Life and death on The Rock

St. John’s – We’re born, we get married and then we die… and in outpost Newfoundland, it all happens under one roof.

Executive producers Mary Sexton (Tommy, Behind the Red Door) and Mary Walsh just completed shooting Hatching, Matching & Dispatching, a $1.7-million, one-hour pilot for a CBC half-hour comedy series about a one-stop wedding, funeral and ambulance shop in Newfoundland.

‘These types of ambulance service, wedding chapel and funeral parlor places live across the country, and across the world for that matter,’ said Sexton from St. John’s three days before the pilot went to camera. She explains that the pilot – and the series if it’s a go – combine elements of sitcom and sketch comedy, with testimonials from secondary characters tying together a series of sketches featuring the main and recurring characters.

Created by Walsh, Hatching, Matching & Dispatching is a coproduction from 2M Innovations, Walsh’s and Sexton’s St. John’s-based production company, and Toronto’s Insight Productions. Sexton also takes on the role of producer with Insight’s Mark McInnis. Insight executive producers are John Brunton and Barbara Bowlby.

‘We really do need a series coming out of Newfoundland. It’s so sad to see us always exporting our talent,’ says Sexton. ‘We’re so fortunate that Mary [Walsh] wants to come home and do this because she is the queen of sketch comedy in Canada.’

Walsh also writes with Ed Macdonald and stars alongside Mark McKinney (Kids in the Hall), Rick Boland (The Divine Ryans), Shaun Majumder (This Hour Has 22 Minutes) and Susan Kent (Violet).

Helmed by Henry Sarwer-Foner (Rick Mercer’s Monday Report, 22 Minutes), principal photography got underway July 19 in the St. John’s area, including locations in Petty Harbour and Torbay. Shooting wrapped July 28, with plans to deliver to CBC in October.

The pilot received funding from the Canadian Television Fund’s EIP and LFP, the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation, Newfoundland and Labrador tax credits, and deferrals from both 2M and Insight. The pilot has secured U.S. distribution through Outrider Pictures. Laura Bracken

Christmas in July

Vancouver – Shooting began July 16 in Gibsons, north of Vancouver, for four weeks of production of A Beachcombers Christmas.

Production – for which 30 of the 80-member crew come from the Sunshine Coast – wraps Aug. 13

A Beachcombers Christmas revolves around a charity hockey game organized by the character reprised by Dave Thomas (SCTV). Graham Greene, Deanna Milligan and Cam Bancroft also return from last year’s MOW.

Anne Wheeler directs the production set to air in December.

According to producer Nick Orchard of Vancouver’s Soapbox Productions, last year’s MOW The New Beachcombers, which revitalized the venerable family series, was one of the highest-rated movies to air on CBC in the fall season. Ian Edwards