Podcasts were invented for guests such as Malcolm McDowell. He is a smart, funny, generous man and as terrific as ever as Pop on CBC’s Son of a Critch. This conversation took place last summer in St. John’s, Nfld., in McDowell’s trailer which was parked outside the Bella Vista banquet hall. It had been an exciting
Chances are that Donald J. Trump, the now and possible future President of the United States, has never heard of the CBC. He probably thinks the first two letters refer to Cheese Burgers. But the ‘very stable genius’ may have handed our embattled national broadcaster a lifeline. Canadians are in a patriot fervor these days,
Two of the four Baroness Von Sketch Show players, Jennifer Whalen and Meredith MacNeill, are back with a new CBC series — and it’s a period piece! The series is called Small Achievable Goals and it is about two women in midlife encountering all of the joys of menopause. Hot flashes, mood swings, homicidal trendencies and more. Now, you
Speaking of Talking to Americans: if ever we needed some frank talk from Rick Mercer, we need it now. Not that he addresses the news of the past weekend. I caught up with the CBC Hall of Famer last summer in St. John’s on the set of Son of a Critch. The native son plays Mark
Every time I interview Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, he seems a half-foot taller than the last time I spoke with him. Yet his ego never grows as I found out last summer in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Ainsworth, of course, plays young Mark Critch, circa 1990, on the CBC sitcom. We were outdoors on location on a residential
The second season of the slick procedural crime series Allegiance begins January 15 on CBC and CBC Gem. The shot-in-Surrey, B.C., drama stars Supinder Wraich (Sort Of), Enrico Colantoni (also great of late in English Teacher) and Samer Salem (The Expanse). I spoke with all three in Toronto at the CBC Winter Media Launch in
Allan Hawco, he of Republic of Doyle, has been visiting Saint-Pierre and Miquelon for decades. It is a little slice of France in the Atlantic not far from where he grew up, in Newfoundland. He was there not too long ago and thought, dammit, this would be a great place to set a police procedural
The new CBC series North of North has a lot going for it. The setting, a hamlet in the Arctic, is unlike anything we’ve seen on Canadian TV, and it is coldly beautiful. The cast is mostly Inuit, as are the creators and the writers, giving it a point of view unique from anything else