TV shows don't just write and produce themselves. That takes showrunners! Two of the best in Canada have been Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern, the husband and wife team behind such hits as Flashpoint, X Company and Transplant.
Their latest is the new Wednesday night CBC police drama Allegiance. The series stars Supinder Wraich as promising rookie cop Sabrina Sohal. She's teamed with a savvy police veteran played by Enrico Colantoni, my previous guest on brioux.tv : the podcast. Stephen Lobo also stars as Sabrina's wrongfully accused politician father.
On this episode, I'm joined by Mark Ellis, who talks about the importance of casting, writing and setting this series in Surrey, B.C.
Ellis also talks about how he really didn't have much of a sense of Canadian identity until his family returned to Canada from England when he was a lad and he started watching The Beachcombers.
"I thought, okay, this is Canada," says Ellis. "Here we are in a boat with Nick and Relic and we're racing down the sunshine coast... and I thought, well, this is a lovely place." Hear how Mark is bringing that vision up to date now with Allegiance.