If you were to reinterpret Stephen Leacock’s 1912 novel Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town into a TV movie 100 years after it was first published, there’d be no better cast than one filled with current Canadian comedians and acting icons.
Which is why, you’d surmise, CBC chose to do just so with its like-titled comedic fantasy based on the Canadian humourist’s classic work, airing Sunday.
The new take on the old tale blends the real-life story of Leacock’s life with two main plots from Sunshine Sketches – the sinking of The Mariposa Belle steamer and the campaign to save the hotel and bar in Mariposa, a small hub based on Leacock’s hometown of Orillia, Ont., and representing Anytown, Canada.
Gordon Pinsent (Babar and the Adventures of Badou) voices an aged Leacock, who narrates the film. Owen Best (Smallville) is a 14-year-old Leacock, with parents played by Jill Hennessy (Crossing Jordan) and Rick Roberts (Traders).
“I thought it would be fun to intertwine his childhood with his memories as an old man. You can tell the story in a more freeing way,” explains writer and executive producer Malcolm MacRury (Cra$h & Burn) on the Toronto set, done up in painstakingly period-specific garb for a surprise cameo.
“It takes a bit of a dream-like character where everything comes out of this elderly man’s memory and imagination, so you get to see the young author, this kid, interacting with all these characters from his fictional creation. It’s pushing the walls of both comedy and storytelling.”
Other cast members, too, push those walls in their own careers. Colin Mochrie plays Judge Pepperleigh, Debra McGrath plays Mrs. Pepperleigh, Patrick McKenna embodies Uncle EP Leacock, Sean Cullen helms Captain, Eric Peterson brings to life Jeff Thorpe, Ron James plays Golgotha Gingham, and Caroline Rhea takes on Mrs. Diston.
Though the film stays largely faithful to the novel, it’s the latter character, Mrs. Diston, who represents a slight departure from the text. The book features a Mr. Diston as an alcoholic schoolteacher, but MacRury saw fit to perform a creative gender reassignment.
“It’s breaking the period rules, but I think it’s funnier and germane to today’s audiences to create that type of controversial character. The thing that was most important to me – and I think to Leacock – was his wordplay. That, we are very faithful to, and we use it extensively,” he explains.
“The characters are all from the book. We haven’t invented any, but we’ve tweaked them and given them more physical comedy. We’ve given Lila Drone (Canadian Idol’s Steffi DiDomenicantonio) an unfortunate voice. She fancies herself an opera diva, but she sings like Lucifer – except to the ear of Peter (Kjartan Hewitt, Murdoch Mysteries). That’s easier to do in a film than in a book.”
The book has leapt to the small screen before – the dramatic adaptation Sunshine Sketches aired on CBC from 1952 to 1953 – and if MacRury has his way, Sunshine will continue to cast its beams across the TV landscape long after this airing.
“I’d be thrilled if CBC saw the potential to turn this into a series,” he reveals, adding that this project has been 17 years in the making and was originally intended as another TV series. “But at the very least I think we’ll do some sequels. My goodness, Leacock wrote 40 books of comedy, so there’s lots to draw on.”
Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town airs Sunday, Feb. 12, at 8 p.m. ET on CBC
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