TV shows don’t just write and produce themselves. That takes showrunners! Two of the best in Canada have been Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern, the husband and wife team behind such hits as Flashpoint, X Company and Transplant.
Ellis and Morgenstern split their showrunner duties down the middle, according to their strengths. That is why, I assume, you only see half of Ellis’ face in the photo, above.
Their latest is the new Wednesday night CBC police drama Allegiance. The series stars Supinder Wraich as promising rookie cop Sabrina Sohal. She’s teamed with a savvy police veteran played by Enrico Colantoni, my previous guest on brioux.tv: the podcast. Stephen Lobo also stars as Sabrina’s wrongfully accused politician father.
On this episode, I’m joined by Mark, who talks about the importance of casting, writing and locale. Allegiance is set and produced in and out of Surrey, B.C.
Ellis also talks about how he really didn’t have much of a sense of Canadian identity until his family returned to Canada from England when he was a lad and he started watching The Beachcombers. “I thought, okay, this is Canada,” says Ellis. “Here we are in a boat with Nick and Relic and we’re racing down the sunshine coast… and I thought, well, this is a lovely place.”
Ellis began his career in television as an actor but is a much bigger fan of talented professionals such as Wraich and Colantoni. “I would never cast myself in anything today,” he says. To listen, simply click on the white arrow in the blue dot, above.
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