Production has begun on a new Toronto-made detective drama starring a veteran Canadian actress, a former Degrassi kid and a one-time Coronation Street regular.
The Detail stars Wendy Crewson (Saving Hope, Room), Shenae Grimes-Beech (Degrassi: The Next Generation, 90210) and Angela Griffin (Coronation Street, Inspector Lewis) as female homicide detectives.
The series comes from the producing and writing team behind CTV medical drama Saving Hope, including co-showrunners Ley Lukins (Lost Girl) and Adam Pettle (King). It’s produced by Ilana Frank’s ICF Films in association with Entertainment One and CTV.
Grimes-Beech stars as Jacqueline “Jack” Cooper, described in a news release as a street smart detective with a messy personal life. Griffin is her mentor, Detective Stevie Hall, and Crewson is their boss, Staff Inspector Fiona Currie.
Other cast members include Canadian actors David Cubitt (Medium), David Ferry (Boondock Saints), Matthew Edison (The Girlfriend Experience), Al Mukadam (Second Jen) and Matt Gordon (Rookie Blue), and American actor Ben Bass (Rookie Blue).
The 10-episode drama is shooting in Toronto to air as part of CTV’s 2017/18 season. It has also been picked up by ION Television in the U.S.
Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple, with Benedict Cumberbatch, in an ITV adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder is Easy. Photograph: ITV Plc
Forget domestic noir and put down all those books with “Girl” in the title. Crime fiction is turning back the clock to its golden age with a host of books that pay homage to the genre’s grande dame, Agatha Christie, either intentionally or in spirit.
Last week saw the publication of Closed Casket, Sophie Hannah’s second Hercule Poirot book, which “continues” the great sleuth’s life of solving crimes. The book has been published to coincide with what would have been the author’s birthday and to commemorate 100 years since she wrote her first published novel.
In October Hodder & Stoughton will bring out chatshow host Graham Norton’s first novel, Holding, described as a story of “love, secrets and loss” centring around a crime in a small village in Ireland. In May, Bloomsbury publishes Plum Sykes’s Party Girls Die In Pearls, the first of a new crime series billed as “Agatha Christie meets Clueless”, and Orion has just announced a deal with bonkbuster queen Tilly Bagshawe to write a new “cosy” crime series as MB Shaw. Meanwhile, reprints of 30s and 40s crime classics are continuing to sell well and HarperCollins has just commissioned writer and theatre-maker Stella Duffy to complete an unfinished novel by New Zealand crime writer Ngaio Marsh, set during the second world war.
There’s also a growing appetite at publishing houses for books by modern authors who can put their own spin on the golden age genre.
Alexandra Pringle, editor-in-chief at Bloomsbury, says that it bought Sykes’s series – which follows two undergraduates, one British and one a more worldly American, as they solve crimes in 1980s Oxford – because “it felt as if Dorothy Parker or Nancy Mitford were to try their hand at an Agatha Christie … subversive, wickedly funny and modern”.
Sykes herself says she’s a huge Christie fan who wanted “to take what I know I can do, which is high-society comedy and romance, and then add mystery to the mix”.
That said, Brawn warns that Christie’s deceptively simple style is not easy to get right. “There are definite challenges for modern authors. These days, crime writers rely a lot on police procedurals and technology, and to write a good golden age novel you really have to unlearn those things and embrace the disciplines of the golden age, which really centre around plot and character.”
The real appeal with Christie is that not only are they really good stories but there’s a lot going on under the surface, he says. “They’re sometimes unfairly dismissed as being a bit safe compared with today’s crime thrillers, but in reality there’s a lot of darkness there.”
James Prichard, Christie’s great grandson and the chairman of Agatha Christie Ltd, agrees. “There’s a terrible tendency to see golden age crime as cosy crime, but I think it’s pretty evident that my great-grandmother found murder a serious and horrific business,” he says. “The reason that these books have lasted and that so many people still read or try to emulate them today is because the plots stand up. People enjoy the puzzle elements in them and they like the fact that you might feel a little uncomfortable, but never so uncomfortable that you can’t go on.”
Sue Barr—Getty ImagesYoung female librarian arranging books on library shelves
Libraries are changing -- and so are the jobs of the specialists w
Financially savvy individuals know better than to dive headfirst into a dying industry. When a job breathes its last breath, employees will be left scrambling to locate a new job that utilizes the same skills and pays around the same amount.A few years ago with the rise of digital media, I wondered what would happen to all the libraries. I imagined buildings abandoned, shelves empty, save for the occasional battered book, and everything covered in layers of dust. However, libraries aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. And librarians and library assistants are still relatively stable career prospects. Here’s why.
1. Salary
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (U.S. figures), library technicians and assistants earned a median wage of $13.43 an hour in 2015. And even the library assistants who were paid the lowest in the industry averaged around $9.34 an hour. If you pursue a library assistant job, chances are you will be paid above the federal minimum wage. When you throw in the fact that the job doesn’t require you to invest in an expensive college degree, it’s a pretty solid employment opportunity.
The only downside is that a lot of the job opportunities are currently part-time, but that applies to a lot of jobs that don’t require a college degree. This job can be a steppingstone to a far more lucrative librarian job. Librarians earned an average of $27.35 an hour in 2015. That’s an annual salary of around $56,880. Even the lowest paid jobs within the industry paid an annual salary of around $33,810. The only downside is that to become a librarian, individuals will need to earn an undergraduate degree and a masters in library science.
2. Upward Job Prospect Trend
Sure, electronic media has hurt the librarian profession, but it’s not severely wounded. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job opportunities for librarians and library technicians and assistants will continue to increase.The job outlook from 2014 to 2016 for librarians is expected to increase by 2%. And library technician and assistant positions will increase by 5%. The fact that the industry continues to experience growth, even if it’s slow growth, is a good sign.
3. Libraries Are Proactively Changing
Public libraries have been making major changes to remain relevant in an increasingly digital world. Here are some of those changes:
Offering movie rentals
Renting board and video games
Renting meeting rooms to businesses
Offering power tool rentals
Renting musical instruments
Offering free Wi-Fi
Providing access to 3D printers
Giving out free seeds to plant
Providing computer and tech classes
4. Broad Range of Librarian Jobs
The employment opportunities for librarians are far more expansive than gigs at small public libraries and schools.Larger libraries often allow individuals to really specialize in a specific skill set.
User service librarians aid individuals in navigating the library and finding material to conduct research.
Technical service librarians obtain, prepare, and organize library materials.
Administrative services librarians are focused on the more business-oriented aspects of the library (staffing, budgets, library material contracts, and fundraising).
Librarians can also work in nontraditional librarian jobs.
Corporate librarians are hired by private businesses (insurance companies, consulting firms, and publishing companies) to assist employees as they conduct research.
Government librarians assist government staff.
Law librarians work in law school libraries and law firms. They organize legal resources and aid lawyers, law students, judges and law clerks with their research.
Medical librarians help health professionals, patients, and researchers find health-related information. They teach medical students how to find information and answer consumer health questions.
Libraries and librarians have continually fought to remain relevant as technology has rapidly changed. Due to the hard work of librarians, library organizations, and many others, library based careers are still a lucrative career choice.
As Toronto prepares to become a Hollywood playground this September thanks to TIFF, CanLit fans can also embrace that three new television adaptations will be going into production in and around the city this fall.
Here is the latest on three productions with air dates (TBA) in 2017:
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood Production: Shot in Toronto. Written by Bruce Miller (The 100), who co-executive produces with Daniel Wilson (from the 1990 film adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale), with Atwood acting as consulting producer. Reed Morano (Vinyl) to direct first three episodes Stars: Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love), Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men), Yvonne Strahovski (Dexter), Samira Wiley (Orange Is The New Black) When/where to watch: 10 episodes on Hulu
Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood Production: Shot in Toronto. Written and executive produced by Sarah Polley (Away From Her); directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho) Stars: Sarah Gadon (Cosmopolis), Zachary Levi (Chuck), Anna Paquin (True Blood) When/where to watch: Six episodes on CBC TV and Netflix (international)
Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery Production: Shot in Ontario. Co-executive produced and written by Moira Walley-Beckett (Breaking Bad) with the two-hour premiere directed by Niki Caro (Whale Rider) Stars: TBA When/where to watch: Eight episodes on CBC TV and Netflix (international)
This past March, Downton Abbey ended its television run with the Love Actually of series finales—
a joyously light-hearted affair for most characters involved, especially the long-tortured Lady Edith,
who closed out the show by finally locking down a man, a better title than her sister, and a cushy career. (Respect.) Since the finale aired, there have been rumors that the ensemble cast might re-unite for a big-screen spin-off. (God knows at least one butler would welcome the work.) But in the event that a
spin-off film never happens, series creator Julian Fellowes has kindly looked into his Downton Abbey
crystal ball and offered fans a glimpse into several characters’ futures.
Charitably, Fellowes shares the fate of Lady Mary, the snooty protagonist who closed out the series with
a shock twist: she has a heart. The character demonstrated as much by re-uniting Lady Edith with Bertie,
and then actually refraining from plundering their wedding day with news that she is expecting a second
child. Well, in an interview with Deadline, Fellowes forecasts that Mary’s business acumen will help
keep the Crawley estate afloat, now that she’s taken over the business reins from her bumbling father.
“My own belief is that Mary, whether you like her or dislike her, is a hard worker, and she’s practical,
Fellowes explains. “I think she will employ the kind of advice that she needs [to manage the estate].
She would probably have opened the house to the public in the 1960s, as so many of them did, and
she’d have retreated to a wing, and maybe only occupied the whole house during the winters.”
(Coincidentally, this is the same strategy Nicholas Ashley-Cooper, the son of the Earl of Shaftesbury,
used to save his family’s estate—a story chronicled in a recent issue of Vanity Fair.)
As for the rest of the family and staff— Fellowes does not think they strayed far, and that future
generations would still be inhabiting the same Yorkshire pile.
“My own belief is the Crawleys would still be there [in Downton Abbey], just as the Carnarvons are
today [in the real Highclere Castle, where Downton was filmed],” says Fellowes. “George [Mary’s son]
would have gone to the Second World War, and of course the fear is that he would be killed. We know
that Mary is pregnant, so there’s going to be another child. As for the title, I don’t know where it would
go beyond George, but let’s hope he gets through the war and has children of his own.”
(If we worked at a television network, we would greenlight an entire spin-off based on the previous
paragraph and the lingering question of how George will fare as an adult, given his upbringing with Downton’s Mommie Dearest.)
Although Fellowes does not offer the fates of the other characters, he does offer up another great trivia
note by revealing the inspiration behind Maggie Smith’s Dowager Countess.
“One thing I very much enjoyed about Violet was that I had, in creating her, touched on an iconic figure
of British families,” explains Fellowes. “There was a whole generation of women like Violet. My theory
is that, when the men went off to war, the women had to keep the show on the road back home, and they
did. As a result, during the 50s, 60s and 70s, there were these incredibly frightening matriarchs in all
sorts of family situations, that everyone was half terrified of and half loved.”
“I modeled her on my grandfather’s older sister,” Fellowes continues. “And the thing about those
women is that they were as tough on themselves as they were on everyone else, which is why you
forgave them. They weren’t selfish in that way; they just had these incredibly high standards that
everyone had to meet.”
Fellowes has previously said that he is keeping his fingers crossed for a film spin-off, so that
audiences can re-unite with their beloved characters.
“I hope there will be a film,” Fellowes told IndieWire several months back. “I’d structure a narrative
with lots of things happening, but we would need a kind of unity to make a feature, which is a challenge
for me. It would be a bigger canvas riot could be a real riot, the ball a real ball. I would like that, I
think it would be fun. But there’s a time and then everyone’s moved on."
