October 24, 2011
Bill Brownstein for Postmedia News
Canadians tend to shy away from superlatives, particularly when describing ourselves. We’re generally a bashful people and leave the bravado and bragging to our neighbours to the south.
So we know something special beckons when a couple of homegrown TV execs outdo themselves in calling their new series not Good, not Nice, not Sweet, not Deep, but go whole hog in naming it Extraordinary Canadians. Better still, TV viewers will be delighted to learn that the 12-part series lives up to its title, both in terms of its subjects and their stories.
The series — which debuted Sunday at 8:30 p.m. on Citytv and repeats Oct. 29 at 7:30 p.m. on the Biography Channel — is not to be confused with the CBC-TV endeavour on The Greatest Canadian. The latter series worked from a list of 10 finalists (voted on by Canadians), including the rather bizarre inclusion of Don Cherry, before it was whittled down and Tommy Douglas emerged as Numero Uno.
Fret not about catching fashion casualty Cherry’s mug or Neanderthal views on Extraordinary Canadians. Although there are a couple of people — Lester Pearson and Pierre Trudeau — who show up on both lists, Extraordinary Canadians is limited to the deceased. (Fossils, in the case of Cherry, don’t count.) Apart from Pearson and Trudeau, the series focuses on such compelling subjects as Glenn Gould, Emily Carr and Norman Bethune. Furthermore, the subjects are seen through the eyes and minds of such contemporary Canadian writers as Mark Kingwell, M.G. Vassanji and Margaret MacMillan. Each episode presents a rather unique connection between the writer and the subject.
The TV series has been adapted from the ambitious and bestselling Penguin Canada book series, edited by John Ralston Saul and involving the same pairings of writers and subjects. Penguin, in conjunction with the debut of the TV show, is now releasing the first six books of the series in paperback.