At the start of this conversation recorded before Christmas at the CBC broadcast centre in Toronto, Allan Hawco reminded me that I’ve been tailing him for 20 years — back to the launch of Republic of Doyle in 2005.
Hawco and French costar Josephine Jobert are back with 12 new episodes of Saint-Pierre, the highest-rated sophomore series on CBC. The police procedural is shot on location on a tiny part of France off the coast of Newfoundland. I keep asking Allan, what, did somebody steal another baguette? Is there really that much crime in Saint Pierre and Miquelon, an eight island archipelago, pop. 5,819? Mais qui, say the stars, with stories about international smuggling, among other things, based on real crimes.
If there is any real crimes to solve, Jobert is trained and ready for action. While working on a previous series (Jobert played Detective Sergeant Florence Cassell on the BBC One drama Death in Paradise). Jobert received live ammunition gun training.
This is the first half of a two-part conversation on Season Two of Saint Pierre. Next week, hear my interview with the co-creator of the series, Robina Lord-Stafford, who happens to be an Orangeville neighbour. Hear about her rapid rise up the ranks of Canadian content creators, from writing on Frankie Drake Mysteries and Moonshine (where she met Hawco) to work on Pretty Hard Cases, Wild Cards, and now Saint-Pierre.
To listen to the podcast, simply click on the white arrow in the blue circle above.
