New CBC drama 'This Life' has been filming all summer in Montreal
Filming continues this week in Montreal's NDG neighbourhood on a new CBC Television series, This Life.
The 10-part series follows the story of a single mom who works as a lifestyle columnist at a newspaper. She's just received a diagnosis of terminal cancer, and we see her prepare her daughters and family for her death.
This Life is an adaptation of the very popular Radio-Canada drama, Nouvelle adresse.
By the end of the 2014-15 season, the show had 960,000 viewers and critics called Montreal actor Macha Grenon's work the performance of a lifetime.
In the English adaptation, Toronto actor Tori Higginson, best known from Stargate Atlantis, plays Nathalie Lawson, an NDG-living Anglo mom.
Higginson says she feel honoured to take on a role that's worked so well for the Quebec actor.
"I feel a sense of responsibility," she said.
"I bumped into Macha on the street and I almost cried."
Expectations are high
The new drama premieres on CBC Television Oct. 5 and expectations are high. Will this adaptation also be a hit in English?
This is the third series produced by Montreal's Sphere Media Jocelyn Deschenes for CBC Television.
Deschenes recreated both Sophie and Rumours in English. Neither were nearly as successful for CBC Television as the original French versions.
The only example of a successful adaptation has been the cop series 19-2 which airs on Bravo, after CBC Television decided not to greenlight a pilot.
Showrunner Joseph Kay thinks This Life can generate the broad audiences that CBC is looking for.
"I know the pressure exists but I feel we're making a good show and people are going to like it," he said.
Kay says the Quebec directors who've shot the first episodes bring a filmmaker's approach to the production.
He says attention to complex storytelling is unusual in English-Canadian television.
And Higginson says the story is universal.
"The number of people I've met called Nathalie who've come up to me and told me they've had cancer is bizarre. So I know it's a human story," she said.
"I do hope CBC loves it and that people love us but I can't think of that when I come to work everyday."
