Nathaniel Parker Shines In Still Life

I enjoyed interviewing Nathaniel Parker on the phone the other day as the popular British TV star explained his reasons for starring in the new CBC-TV movie Still Life which premieres Sunday September 15 at 8 p.m.
In fact as I reminded him I once phoned him in Prague when he took over as the lead actor in the British TV mystery McCallum.
"That was 1998," Parker remembered. "So it was great to talk to him again.
Parker is the big name to entice TV viewers into watching Still Life.
He shines as Chief Inspector Armand Gamache who is investigating a suspicious death in the tiny town of Three Pines which is nestled deep in Quebec's impossibly beautiful Eastern Townships.
"When I was asked I was hesitant," Parker admitted. "But only because I had played an inspector in another mystery series as you well know."
He's modestly referring to his spectacular success as Inspector Thomas Lynley in 23 two-hour installments of The Inspector Lynley Mysteries made between 2001 and 2007.
"Then I read this script and both characters could not be more different."
Whereas Lynley was aristocratic Chief Inspector Amand Gamache is world weary, completely professional in his drive to find the killer, armed with two decades of experience at his job.
"The character made sense to me. It was a challenge."
Still Life was written in 2002 by Louise Penny.
As Parker notes her ninth book How The Light Gets In has just debuted number one on The New York Times best seller lists.
"It's a wonderful coincidence."
Filming took place last autumn with Parker as the star export complete with a gaggle of recognizable Canadian character actors including Anthony Lemke, Gabriel Hogan, Kate Hewlett, Patricia McKenzie and Dylan Trowbridge.
Veteran Wayne Grigsby (October 1970) wrote the taut script. CBC veteran Phyllis Platt is one of the executive producers and Peter Moss's atmospheric direction is a huge plus.
"We shot everything on actual locations," explains Parker. "The cast was wonderful, I didn't know any of them at the beginning. Also the crew was great. I had a fine time making it. In the last few scenes you can see the colors changing.
"I live in the English countryside. But the geography in the townships is different, the houses are farther apart and there are huge forests. It's really spectacular."
To explains Parker's very definite English accent a line was inserted stating Gamache had studied at Cambridge University.
"But as filming progressed some French phrases did creep in there."
It seems Canadian TV film makers are finally clueing in to the popularity of such British mystery imports as Inspector Lewis, Broadchurch and the recent run of Silk.
Over the years there have been a few tentative attempts at making a quality home grown mystery series --the outstanding example is The Murdoch Mysteries but it runs in hour long installments.
Way back there were CBC's attempts to forge a Benny Cooperman TV franchise with Saul Rubinek and more recently Wendy Crewson starred in CTV's two-hour Joanne Kilbourn mysteries.
As far as TV mysteries go Parker has guested over the years on such British staples as Poirot, Morse, A Touch Of Frost.
So he knows what it takes to forge a success.
"The emphasis is always on character," he explains. "That was the success of Lynley I feel."
As a TV stalwart Parker, 51,  says he was never told why Lynley was cancelled."Our ratings remained strong but the entire production team defected to another network."
Undeterred Parker joined the cast of Merlin playing the character of Agravaine for all 13 episodes. He also impressed as Albert Speer in BBC's miniseries Nuremburg: Nazis On Trial.
Parker says he'd "certainly" be up for more stints as Inspector Gamache.
"It all depends on the ratings. The books were written with the seasons in mind so the next one must be filmed during the winter."
"I've only seen a rough cut of Still Life so far but I think it turned out. Yes, it's been an adventure so far."
STILL LIFE PREMIERES ON CBC-TV SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 15 AT 8 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

The Water Brothers: Making TVOntario Relevant

With its most popular series ever Saturday Night At The Movies cancelled after more than three decades on air TVOntario must rebuild its bridges to the vast TV audience out there.
A great starting point is the low budgeted series The Water Brothers which is just about the most relevant show on TV this year.
The second season revs up Tuesday September 10 at 7:30 p.m.
The half hour documentary is hosted, written and co-produced by Tyler and Alex Mifflin and for all I know they probably also did the catering.
The subject could not be more timely. And I was thinking all about this up at a friend's cottage where she showed me the shore line  which continues to recede year after year.
Without water we're nothing.
First up this second season is a marvelous look at the sacred Indian river The Ganges.
Look, we've all seen images of the multitudes bathing in the river and the funereal pyres floating majestically in the flowing waters.
A billion Hindu people revere this river but the facts are somewhat jarring --here is one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
As it winds through the subcontinent the Ganges and tributaries provide water for 14 per cent of the earth's population.
The tributaries upstream also provide the much needed water for irrigation projects and that's one of the big problems.
Downstream the mighty river is a flow of sludge and toxins, a bubbling cauldron that contributes to high gastrointestinal cancers. The Mifflins get everything right almost all the time. The images are powerfully and horrifying. And the Indian experts consulted on camera agree it is very sad indeed.
Tyler and Alex venture upstream to show the huge tanneries where chemicals like formaldehyde are dumped into the flowing water.
A total of 15 million litres of waste gets dumped every day but only six million is ever treated.
So far governments have shut down 100 polluting tanneries but the shots of the river show decaying bodies floating past the camera. The water seems completely black.
The film makers also visit a religious bathing festival and finds many participants simply do not believe the river is at all polluted. How could it be when it is so holy?
They even take a dip themselves and find the water "surprisingly very refreshing". At about this moment I stopped eating my lunch.
Tests of the water show it contains far more bacteria than should be permitted. The river of death is also itself dying.
The filmmakers may be very young but they're completely accomplished. They know how to hold a TV audience deftly using stunning images to tell their story.
This is the kind of  series TV Ontario desperately needs and who cares about the minuscule budget.if the results are so accomplished?
This is TV for the mind and soul. The Toronto production company is SK Films Inc.
Other programs look at "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch" and there's a visit to a salmon farm in B.C.
THE SECOND SEASON OF THE WATER BROTHERS PREMIERES ON TVONTARIO TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 10 AT 7:30 P.M.
MY RATING: ****.

Beekman Boys: A Pleasant Surprise

Fall is the TV time for new series. But it's also time for a gaggle of new networks.
Check out Cottage Life the latest starter upper which is a new Canadian HD Channel now into free previews for the next few months.
And if you want to sample something totally different check out Cottage Life's new series entry The Fabulous Beekman Boys which debuts Tuesday September 10 at 10 p.m.
And I had a fine time interviewing one of the boys on the phone.
That would be former physician Brent Ridge who with his partner Josh Kilmer-Purcell started their own reality series in 2010 --only now is it coming to Canadian TV.
But I instantly recognized them as the couple who won the 21st edition of The Amazing Race.
"We started the series way back in 2010 because we had to," jokes Ridge.
"We had both been downsized in the economic crisis of 2009 and we needed to get some work, any work."
Formerly an ER doctor, Ridge had been a health consultant for Martha Stewart Omnimedia advising on all aspects of the medical world.
Kiler-Purcell had been an advertising executive by day and a successful drag queen by night.
The series can best be described as a sort of take off on The Egg And I as these two city slickers purchase an antique farm in upper state New York and try to launch a line of up scale products such as goat's milk soap.
One critic summed the experience up best calling it a sort of "gay Green acres".
The series which has already run for three seasons on American TV follows Brent and Josh as they try to cope with situations both are completely unable to handle. In other words confusion prevails.
"I really don't think we were prepared for what happened," Brent stammers. "In fact I now know we were totally unprepared."
In the first half hour episode the boys bicker like any other couple as they try to portion out the responsibilities.
However, Josh must keep his day job in Manhattan to pay the bills while Brent looks after the farm as best he can.
The big news is the publication of Josh's latest book but Brent can't make it to a public reading in New York city simply because he is too busy at the farm.
I tell Brent he was lucky the couple decided on starting up with a herd of goats who need minimal supervision.
"So far there haven't been any big vet bills," Brent is saying on the line. If the guys had bought a dairy herd they might have gone bankrupt with vet charges very early on.
But as Brent says "We were lucky the soap just took off. It's for sale everywhere. Even in Toronto."
About the farm: it was a huge estate founded by a Mr. Beekman in 1802 --he was the magistrate and one malcontent burned down the original barn necessitating the construction of a replacement that fairly dominates the rest of the property.
"We were told it was in this area that the wagon trains would set off for the west," says Brent.
There are other characters like the goat expert "Father John". And there's even a ghost named Mary.
My conclusion: the show is charming if more than a bit voyeuristic. The couple's quarrels do not seem staged for TV but are often fiercely real.
When I ask Brent if he thought he was making a statement about gay couples he says "Of course!"
And that statement is to show a couple behaving just like any two young marrieds. Because in June 2013 they actually married on the farm with Martha stewart dutifully in the audience.
Earlier they also won a cool million dollars on The Amazing Race despite set backs along the way and some injuries.
"We had a strategy and stuck to it no matter what," Brent explains. "We were certainly not the youngest or even the best in-shape couple. We trained a bit. And we figured out how we would handle the challenges. And it worked."
But Brent says The Fabulous Beekman Boys is over as a TV series because "we outgrew our roles. We're no longer innocent. The concept simply would not work any more. Time for another challenge I guess."
THE FABULOUS BEEKMAN BOYS DEBUTS ON COTTAGE LIFE TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 10 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

Untamed Gourmet: Food For Thought

I generally stay clear of TV cooking shows.
Most feature celebrity cooks ranting away either in studio kitchens or in restaurants where the presentation is everything.
Where the food came from is rarely is ever discussed.
So the new series Untamed Gourmet comes across as a real treat.
The second season of this bright, innovative series revs up on APTN Tuesday night at 8:30.
Untamed Gourmet ditches the kitchen formula altogether and goes out into nature with First Nations chiefs to show us where Canadian food comes from.
Each episode has a lyrical quality about it with beautifully shot location work and inspirational musings about the way food gathering has lost its true purpose in our lives.
The whole idea of aboriginal gourmet cooking seems at first glance to be a bit odd. But that's due to our ignorance about First Nations history and the unique interdependence between man and nature.
In the first new episide young Chef Aaron Bear Robe travels with guide Marc Eber through rural Ontario (mainly the Collingwood area) as they fish for rainbow trout and stop to gather fiddleheads, ginger root, wild rhubarb, dandelion greens and buckwheat honey.'
This is all framed within the larger context of stewardship of the land and respect for aboriginal history.
Plates are made of birch bark and Robe cooks everything up on an open fire as he muses about his own evolution into a top chef at his Toronto restaurant Keriwa cafe.
Each episode follows that format of a chef and a guide interacting with nature and collecting ingredients from the forest while being careful not to take everything so the plants can grow back.
We learn a whole lot about traditions and history and how this sense of being at one with nature was ruptured once the European settlements began.
In the second new episode "BC Interior Fowl"  chef Ben Genaille ventures forth into Pemberton, and Kamloops.
His party is on the look out for duck, grouse and snowshoe hare near B.C.'s Shuswap Lake.
When he finds portions of slate he uses these as the plates. And his menu includes a rosehip salad, juniper berries, rattlesnake plantain, Oregon grapes, skunk cabbage and all served up in what looks like a sumptuous meal.
And Genaille reflects on what it means to be a First Nations chef, how his mother's gardens inspired him as a child and what he looks for in producing such a sumptuous feast.
There are six new programs this season --also featured are Port Alberni salmon, Northwest Territories caribou, Cowichan Valley mule foot hog, and Prince Edward Island lobster.
The co-creators are Cary Ciesielski and Ian Toews for 291 Film Company and the result is food for thought --Canadian TV at its best.
THE SECOND SEASON OF UNTAMED GOURMET PREMIERES TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 3 AT 8:30 P.M. ON APTN.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

Highway Thru Hell: Welcome Back

Pssst! Want to have a great success with your reality TV series?
Well, make sure the word "hell" is somehow included.
Such as Hell's Kitchen, Hell On Wheels. Oh, I forgot to include Hotel Hell in there. And there must be others.
But my fave is Highway To Hell which returns for its second season Tuesday September 3 at 10 p.m. on Discovery.
This one is wholly Canadian and wholly exciting.
I was getting ready to enjoy Labour Day when I noticed the first season marathon all day on Discovery and I couldn't stop watching.
This series is firmly set on B.C.'s treacherous Coquihalla Highway which constitutes 100 kilometers of winding roads smack dab through the Cascade Mountains.
This show just wouldn't work in the summer.
Instead it deals with often deadly crashes in the fall and winter caused by inexperienced drivers who panic when confronted by blizzards, slippery roads and roaring semis.
The result can be a pile up of dozens of cars or flipped semis that burst into flames endangering hundreds of drivers who get piled up behind the accidents.
The episodes seem to be shot at night which is when the biggest pile ups happen.
And it is personified through the experiences of jovial veteran Jamie Davis and his Heavy Rescue team.
He has a skilled team behind him including skittish Scott Bird who retired at the end of the First Season but now wants to get back at it.
Then there's gnarled Old Bruce who has his own way of doing things --often antagonistic he surely is not a team player.
And what about Jamie's stepson Brandon who is of two minds whether he wants to really get involved in the trucking business.
The first season was a huge ratings winner for Discovery Canada over its nine hours. And this season there are 13 hours with as many thrills as ever.
First up there's a semi that veered off an icy highway and turned over --the owner wants the truck saved if possible meaning a huge shipment of lumber has to be hand packed and carried out before the rig can be pulled to safety.
But the second accident is truly spectacular --a rig crashed with a huge shipment of food containers catching fire and burning through the night in a seemingly never ending blaze that ties up the highway for hours.
I mean these situations are not set up. The capacity for the guys to get hurt seriously is always there.
And I'm wondering about the TV crew called out in dangerous weather conditions because this stuff could never be rehearsed.
Anyhow Davis is very camera savvy. He knows how to show concern for his guys and the rigs he must save.
And I like Highway Thru hell because, well, it's so Canadian. At the end of the first episode he's wondering how long this motley crew can make it before he starts making personnel changes.
Mark A. Miller produced it, Dan Johnson co-wrote it with Miller. Todd Craddock is the chief photographer. and the producing company is Great Pacific Television.
HIGHWAY THRU HELL RETURNS FOR SEASON TWO ON DISCOVERY TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 3 AT 10 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

New Series Extreme Collectors Worth Watching

I have to admit there are some Reality TV series I find irresistible (my current favorite is Love It Or List It) while there are many I simply stay away from.
No doubt about it I'll surely be watching the latest entry the Canadian made Extreme Collectors which premieres Monday September 2 at 9 p.m. on Slice.
I really enjoyed chatting up host Andrew Zegers on the phone after I watched the first episode.
He's very much at ease in front of the TV camera because of his years as the on-air appraiser for Antiques Road Show Canada.
I also know he was a partner in the Flamboro Antique Show which is one of Canada's biggest and best outdoors shows.
"Finding just the right guests as the most important part," Zegers says. "We wanted to concentrate on devoted collectors and not simply the ultra rich. We will have celebrities too --Corbin Bernsen is in the first episode. But for the most part these are people who are animated by their passion."
Zegers scoured collectors sites and magazines and then his team had to determine if the subjects were just right for TV.
One thing this show is not: an upscale version of Hoarders.
"In the first half hour you'll see a guy with a passion for kids toys and the meticulous care he displays his collection. Everything is laid out in an order and those fortunate to view it will wonder at his care and concern."
There's also a lady who has a hat collection --Zegers comes visiting with a hat expert who is amazed at some of the rare pieces any reputable museum would want to own.
"She has hat boxes nobody else has from the Victorian era. there's a real reverence there for her collection and the display is everything --it's guaranteed to strike awe into the viewer."
Zegers also visits with Bernsen who in a separate wing of his home has well over 8,000 show globes.
"We talk about what started him, what keeps him going. Again everything is so neatly displayed because he's so proud of his acquisitions. And he also asks me if I can figure out which one is the most expensive."
At the end of each segment Zegers gives an appraisal of the collection under investigation. I'm honor bound as a TV critic not to reveal the astounding prices here.
Tune to see which Bernsen piece Zegers predicts is the most costly --and see if he's right on or not.
In today's TV world most of the subjects are very savvy about appearing on the tub --plus they are there to talk about their passion and it's a fantastic platform for them to explain their life's work.
"Every collection is calculated," Zegers says. "The collections reflect the spirit of the collector. You just have to love their stories, the dedication."
In upcoming episodes Penny Marshall shows off her sports memorabilia while a Houdini collector shows off a multimillion dollar collection.
Mentalist Mysterion in Toronto shows off an action figures collection while a Chatham collector shows off his Fifties diner complete with vintage cars and gas pumps.
How about the beer can collection in Philadelphia numbering 83,000 items and still growing stronger?
"We've just grazed the surface," Zegers laughs. And by the way if he is related to actor Kevin Zegers it's only very distantly.
A first run of 13 episodes has been ordered by Architect Films (Deck Wars).
"More please" is my initial reaction.
EXTREME COLLECTORS PREMIERES ON SLICE MONDAY SEPT. 2 AT 9 P.M.
MY RATING: ***1/2.

Meanderings And Mutterings

 

Meanderings and mutterings from the messy desk of your friendly neighborhood TV addict:
CBC NEWS FLASH
CBC News's horrible summer ratings have engendered near panic in the venerable Corp.
Sure, it's summer doldrums time. And yes veteran anchor Peter Mansbridge is on vacation.
But who can say the anemic ratings which translate to around 400,000 viewers at 10 p.m. some recent nights aren't just plain awful.
By contrast CTV an our later is notching more than respectable numbers of around 1.2 million viewers.
CBC is using these weeks to test market a whole list of possible candidates to replace Mansbridge who at 66 suddenly finds himself the oldest TV anchor standing.
Don't get me wrong I think Mansbridge does a very good job.
But I think he needs some help. And some CBC staffers are telling me the Corp is already deciding a sidekick is necessary to rev up the numbers.
Amanda Lang is currently the leading contender for that job.
But don't forget in eras past Mansbridge has survived such co-anchors as Pam Wallin and Hana Gartner.
He's a cagey survival of the CBC news wars, no doubt about it.
CBC insiders also acknowledge that the 10 p.m. time slot has been wrong from the get go.
When CBC went up against CTV at 11 it mostly won those long ago ratings wars.
At 10 the total TV audience is far larger than at 11 but there's great competition from all those slick and hugely popular American dramas.
Another CBC problem is the terrible current format that resembles a near empty wine bar or disco.
And cost cutting has resulted in recent years in the retirement of many of CBC News top reporters.
One result has been CBC has been consistently behind CTV's lead in reporting the on going Senate scandals.
CTV's Robert Fife just keeps getting those scoops which once were the hallmark of CBC reporting. But no more.
LOOK HERE TCM
I usually look forward to Robert Osborne's introductions to the old classics on Turner Classic Movies.
But remember that seven per cent of the time TCM has to make a substitution on its Canadian feed because the cable weblet lacks Canadian rights.
So it made no sense for Osborne to go on and on about Claude Rains being cast in a scintillating Hitchcock mystery --obviously he was talking about Notorious(1946).
But our Canadian feed substituted Rains in Saturdaty's Children (1940).
And the other night Osborne raved about Charles Coburn starring opposite Lucy Ball and Boris Karloff in Lured (1947).
And the Canadian feed substituted Coburn in B.F.'s daughter (1948).
My obvious solution: why not drop Osborne's remarks altogether when a substitution is made so we poor Canadians can never know what we are missing?
BBC CANADA'S PROBLEM
Look, I rather enjoy BBC Canada even though I wish it could show more of those classy British serials we expect of the Beed.
But enough is enough. I've seen each and every episode of Top Gear a hundred times or so it seems to me. Ditto for Kitchen Nightmares and Graham Norton.
With the new fall season just around the corner here's hoping BBCC banishes those shows to the vaults forever.