Home Fires | |
---|---|
Starring | Gerard Parkes Kim Yaroshevskaya Wendy Crewson Peter Spence Jeff Wincott |
Country of origin | Canada |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 31 |
Production | |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Release | |
Original network | CBC |
Original release | November 9, 1980 – November 17, 1983 |
Home Fires was a Canadian television drama series, which aired on CBC Television from 1980 to 1983. [1] It was a family saga set in Toronto during World War II, [2] and took its name from the expression "keep the home fires burning".
Created and written by Jim Purdy and Peter Such, the series centred on the Lowes, a family in Toronto. Patriarch Arthur Lowe (Gerard Parkes) was a doctor who ran a family medicine clinic in a working class downtown neighbourhood with nurse Marge (Sheila Moore), and was married to housewife Hannah (Kim Yaroshevskaya), a Jewish immigrant from Poland. [3]
As the series progressed, storylines increasingly focused on Arthur and Hannah's children Terry (Wendy Crewson) and Sidney (Peter Spence) and nephew Jakob (Gil Yaron). [3] Terry married her boyfriend Graeme (Jeff Wincott) shortly before he was shipped off to serve in the war, where he was killed at Dieppe; she then served in the Canadian Women's Army Corps before taking a job as a welder in an aircraft factory, where she became a labour union organizer. [4] She entered a new relationship with Bruce McLeod (Booth Savage), a war correspondent, and ultimately decided to attend medical school to become a doctor in the show's final season. Sidney, who was too young at the start of the series to register for military service, resented being unable to serve but signed up for the Royal Canadian Air Force when he reached enlistment age. He was captured as a prisoner of war, but eventually returned to Toronto with a new British war bride. Jakob was Hannah's nephew, a Polish refugee who had come to live with his aunt and uncle in Canada to escape the rising tide of European anti-Semitism in the leadup to the war; [3] initially a supporting character, he became much more prominent after Sidney's enlistment.
Crewson won an ACTRA Award as Best Continuing Television Performance at the 13th ACTRA Awards in 1984 for the show's final season. [5]
Wendy Jane Crewson is a Canadian actress and producer. She began her career appearing on Canadian television, before her breakthrough role in 1991 dramatic film The Doctor.
The ACTRA Awards were first presented in 1972 to celebrate excellence in Canada's television and radio industries. Organized and presented by the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists, which represented performers, writers and broadcast journalists, the Nellie statuettes were presented annually until 1986. They were the primary national television award in Canada until 1986, when they were taken over by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to create the new Gemini Awards, although ACTRA continued to present Nellies in radio categories.
The Earle Grey Award is the lifetime achievement award for television acting of the Canadian Screen Awards, and its predecessor the Gemini Awards. It can be presented to an individual or collaborative team.
The John Drainie Award was an award given to an individual who has made a significant contribution to broadcasting in Canada. Although meant to be presented annually there have been years where it was not presented.
The Foster Hewitt Award for Excellence in Sports Broadcasting was presented annually by ACTRA, the Canadian association of actors and broadcasters, to honour outstanding work by Canadian television and radio sportscasters. The award was named after legendary Canadian sportscaster Foster Hewitt.
Yannick Denis Bisson is a Canadian film and television actor and director best known to international audiences for playing Detective William Murdoch on the series Murdoch Mysteries.
Michael Maclear, OC was an award-winning Anglo-Canadian journalist, documentary filmmaker, and former correspondent for various CBC programs and for CTV's W5. He is the great-great-grand-nephew of South African astronomer Sir Thomas Maclear.
The 29th Genie Awards were held on April 4, 2009, to honour Canadian films released in 2008. The ceremony was held at the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, and was broadcast on Global and IFC. The ceremony was hosted by Dave Foley.
The Canadian Screen Award for Best Actor in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role is an annual Canadian television award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best leading performance by an actor in a Canadian television series. Previously presented as part of the Gemini Awards, since 2013 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.
The Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress in a Continuing Leading Dramatic Role is an annual Canadian television award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television to the best leading performance by an actress in a Canadian television series. Previously presented as part of the Gemini Awards, since 2013 it has been presented as part of the Canadian Screen Awards.
Forgive Me is a Canadian television drama series, about a young insomniac priest who gets caught up in the sins of his congregants while a secret from his own past threatens his calling.
Murray Westgate was a Canadian actor. He is best known for his longtime role as a television pitchman in Canadian commercials for Esso on Hockey Night in Canada in the 1950s and 1960s, and also for his roles in Blue City Slammers, for which he garnered a Genie Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor at the 9th Genie Awards in 1988; and in the film adaptation of Two Solitudes, as the Prime Minister of Canada.
The Gordon Sinclair Award is a Canadian journalism award, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television for excellence in broadcast journalism. Originally presented as part of the ACTRA Awards, it was transferred to the new Gemini Awards in 1986. During the ACTRA era, the award was open to both radio and television journalists; when it was taken over by the Academy, it became a television-only award.
Bayo is a 1985 Canadian drama film, directed by Mort Ransen and written by Ransen, Terry Ryan, and Arnie Gelbart. The film stars Ed McNamara, Patricia Phillips, Stephan McGrath, Hugh Webster, Cedric Smith, Patrick Lane, and Maisie Rillie. Set in Tickle Cove, Newfoundland and Labrador, the film focuses on the relationship of Bayo (McGrath), a young boy living with his single parent Sharon (Phillips). When Sharon's long-estranged father Phillip (McNamara) returns, Bayo's fascination with his grandfather threatens to upend Sharon's plan to move to Toronto.
Sean Sullivan was a Canadian actor. He is most noted for his stage and television performances in productions of David French's play Of the Fields, Lately, for which he won an ACTRA Award in 1977 as Best Television Actor for the CBC Television film; and his film performances in Springhill, for which he won a Canadian Film Award as Best Actor in a Non-Feature Film in 1972, and The Boy in Blue, for which he received a posthumous Genie Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 7th Genie Awards in 1986.
The Olden Days Coat is a Canadian television film, directed by Bruce Pittman and broadcast by CBC Television in 1981. A Christmas-themed family film adapted from a short story by Margaret Laurence, it stars Megan Follows as Sal, a young girl who is upset that the recent death of her grandfather has prevented her family from celebrating Christmas normally, but who learns the true meaning of the season after she finds an old coat belonging to her grandmother which transports her back in time when she puts it on.
War Brides is a Canadian television film, directed by Martin Lavut and broadcast by CBC Television in 1980. The film centres on four women, three from the United Kingdom and one from Germany, who come to Canada as war brides of Canadian soldiers after the end of World War II.
Grahame Woods is a Canadian cinematographer and writer. He is most noted as a cinematographer for his work on the television drama series Wojeck, for which he won the Canadian Film Award for Best Black-and-White Cinematography at the 19th Canadian Film Awards in 1967 for the episode "The Last Man in the World"; as a writer, he is most noted for the television films War Brides (1980) and Glory Enough for All (1988).
The Summit is a Canadian thriller drama television miniseries, which premiered in 2008. Directed by Nick Copus and written by John Krizanc, the miniseries centres on the preparations for an international Group of Seven summit of world leaders which is disrupted by a bioterrorism threat when mysterious forces plan to release an engineered drug-resistant strain of smallpox at the summit opening.
Of the Fields, Lately is a Canadian theatrical play by David French, first staged by Tarragon Theatre in 1973. It is the second in his Mercer Plays series, following Leaving Home (1972) and preceding Salt-Water Moon (1984), 1949 (1988) and Soldier’s Heart (2001).