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| In 'A Wind At My Back Christmas,' Meredith Henderson, left, plays Anna Schiller, an Austrian music student whom series regular Hub Bailey (Dylan Provencher) meets at university while studying to be a priest: 'A handsome and affecting show, without being soft-headed,' says reviewer Tony Atherton. |
Does this mark an end of an era at Sullivan, the company responsible for some of the most beloved Canadian dramas ever made: Anne of Green Gables, Road to Avonlea and Wind at My Back? Sullivan has been immersing itself in animation of late, a medium that doesn't require all that bulky, expensive period paraphernalia.
Fans of Sullivan's high-end melodrama probably needn't worry. At last word, Sullivan was in development with CBC on a new family series for next season. In the meanting, A Wind At My Back Christmas, a reunion movie on CBC tomorrow [Dec. 23, 2001] at 7 p.m., provides some relief for Wind loyalists suffering through their first season in 13 years without original episodes of a Sullivan series as part of CBC's Sunday night Family Hour. The film is premium-grade Sullivan, better than the series in some ways. It is handsome and affecting without being soft-headed.
The reunion movie, despite its yuletide setting, is darker and more politically volatile than what you'd expect from the series, a bittersweet drama aboiut a family in a depression-era Ontario mining town. Rebecca Schecter's script picks up the threads left dangling when Sullivan pulled the plug on the series in the summer of 1999 (the final episodes were finally aired last spring). But it also introduces a new character whose story casts a harsh light on Canada's shameful response to Jewish refugees as Hitler began his march across Europe in the late '30s.
Former Orléans actress Meredith Henderson (The Adventures of Shirley Holmes) gives a convincing performance as Anna Schiller, the Austrian music student whom regular Hub Bailey (Dylan Provencher) meets at the University of Toronto while studying to be a priest. Anna, a vibrant young woman active in the anti-fascist movement, affects Hub in a way no woman has. For the first time, he has doubts about his voacation.
Anna, it turns out, is in Canada illegally; she lied about her identity because her Jewishness would have made her unwelcome here. Now an RCMP detective wants to question her about the organization that helped her get into the country.
To foil the police investigation, Hub brings Anna back to New Bedford for the holidays, causing general upset. His mother, Honey (Laura Bruneau) is convinced her son is being led away from his faith, and doesn't hide her feelings. Maisy (Dalene McGinty), Hub's tomboyish childhood chum, now sees him as more than a friend, his celibate intentions notwithstanding, and is jealous of Anna. Hub's rambunctious sibling Fat (Tyrone Savage) resents how his brother steals the limelight. The scene is set for intrigue and family strife, and a denouement that is not as neat as you might expect.
Also back for the reunion are James Carroll as the invariably decent Max, Robin Craig as the frazzled Toppy, and former Ottawan Robert Bockstael as teacher Jim Flett. Key characters May and Grace Bailey (Shirley Douglas and Kathryn Greenwood) are referred to but unseen; they're off in Franco's Spain recovering from the effects of Grace's late husband Van.