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Interview: Arwen Humphreys investigates Murdoch’s Margaret Brackenreid

It’s no mystery that Murdoch Mysteries fans are part of the reason Arwen Humphreys has gotten more screen time. Turns out Margaret Brackenreid is a favourite of watchers who made that point known to producers, who upped her initial three-line appearance into a recurring role on CBC’s Monday night period drama.

But what fans might not know about Humphreys is that she has a background in comedy, improv and has performed stand-up three times. We dug up that info, and some other scintillating facts, during a lengthy discussion with the Toronto native.

Let’s start at the beginning. How did you get on Murdoch Mysteries? Was it a casting call? How did it come about?
Arwen Humphreys : It was a casting call, and it was for a three-line role. My name at that point was just Mrs. Brackenreid and I’ll never forget those three lines: ‘Thomas?’ ‘Inside’ and ‘Come here boys and let your father be.’ That was the beginning. The scene was that she had discovered what she thought was a bomb and I thought about it a bit and realized that she’s the wife of a police inspector so there is no way that she’d freak out. I’m guessing that she’s been around a lot of stuff, so I figured she wouldn’t play it in a panicked way when Thomas came to the door. It would just be, ‘OK, come inside. It looks like we have something.’ I booked the role and was really excited because I’d been in and out of this industry for the last 20 years. Tom  [Craig] and I got to talking on the first day and I explained what I thought before going into the audition. He asked me what I thought her first name was and I hadn’t thought of anything. He said, ‘What about Margaret?’ I liked it, and in Season 2 they wanted to call her Levina, I think, and Tom went in and said, ‘No, no, no, her name is Margaret.’ And that’s what it’s been ever since.

What’s it been like being on this ride from three-line role to recurring?
It’s been amazing. Tom came down the following February and told me that the show had been renewed for a second season. They could have recast the role easily, but I think Shaftesbury and Tom have been my cheerleaders since Day 1. Then in the second season they gave me a couple of scenes and that was amazing. It’s been this slow built in a way because I didn’t know what they were going to give me every year. It wasn’t until Season 3 at Tom’s going away party when [then showrunner] Cal Coons told me they were thinking of a storyline where the Brackenreid’s son was kidnapped and that was the first time I was given a lot to do.

Between ‘Kung Fu Crabtree’ and the wedding episode … I really love how you’ve seen the passionate side of Margaret and her interests. I love any episode that gives you a glimpse into the Brackenreid history. Maureen Jennings told me that there is no Margaret Brackenreid in the books, so she’s strictly something that’s been created for the series.

And the fan support blows me away as well.

The fans are unbelievable. Anytime I’m on set I think there are different reasons as to why I’m there and one of them is the fans.

The fans are so passionate. What do they say to you on the street?
I don’t get recognized on the street because my hair is down and my energy is different. I’m more the sillier side of Margaret. I’ve actually walked through a group of fans and nobody recognized me until I was introduced. It’s a transformation for me when I go into hair and makeup. Once I have the whole getup on, I’m her. I love her strength and her heart and I love the relationship between her and Brackenreid. There is so much heart and love between them. It’s a real marriage. It’s a solid relationship.

The fans are unbelievable. They sent a petition to Shaftesbury to have me on more and I hear that they email them too. It’s so sweet and so lovely. Anytime I’m on set I think there are different reasons as to why I’m there and one of them is the fans.

Did you come up with your own backstory for Margaret?
Once we knew there was a Season 2, I worked extensively with a voice coach, Rae Ellen Bodie, and we sussed out the relationship and how it functioned. So I had a general idea. And the writers have definitely hinted at her past through things like her being arrested for gambling and that’s how she and Thomas met.

It must be fun when Margaret lets loose in a scene and play her less rigid.
My background is in comedy. I did a lot of improv, a lot of sketch and I did standup three times. That was in the late 90s and early 2000s. I was heavily involved in TheatreSports in Toronto. I did stuff with them and I did some stuff on the Second City main stage. I wasn’t part of the main stage troupe but I did perform on the stage, which was a thrill. The wedding rehearsal scene was a blast to shoot. As soon as I read that she hums the Wedding March I was at home rehearsing it and I did what you guys saw, the big flourishy thing. I did it so many times at home that I just did it on-set automatically and everybody burst out laughing. Yannick looked at me and said, ‘Now that’s funny!’ And I was like, ‘Woo!!’

Do you have any plans to go behind the camera and write, produce or direct?
I have friends who tell me that I should write, so if it was anything it would be that. I don’t know if it would be writing screenplays because I have no idea how to do that. I have a friend who keeps telling me, ‘I’m submitting something for this contest, you should too!’ And I hesitate.

Are you a student of TV? Do you like to watch it and analyze it or do you just like to sit and watch it?
While I’m watching it, I just like to take it in. But I love the craft of television writing and there is some really great stuff happening right now. I’m a binge watcher and pretty up to date with everything on television. Breaking Bad is a series you have to think about and I’ve never had a more satisfying ending with a series.

Orphan Black is crazy. [Murdoch‘s] Kristian Bruun is on it and my friend Natalie Lisinska was in it in Season 1 and I got so wrapped up in it that I was thinking of the call sheet and wondering who was first on it. And I’d decided it must be Rachel because I had totally forgotten that it was Tatiana Maslany in the roles!

Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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Interview: Murdoch enters the squared circle

I’ve been a fan of professional wrestling since I was a little kid. Back then, the WWF (as it was called back in the day) would come to Brantford, Ont., to record house shows for Maple Leaf Wrestling. It was there that I saw the British Bulldogs, Jake the Snake Roberts and others. I attended WrestleMania VI at the Skydome and cheered like a fool when the Ultimate Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan.

So to say I was thrilled to see Monday’s newest episode of Murdoch Mysteries was not only entitled “CrabtreeMania” but centred on pro wrestling is an understatement. I got the episode’s writers, Simon McNabb and Jordan Christianson, on the phone for a tag-team interview about the storyline, which concluded with George Crabtree being offered a job in Station House 3.

Congratulations on the season pickup from CBC. Will you both be back in the writing room?
Jordan Christianson: Yes, we will. We’re in the process of writing first drafts for the first several episodes of the season. And we have a loose idea of where we’ll go in the episodes after that and how the arc of the season will go.

Let’s talk about “CrabtreeMania.” I was a huge pro wrestling fan when I was a kid, so this episode was a lot of fun for me. Simon, can you tell me how the storyline came about? Was there pro wrestling in Toronto circa 1902?
Simon McNabb: I did a fair amount of research into the wrestling of the time. Simon and I and Peter Mitchell are fans of pro wrestling. We had heard that pro wrestling was around at the time but we didn’t know much about it. It was big at the time, about as big as boxing, but it had been marginalized and was happening in a lot of bar rooms. A wrestler would take on all comers in a town. It was believed back in the day that a lot of matches were fixed because there were no governing bodies and barely any championships. It was very localized. I leant itself to corruption and gambling and entertainment.

The one liberty that we did take was the characters weren’t quite as flashy back then. That grew in the 1920s and 30s. In 1902 it was about matches that went on for an hour.

JC: The other liberty we took is that, back then, wrestlers didn’t have the personas in the way that they did in the 1980s and 90s. There was no Big Boss Man that was a prison guard. It was just Joe Anderson. We thought it would be fun to portray Victor McAllister be like a Vince McMahon and introduce theatrics to wrestling.

SM: Although we took liberties with the costumes, there was a wrestler named the Turkish Strangler, I think. That kind of stuff was around, but to a lesser degree.

Jordan, where were the wrestling scenes filmed?
JC: That was in Hamilton and it was some sort of abandoned warehouse. What Pete liked about it was that it was a blank slate and it leant itself really well to having a rough and ready bar atmosphere rather than a small arena or theatre. That location was terrific.

You guys cast four actual wrestlers in some of the roles. Jaxon Jarvis is the real deal. Are they all pros?
JC: Jaxon and The Solid Man [Jeff Black] and The Gladiator [RJ Skinner] are all members of the local wrestling group GCW. Peter had been going to these matches just as a wrestling fan and got such a kick out of these guys. We had been kicking around a wrestling story for a couple of years, so he was pretty keen to get those guys involved.

And Jonny Harris got a chance to get into the ring and fight too. Did one of you tell him about the upcoming storyline and what was his reaction?
SM: I think it might have been me that had the first conversation about it and I would say his eyes lit up. He’s a wrestling fan too and he’s the kind of actor who is up for anything exciting.

JC: We also knew from ‘Kung Fu Crabtree’ that he will go all-in physically. He wanted to be in that ring.

SM: The stunt coordinator actually felt that the part where Crabtree lifts Edna up on his shoulder was too unsafe because the wrestling ring had a bit of give to it.

JC: If I’m not mistaken, they tried to rehearse it and it looked like it was going to be too awkward, cumbersome and perhaps dangerous for Tamara Hope, so I think it was nixed. But then he and Tamara, I think, went off on their own and practiced putting her up on his shoulder like Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage/Elizabeth style. And when the cameras were rolling they just nailed it.

At the end of the episode, Crabtree was offered a detective’s job at Station House 3. Will he take the job?
SM: I think we can say that this is the beginning of an exciting new chapter for George and we hope the fans like where we go with it.

JC: Crabtree is a good copper and has been doing this for years. In a very practical sense, it made sense that Crabtree would have some ambitions of his own and would be ready to take that next step in his life professionally and personally.

Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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Interview: Murdoch Mysteries author Maureen Jennings sounds off on origins episode

It just makes sense to have Maureen Jennings write the origins episode of Murdoch Mysteries. After all, the author created him. Back in 1997, long before Yannick Bisson straddled a bike and drove into viewers’ lives eight seasons ago, Jennings published her first Murdoch mystery novel, Except the Dying.

In 2000, Shaftesbury Films optioned the novels for television, which led to three TV-movies with Peter Outerbridge in the titular role. On Monday night, the franchise came full circle as Jennings’ script for “Shipwrecked” brought Outerbridge and Bisson together on the small screen. We spoke to Jennings about the episode and her thoughts on the state of the franchise.

I know we’re eight seasons into Murdoch Mysteries with Yannick Bisson in the starring role, but is it still weird to see your creation on television?
Maureen Jennings: Oh, no. He does a fabulous job. It’s his Murdoch now, that’s for sure.

Obviously the show has evolved over the years and has changed from what has been in your seven novels. What are your thoughts on the evolution of the franchise?
I feel very lucky because it hasn’t strayed that far over the last eight years. Early on, someone had a brilliant idea—it wasn’t mine—to move us up in time. You can put out the books in for or five years and move the fictional timeline by a few months. But in terms of television, we’re advancing a year which gives a lot more scope to what was happening at the time. I think it was a really good idea.

Do you watch the show every week?
Oh yes!

How did the whole idea for Monday’s episode, William Murdoch’s origin story, come to be?
I love answering this question. We were actually in Halifax a few years ago and they have a fabulous museum there. What I didn’t know was that a lot of people from the Titanic washed up there. It’s gruesome, but they did. They have a lot of the artefacts that they found on the bodies in that museum. I was looking at that and thought, ‘Wow, isn’t that interesting what you can tell from what somebody was carrying in their pockets?’ One of the men had gold coins in his pockets, which is a morality tale because they didn’t do him any good.

I had long before established that Murdoch grew up in Nova Scotia, so this really got me going. It was actually a short story called ‘Wreckwood.’ That is the term they used in Nova Scotia to refer to a piece of the boat that they had found. It was very respectful. It was their way of honouring those ships that had foundered on their shores. I then changed the title to ‘Shipwreck’ and wrote a novella, which was intended for adults. It was a Murdoch story intended for a slightly different audience. I had framed it as Murdoch telling the story to his grandchild and that was really fun to to.

I always enjoy it when people talk about their past, so that’s really how it started.

Was it always the plan to have Peter Outerbridge cast as Father Keegan?
We absolutely wanted Peter in with Yannick. Everybody wanted Peter in, we just had to figure out the scheduling. He was happy to be there too and it was a lovely moment on many levels. Peter, the first Murdoch was there with the current Murdoch and they worked together. It was really nicely done. It was a fabulous experience.

Did you get a chance to watch any scenes filmed?
Yannick wasn’t there the day I was. We were there the day they filmed in Sutton, Ont., filming the shipwreck scenes. We went to a gravel pit to film the shipwreck. It was cold and wet and they were using rain towers to simulate the storm. It was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever experienced. There was Peter as Father Keegan, getting soaked to the skin and doing brilliantly.

I know scripts go through many edits. Were there any important plot points featured in this episode?
We had to work hard in terms of bringing together the two storylines. That was much more difficult that what I’d thought originally. One of the writers, Carol Hay, came up with the idea of rather than trying to link the two stories in terms of the plot, why don’t we just link them together in terms of theme and have this story of William’s relationship with Father Keegan be paramount. I thought that was very clever and it worked.

I enjoyed seeing young William and seeing his curiosity and Catholic faith established.
I was not raised in any way Catholic, but I went to a Catholic university—which was then called Assumption—and I was so impressed by the fathers there. That has definitely morphed into Father Keegan. And I think that, really, the young Murdoch is the young me.

Murdoch Mysteries returns with new episodes on Monday, March 16, at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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Interview: Dr. Grace finds love on Murdoch Mysteries

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“Toronto’s Girl Problem” was notable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it introduced viewers to another member of Inspector Brackenreid’s family. His nephew, Charlie (Charlie Clements, EastEnders), had come to the constabulary as a fresh start after witnessing the death of his partner back in London. It gave a fascinating tease into what sort of bloke Brackenreid is.

But Monday’s latest Murdoch Mysteries episode also brought Dr. Emily Grace’s sexuality out into the open. After allowing Lillian to undo her corset in “The Devil Wears Whalebone,” Emily went one step further at the end of last night’s episode, planting a romantic kiss on Lillian’s lips.

We got the episode’s writer, Michelle Ricci, to sound off on Emily’s sexuality and what it means for the future of Murdoch.

From what I understand, there were some notes from CBC regarding the scene between Lillian and Emily?
Michelle Ricci: I don’t know if it was CBC as much as it was everybody was a little bit nervous. There were discussions that I wasn’t a party to and Pete would come back and say, ‘These are some of the things that I’m hearing, but we’re going to stick to our guns and we’re going to do it.’ He did shoot the ending three ways. He shot it just with Emily walking in, he shot it with just the approach to the kiss, and he shot it with the full-on kiss. I’m glad that he used the full-on and that, ultimately, the network and Shaftesbury decided to trust us. We use kisses and physical contact so rarely on our show that when we do it, it really means something. That’s a part of the time—public displays of affection were not the norm—and it also goes to character. Our characters don’t run around making out all the time. It would feel weird in our world, so when we do do it it really means something.

I just think that, building all season to this moment and the corset being the pivotal moment—had we not gone for it and shown it on-screen—it would have felt like a bit of a cheat. I think it’s really important for Emily to go for it as well.

Do you think Emily realized what she was going to do in this episode, or was it at some other point in this season?
I think she was starting to figure it out in ‘Whalebone’ a little bit. When that corset comes off, you can see there is a mixture of excitement and apprehension. Georgina does such a good job in that scene, you really get the range of emotions that she’s going through in that scene. And it ends on an excited note rather than a nervous one. So coming into this episode, Lillian makes a couple of comments and Emily thinks, ‘OK, maybe this is something.’ But she’s still very hesitant until Brackenreid confronts her to grow up. She’s like, ‘Hold up, I am grown up and I’m going to do whatever I want.’ I think at that moment she decides to follow her heart. And her heart is with Lillian now.

I think it’s important to note that she isn’t falling for a woman. She’s falling for a person. She’s not turning gay on a dime. She isn’t all of a sudden discovering she’s a lesbian. This woman has opened her eyes to a whole world of possibilities. That’s an important distinction to not cheapen the relationships that she had in the past. She absolutely loved Crabtree. She was absolutely hoodwinked by Leslie Garland. This is a different person at a different stage in her life and a different journey for her.

It’s important that you say that. Is this an experiment on Emily’s part? How will this affect her relationship with George?
She really is falling for Lillian and wants to explore a future with her. Whatever form that future takes, she doesn’t know yet. It’s going to be difficult. And even though we have approached sexuality on the show before, we have never approached it from one of our main characters. It’s important that we do this. It’s a timely subject now, then, and forever.

We got a very touching note after the ‘Whalebone’ episode. A 14-year-old girl who, because of that episode, came out to her father. We were absolutely blown away and touched by that. You don’t realize, working in TV, how much power and influence you actually have on people, good and bad.

How do you feel about so much of a fuss being made about this storyline?
It seems like there are a lot of shows that are doing a lesbian storyline. We’re certainly one of the few that are treating it as an issue. We have to do that because of the historical context, but we’ve gotten some comments from people saying that because other shows have a lesbian storyline Murdoch has to do one. I actually think it’s great that we’re going gay, lesbian or transgender storylines in any capacity and not making it a big deal. That means that these people exist and live in our world and the way they live their lives is a valid one and it should be reflected on television. All aspects of life should be on television.

I am a bit sad when people tweet that if this is where we’re going with this character they’ll never watch again, but at the same time that’s kind of their loss. We make a good show and a lot of people work really hard to make a show that’s different, has something to say and tries to portray just how much we haven’t changed as much as how much we have changed.

Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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Interview: Murdoch Mysteries gets crazy

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Murdoch Mysteries’ showrunner Peter Mitchell says he likes to put out a scary episode every so often, and Monday’s instalment certainly fit the bill. “The Incurables” found Dr. Ogden trapped among several of the show’s most notable female criminals, including Mrs. Lynd, Rose, Eva Pearce and Charlotte, the girl with multiple personalities.

Marked with darkness, violence and revenge, the episode was noteworthy for being as much a character-driven plot as much as a murder mystery. We spoke to Mitchell about Monday’s latest episode and got him to tease next week’s “Toronto’s Girl Problem.”

“The Incurables” is a great twist on the locked room mystery. Did you come up with the idea, or was that pitched in the writers’ room?
Peter Mitchell: I wanted to do a big Julia story this year and one of my favourite characters on the show has been Charlotte, the girl with the multiple personalities. We liked the crazy old lady, Mrs. Lynd, we liked the axe murderer Rose and the Eva Pearce character … we wanted to bring all of those female characters back and make a real female-centric episode with Ogden at the centre of it. We thought it would be a lot of fun.

It reminded me of Batman visiting Arkham Asylum and being surrounded by super villains.
Yeah. It reminded me of those psychological horror movies that take place in asylums. Normally the reporter goes into the asylum and gets amnesia and has to try and get out. We wanted to do that locked room, asylum, murder mystery and try and feature Julia a little bit more. And we just hammered out a mystery. I didn’t know who the killer was until we finally got to it.

I actually thought it was going to be Mrs. Lynd.
And, without getting all preachy, we wanted to touch on how horrendous turn-of-the-century asylums were. None of them are really, truly bad guys. They’ve all been mistreated in there and the ultimate bad guys are, theoretically, the protectors. We wanted to play that card a little bit too.

What was Hélène’s reaction when she found out she’d be the focal point of the episode?
She was excited about it until she broke her arm. Then she was a little concerned about whether she’d be able to do the physicality of it. We shifted stuff around a little bit to accommodate a busted arm, but a busted arm is a busted arm and once she was far enough along in the healing process … Hélène is up for anything. She’s up to do any physical stuff that is demanded of her and it was just an unfortunate bit of timing that we had to be little bit more concerned than we usually are that she didn’t get hurt.

Much of the episode was spent in darkness in the asylum with just flashlights highlighting things. It was pretty darned spooky. Was that on location or was that a set?
There’s a studio in Toronto that we’ve occasionally filmed in. I directed a prison episode there when Julia was going to be executed. They have the bones to put together an asylum. And some of it was recreated on our stage. For the most part it was shot on location at that studio.

Anastasia Phillips was fantastic playing Charlotte and Girlie and the rest of her characters.
She’s great. Obviously Janet Laine-Green is great and Daiva Johnston is great and Hélène is great. So it was like, ‘Go to town!’

Eva Pearce is now on the loose. Will that storyline wrap up this season?
I won’t tell you. [Laughs.] She’s been a fun femme fatale to have on the show. Having her escape and having Murdoch make this choice in letting her go in order to save Ogden but then he didn’t really have to because she saved herself … she’s still in the game.

Let’s go back a couple of weeks to “All That Glitters.” Where did the idea to write about the Colbalt Silver Rush come from?
I think it came about when we found out there was a Cobalt Silver Rush. Who the hell knew they dragged more money out of Cobalt, Ont., than they did out of the Klondike? I learned that two years ago and it was hanging around in my head. We had a few incarnations of it kicking around, sort of a locked room mystery at a prospecting camp, and then we looked at an Indigenous person story that wasn’t typical … it just sort of coalesced.

I think maybe Colbalt was the main reason the Ontario Provincial Police came into being. There started to be a sort of labour dispute up there. It wasn’t really the Wild West up there, it was mining companies underpaying their workers and strikes and industrial action that I think lead to the formation of the OPP. That is a little past our period, so we didn’t really get into that.

Let’s talk a bit about next week’s episode, “Toronto’s Girl Problem.” What can you tease about that?
We learned about this girl gang in London, England, that existed during this period. They would swarm department stores and live the high life and we thought, ‘Who knows? Maybe they have a branch in Toronto.’ Dr. Grace and her friend Lillian go undercover in this girl gang. It’s another female-centred story and a big Dr. Grace story. It’s a nice, fun caper-type of episode.

Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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