Crave original series The Christine Jessop Story is the culmination of decades of unanswered questions for a Canadian family, and more than a decade of work for one producer.

Produced by Alibi Entertainment in association with Crave, the three-part series gives a wide-ranging perspective on the sexual assault and murder of nine-year-old Christine Jessop in 1984. It examines the wrongful conviction of neighbour Guy Paul Morin, the devastating impact the investigation had on the Jessop family, and how Toronto police eventually discovered the identity of the killer more than 30 years later.

Since its release on Aug. 8, the series has become the No. 1 true-crime series on the streaming service for 2025. Thanks to the response on Crave, the series is making its linear debut on CTV on Saturday (Oct. 25) at 10 p.m. ET, with the final episode airing on Nov. 8.

The Christine Jessop Story marks the culmination of nearly 20 years of research for executive producer Folklaur Chevrier, who tells Playback Daily that the series is an example of how producers “have to fight for that greenlight” in a highly competitive market. “There were 1,000 nos, and it took one yes,” she says.

Financing and development

Chevrier began preliminary research on Christine’s story in 2005, and was already aware of the case because of its high-profile nature. She first reached out to the Jessops in 2006 to discuss the possibility of creating a documentary about Christine’s death, back when it was still an unsolved case. During that time she gathered research and reached out to other individuals related to the investigation.

Chevrier says many of the years were spent building trust with the Jessop family and other key sources in order to “shape a narrative that did justice to the complexity of the case.”

Joanne Virgo, a VP at Alibi Entertainment and executive producer on the series, says that by the time Alibi had come on board as the production company, Chevrier had “massive amounts of information and notebooks, and iPads with folders and folders of photographs and files.”

The Jessop family consented to Chevrier acquiring the life rights to their story in 2019, but it would take several more years before the financing and production partners fell into place.

Roughly a year later, a key part of the story changed dramatically when Toronto police were able to use genetic genealogy to match DNA linking Calvin Hoover, a family friend of the Jessops, to Christine’s murder. Police identified him as the killer on Oct. 15, 2020, five years after Hoover had died by suicide.

“That changed the whole trajectory of the project,” says Chevrier, since the original plan for the documentary was to “ignite a fire under Toronto police” to reopen the case.

What was reignited instead was public interest in Christine’s story, and interest from media executives to tell it. Unfortunately, the timing was difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as productions were just slowly getting back up following months-long shutdowns.

“It wasn’t about rushing into production, but about building something that could have real weight and purpose,” says Chevrier. “Over time, as the industry shifted, true crime matured as a genre, and the appetite for more thoughtful investigative stories grew. And that opened the door for the right kind of partners to eventually come on board.”

The project regained momentum in 2023 when Chevrier met with Erik Barmack of L.A.-based production and packaging company Wild Sheep Content at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Finding partners who understood the tone and intention was one of the key challenges … Wild Sheep recognized the importance of the story,” she says.

After that, Barmack and development executive Jocelyn Wexler were attached as executive producers and Wild Sheep came on board to finance the project, which was retooled as a three-part series pitch to potential buyers. That selling point eventually enticed Bell Media to commission the project as a Crave original, and co-finance it with Wild Sheep. The financing was rounded out by the Bell Fund and tax credits. (The budget was not disclosed.)

Virgo says the documentary came onto Alibi’s radar in early 2024. “We heard rumours that Bell Media might have a really interesting access point to the story about Christine Jessop, and I remember [Alibi president and executive producer] James Hyslop coming into my office and saying, ‘Do you know about this story? It’s one of the all-time biggest news stories in Canada.'”

Not long after, Bell Media arranged a meeting between Chevrier, the team at Wild Sheep, and Alibi’s Virgo and VP of production, Jeff Baker. “We had this really quick connection,” Virgo recalls.

At that point, Alibi came on board to produce the series and several key figures fell into place, including the series’ producer, A.J. Demers, and director, Molly Flood. Virgo says Flood created the lookbook for the show, which was presented to the network while they were in the late stages of development.

Another key figure was Cassie Leigh, who opened new avenues for the documentary when she was hired as an archivist. “She was finding new stories we hadn’t seen before; she was finding names that we hadn’t heard yet in the story, which we were then able to track down,” says Virgo. “We gave her the title of archive producer, because she was generating so much more than just finding the archive.”

Production and post-production

The series was greenlit not long after and went into pre-production in August 2024, wrapping in February of this year.

Some of the footage in the documentary was shot long before the greenlight. The family wanted to ensure their aging matriarch, Janet, had a voice in the series, so Chevrier interviewed her in 2019 and again in 2022, independently paying for a small film crew to record the latter interview. Janet died at age 81 in March 2024.

Chevrier says the comfort and mental health of the interview subjects were carefully considered during production, in light of the documentary’s difficult subject matter. Alibi Entertainment provided mental health resources for the interview subjects and crew during filming. The experience was particularly challenging for Christine’s brother, Ken (pictured), who had only recently gotten sober at the time.

“For him to relive 36 years in five days was incredibly arduous, there’s no doubt about that,” says Chevrier. “But he would say himself, and he has said, that it was also very healing, because for the first time nothing was vetted, nothing was prepared, and he wasn’t told what to say.”

Virgo says the production also went to lengths to include as much of Christine in the documentary as possible. Her stuffed animals were included in the B-roll, and they filmed Ken visiting her grave.

“We really wanted this series to be about Christine, and not about all of the men that could or could not have done this to her,” says Virgo. “That’s why we constantly see her face throughout the documentary.”

She says post-production went by quickly. Each episode was edited in eight weeks, and were edited concurrently, with Demers writing all three.

Sales and marketing

In keeping with the intention to focus the story on Christine and the Jessops, Ken was a critical voice in the promotion of the series, doing interviews with multiple news outlets ahead of the Aug. 8 release.

Production hired publicity company Route 504 to support the Crave marketing team, including talent scheduling. Bell Media also released a trailer and stills to promote the series.

Chevrier says she also used her connections within the true-crime community online to spread word of mouth via social media. “I tried to use my brand voice and tie in how I had built a voice around authenticity and accountability,” she says.

Bell Media holds the Canadian rights to The Christine Jessop Story, with Wild Sheep Content handling international distribution. Sales discussions are currently underway, but nothing has been announced at press time.

For Chevrier, she says “the most rewarding” part of the journey has been witnessing Ken’s recovery. “He’s over three years sober, [but] I was with him when he was at the height of his alcoholism,” she says. “Now he is an advocate for other victims of violence, other families, and other people that are experiencing alcoholism, so he feels he is now — in his mid-50s — living his best life.”

Image courtesy of Bell Media