If this year’s Gemini Award nomination list is saturated, once again, by Da Vinci’s Inquest, it’s peppered with the name of series showrunner/producer/director Chris Haddock.

With one nomination for best direction in a drama series, and three in the category of best writing in a drama series (of course for Da Vinci’s Inquest), Haddock has been keeping busy balancing his three distinct hats as he and his team shoot season four of the coroner series that has won the Gemini for best drama two years in a row.

‘When I’m writing, I’m always directing in my head,’ says Haddock. ‘But if I know I’m directing the episode I’m writing, I give myself the opportunity to explore more challenging things than I would if the script was for someone else. If it’s something that’s risky, I want to be the one to carry it out.’

He cites a scene he cowrote and directed last year, in which the first act was one, 11-minute, unbroken take. ‘In TV, most of the rehearsal time falls to the camera and lighting. There’s not enough time to rehearse with the actors. Being on set as the writer, I could move the stuff around right there on the spot, which really makes for the most compelling TV,’ says Haddock. ‘This year is a continuation of that style.’

Haddock, Da Vinci’s creator, writes on every episode and directs two or three a season, but in season four he has given up some of his directing reins to John Fawcett (Ginger Snaps). ‘He came in to direct one episode and I was so impressed with him I gave up two directing slots to him,’ says Haddock, who admits he never had an ambition to be a director and whose directing experience is exclusive to Da Vinci’s.

‘It’s more unusual in TV to find writer/directors and a lot easier to find writer/producers, because in TV writers tend to be on staff where directors tend to come episode by episode.’

One of the biggest challenges for the TV writer/director, Haddock admits, is objectivity. ‘It’s hard to tell which part isn’t working.’

And while there’s little tradition of writer/producers in Canada, Haddock encourages the model. ‘The more you can understand the nuances of the story, the better you can sell it,’ he says.

‘Some Canadian shows have failed because they were run by dollars rather than talent, but if you look to the U.S., the best TV comes from writer/producers. People like Barry Levinson, Steven Bochco…’

And while Da Vinci’s is run by a writer/producer, and director for that matter, it also has ‘the benefit of a benevolent network executive [CBC’s Susan Morgan], who has the wisdom to interfere only when it is absolutely essential,’ says Haddock.

As such, Haddock has the freedom to take a certain degree of risk with his characters as well. This year, for example, Nick Campbell’s character, Dominic Da Vinci, is in a depression and at times quite unlikable. ‘In North America we don’t like to see our lead actors as being anything but heroic, but we’re not intimidated by a network’s mandate.’

As for accolades, Haddock says he doesn’t think awards translate to more work, although they may get an unknown some attention and it feels good to get one.

‘The challenge is to live up to that honor. To me it means asking are we really doing the best we can do, not just comparably. We have to keep raising the bar and not rest on our accolades.’

Haddock says his greatest accomplishment with the series is having established a Canadian icon.

Da Vinci’s Inquest, budgeted at roughly $1 million per episode, has been sold by Alliance Atlantis in close to 50 countries.

Shooting concludes on the fourth season at the end of October, bringing the total number of episodes to 52.

The series is a coproduction of Vancouver’s Haddock Entertain-ment and Toronto’s Barna-Alper Productions.