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Mark Critch

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Some of the best podcast conversations I’ve had in 2021 were with authors. The six listed below seized this pandemic predicament by hunkering down and writing great books either about their own life experiences or, in one case, a biography about one of Canada’s best storytellers. I thank them all for helping me to read

Canada’s longest-running scripted entertainment series is not The Beachcombers or Wayne & Shuster or even Murdoch Mysteries. It is This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Premiering in 1993, the Halifax-based sketch comedy made stars out of brash Newfoundlanders Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones, Greg Thomey and Rick Mercer. Turnovers in the cast and writing talent – a

Yikes. Tuesday night, This Hour Has 22 Minutes returned for its 26th season to 367,ooo estimated, overnight viewers. While numbers were counted in some screwy ways back when 22 Minutes began, I’m going to go out on a fairly sturdy limb and suggest that is the series’ lowest-rated season premiere ever. That number is about

CBC’s The National sent a videographer all the way out to my house today in search of a comment so it must be news: come the new season, Shaun Majumder will not be back on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Turns out Shaun knew all about his impending departure way back in June as he

This season marks 25 years since the launch of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Conceived by Mary Walsh as the follow up to her earlier CBC comedy series CODCO, the weekly news satire has lampooned politicians and Canada in general since Jean Chretien was strangling citizens on Parliament Hill. Halifax-based author Angela Mombourquette – who worked

Politicians were called on the (red) carpet last week in Ottawa as This Hour Has 22 Minutes performed for the first time outside of Halifax. I worked the carpet and caught opposition leader Thomas Mulcair and MP Scott Brison among the Parliamentarians who braved the performance. The show was taped before a packed crowd of