Due South has a special place in director George Bloomfield’s heart. He was involved with the Alliance Atlantis series from the very beginning, and was instrumental in helping to develop the characters, create the look, and set the comedic tone. During Due South’s last two seasons, he was creative producer and directed every third episode.

The strong rapport between all the members of the cast and crew on Due South was crucial to making the show a great working experience for Bloomfield, who is in the running for a best director in a dramatic series Gemini. ‘All the people on that show had a high regard for each other,’ he enthuses, ‘so we were able to stretch the limits of what we were doing – unlike when you have one powerful ego, and then the talents of everybody else don’t always get used.’

The last two seasons of Due South saw Paul Gross expand his role to writer and executive producer as well as star of the show, and consequently he and Bloomfield were able to take it in pretty much whatever direction they wanted. A two-part episode called ‘Mountie on the Bounty,’ for instance, was inspired when Gross spotted the famous ship on the Toronto waterfront and immediately started to devise a storyline incorporating pirates and seafaring.

As Bloomfield and Gross developed the idea, it grew bigger and bigger, and demanded an increasingly large budget. ‘Paul turned to me and said, ‘How are we going to do this?’ ‘ recalls Bloomfield. ‘And I said, ‘Well, normally we’d have to go and talk the assholes into it. But now we’re the assholes. So let’s just do it.’ ‘

Bloomfield is currently completing two mystery mows for Shaftesbury Films – Love and Murder and Deadly Appearances – but he prefers the medium of episodic television and plans to return to it soon. ‘I enjoy doing episodic tv because I love the process,’ he says. ‘I love doing it every day, and episodic tv has always been a terrific place to keep busy all year round.’

Louise Cameron