.

“I’d heard of synesthesia before, but I hadn’t understood it in the way I do now, and had to, as a result of being cast in this beautiful role,” said Laskey, who is from England. Continue reading.

From a media release:

From the creators of Flashpoint and the producers of Orphan Black comes the CBC original WWII spy drama X COMPANY, premiering Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC Television. Inspired by remarkable true events, X COMPANY is an emotionally driven character drama set in the thrilling and dangerous world of WWII espionage and covert operations. During World War II, a real life spy training school existed on the shores of Lake Ontario. The new series follows the stories of five highly skilled young recruits torn from their ordinary lives to train as agents at an ultra-secret training facility, Camp X.

In the series premiere, the head of Camp X, Duncan Sinclair (Hugh Dillon), pulls out all the stops to convince his British counterpart that Alfred Graves (Jack Laskey), a fragile young man with a perfect memory, would make a good Allied agent. Meanwhile Sinclair’s first team is already behind enemy lines working to thwart a German plot to slaughter an entire village.

Shot on location in Hungary last summer, the exhilarating new show highlights Canada’s epic role in the war, which has largely remained unseen for many Canadians. The international ensemble cast stars Evelyne Brochu (Orphan Black, Pawn Sacrifice) as Aurora, a half Jewish-German, half French-Canadian, trilingual strategist and undercover specialist; Jack Laskey (Endeavour, Hatfields and McCoys) as Alfred, a gentle soul with synesthesia – a condition that cross-wires one sense with another, giving him near-perfect memory; Warren Brown (Luther, By Any Means) as Neil, an English ex-copper specializing in weapons and combat who lost his family in the Blitz; Dustin Milligan (No Clue, Extract) as Tom, a Madison Avenue advertising wunderkind, intimately familiar with the mechanics of persuasion, propaganda and seduction; and Connor Price (Being Human, Carrie) as Harry, the team’s radio operator, explosives specialist and gadgeteer. Rounding out the cast is Hugh Dillon as Duncan Sinclair, who runs the secret training facility Camp X and Lara Jean Chorostecki as Sinclair’s right-hand woman, Krystina Breeland.

From James Bawden:

Thank goodness few Canadian rely on TV for any knowledge about their country’s past. Canadian TV dramas these days are carefully crafted to seem as American as possible when exported to the U.S.

So it’s with a cheer that I herald CBC-TV’s new Canadian spy series X Company which dramatically details the exploits of our spies during World War II. The new hourlong drama which debuts Wednesday February 18 at 9 p.m., is exciting stuff. And it’s all true, too. Continue reading.