From Jim Bawden:
Link: Black Watch Snipers: Must See TV
The best way to observe Remembrance Day? Reserve time to watch the brilliant new documentary Black Watch Snipers which premieres Friday night at 9 on History.
Look, I thought I knew a fair bit about Canada’s role in World War II But Black Watch Snipers opens up a whole new perspective. Continue reading.Â
Alex Paxton-Beesley has nothing but pure love for fans of Murdoch Mysteries and of Freddie Pink in particular. But, in the beginning, she was very nervous; Murdoch fans are a passionate group and make their feelings known.
“I was very nervous because the fans are incredibly loyal to the established relationships on the show,” Paxton-Beesley says. “If they [had put William and Freddie together as a couple], I would have said, ‘Guys, I’m going to be killed in real life!’ It’s so cool to see a Canadian-made show—with a Canadian cast, written by Canadians and shot in Canada—that is such a massive hit with a global audience. It’s awesome and inspiring and really fun and speaks to the quality of the show.”
The Toronto actress is days away from wrapping production on Pure, CBC’s upcoming six-episode drama about the Mennonite Mob dealing drugs out of Canada, Mexico and the United States. Paxton-Beesley plays Anna Funk, Mennonite wife to Pastor Noah Funk (Ryan Robbins) who sees her quiet life threatened after a mob leader named Eli Voss (Peter Outerbridge) gives Noah an ultimatum, forcing the Funks into the crime world.
“My character has to hold down the home front and make some pretty tough choices,” Paxton-Beesley teases. “It’s fun to play, but emotional.”
After filming wraps in Halifax, she jets back to Toronto where she’ll once again assume the role of Freddie Pink in a Murdoch Mysteries episode to air later this season.
“I don’t know if I can tell you anything,” she says. “But I can say that show is the most fun.”
Season 1 of Pure will air during the winter on CBC.
Murdoch Mysteries airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on CBC.
From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:
Link: Remembrance Day is now different, as we recognize what lingers
The remarkable series War Story (made by Barry Stevens) exists as several startlingly powerful statements. In previous productions, the emphasis has been on allowing actual stories to be told only through the personal reminiscences of witnesses of the events of war. The singularity of the voices, without the interruption of a narrator or pundits, is intimate, unmodified and stunningly forceful. Continue reading.
Band of Brothers changed my whole outlook on the Second World War. The excellent HBO series put faces to that conflict in a way no school assembly, as important as those are, could as a group of American troops slogged their way across Europe and into Germany.
Black Watch Snipers has done that again from a Canadian point of view. Airing Friday at 9 p.m. ET on History as part of the network’s Days of Remembrance programming, the yap films documentary follows the actions of this country’s most storied regiment: the Black Watch Battalion. Mixing interviews with the five remaining snipers, now all in their 90s, of that elite group—Dale Sharpe, Jim “Hook†Wilkinson, Russell “Sandy†Sanderson, Mike Brunner and Jimmy Bennett—with stunning recreations, Black Watch Snipers is the gripping recounting of their heroic and terrifying experiences over a 10-month period in 1944.
“We looked after each other. That’s how we survived,” Wilkinson says into the camera. If only it was really that easy.
“It’s a damn war and we didn’t start it,” Sanderson says. “And it had to be ended. So we did the job.”
Black Watch Snipers begins on Juno Beach on D-Day, with the Black Watch Battalion heading 20 miles inland to Verrieres Ridge where they encountered the full force of the Germans. Hundreds were killed. The scout platoon, formed soon after and led by Sharpe, consisted of young men with one mission: to be ahead of the main group and take out as many high-ranked German soldiers as they could. Their movement continued across the top of France and into Belgium, where the team took on the dangerous task of interacting with the Germans entrenched in Antwerp. Then it’s on to the Netherlands, where the battalion suffers more tragic losses, its liberation and a final showdown in Germany.
To a man, they all say at some point during the broadcast that they’ll never forget what they went through. We shouldn’t forget either, and Black Watch Snipers helps us remember.
Black Watch Snipers airs Friday at 9 p.m. ET on History.
From Marilyn Boone of CBC News:
Link: Frontier women: Badass, tough cookie, survivor
They’re women who play very different roles, from a prostitute to an Ojibwa warrior to an ambitious businesswoman, in the male-dominated and cutthroat world of 18th-century fur trading. Continue reading.
