MARY’S CHRISTMAS
Comedian Walsh aims for a blend of poignancy and humour
A Christmas Fury Airs Sunday, CBC
MELISSA HANK
Mary Walsh insists she’s not obscene. Delightfully profane, sure. Certain to put some pink in your cheek and a tickle in your tummy, even. But flat-out vulgar? No effing way.
And when her CBC sitcom Hatching, Matching, & Dispatching debuted in 2006, filled with more four-letter words than a sloppy game of Scrabble, her reaction was on par with that of other viewers tuning in to our venerable public broadcaster.
“I am the daughter of a sailor and have cursed and swore and effed since birth, and even I was shocked,” she says, chalking the unbleeped cussing up to a mistake in editing.
“There must’ve been hundreds of words!”
Thus, Hatching, Matching, & Dispatching — about a family in Newfoundland that runs an ambulance, wedding and funeral business — got its reputation for a kind of raunchy earthiness, a delicious slice of off-colour Canadiana. It ran for six more episodes before being cancelled.
On Sunday, the Furey family returns in the TV movie A Christmas Fury, featuring the original cast. Walsh is matriarch Mamie Lou, with Mark McKinney, Susan Kent, Shaun Majumder, Jonny Harris and Joel Thomas Hynes among those rounding things out.
“At the end of the TV show, Alma (Adriana Maggs) was pregnant. And as we pick up, she’s pregnant. So it’s sort of like TV time — 10 years is only a month. Mamie Lou, my character, finds Christmas very difficult and she spends a lot of time trying to create the magic Christmas. This year she’s decided it’s all over for her, and she’s going to leave.”
The plot, which brings in a child who affects the whole family, is ultimately uplifting — but not without the kind of hijinks you’d expect from the Fureys.
“Alastair Sim’s A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life actually make me kind of sad that I’m not a better person,” Walsh explains. “I wanted to make a Christmas movie that touched people in that way, and was also really funny.”
Walsh is also known for being a founding cast member of This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and is a recipient of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. Along with Ed MacDonald, she won a Gemini award for the writing on Hatching — the inspiration for which she found growing up in Newfoundland.
“Hickey’s Funeral Home had Hatching, Matching and Dispatching on their ambulance. They were an ambulance service, funeral home and wedding hall, and I thought it was some insouciant Newfoundland way of dealing with the big issues. I thought it was really funny,” she says.
As for which of the three services she most enjoys, Walsh is quick to answer.
“Funerals,” she says. “There are no expectations at a wake.
“You run into people you haven’t seen in 15 years, and people who don’t drink too much. Hijinks happen, and you end up having a great time.”