Monday night at 9 p.m. ET/PT, CBC airs “Republic of Murdoch,” a crossover episode linking Murdoch Mysteries and Republic of Doyle. The story finds Det. William Murdoch (Yannick Bisson, far right) traveling to Newfoundland with Constable Crabtree (Jonny Harris, middle). They’re hard on the trail of a fella named Jacob Doyle–who just happens to be the great, great, great grandfather of Jake Doyle (Allan Hawco, above left).
The scenes were shot this summer in St. John’s. “Billy” Murdoch, the famed detective’s great, great, great grandson, will team up with modern-day Jake Doyle in a January episode of Republic of Doyle.
Given how busy Hawco is, writing and producing as well as starring in an extended season of his own series, you’d think he’d have a hard time working this extra gig into his schedule. Hawco, however, says it was great just showing up and being an actor in somebody else’s series for once.
How rare is a Canadian crossover? I know actors from Little Mosque and Corner Gas have guested on Air Farce and others have also guested on sketch and comedy shows (Rick Mercer does Murdoch this Tuesday), but I can’t think of characters from one scripted Canadian series being written into storylines on another Canadian series before, ever. If anybody else out there can point to any Canadian crossovers, comment away.
As for the Murdoch/Doyle deal, whose idea it was and how it was shot, you can read my full Canadian Press story here in the pages of The Globe and Mail.
