Street Legal reboot part of new season
Old favourite among shows included in CBC’s 2018-19 fall-winter TV lineup
A reboot of Street Legal and a drama about Canada’s tainted blood scandal are among the new shows planned for CBC’s upcoming season. The public broadcaster says six one-hour episodes of the Canadian courtroom drama Street Legal will start airing in winter 2019.
Cynthia Dale will be executive producer and reprise her role as lawyer Olivia Novak, who is now a partner at a major Bay Street law firm.
The popular Gemini Award-winning series originally aired from 1987 to 1994 and followed a group of lawyers at a firm in Toronto.
Meanwhile, the limited series Unspeakable will give a dramatic depiction of the tainted blood scandal that began in the early 1980s.
Also new for the 2018-19 schedule is the drama Diggstown, which the CBC says “will be the first Canadian series to feature a black female lead character.”
It will be shot in Halifax and feature a corporate lawyer whose career priorities change after her aunt dies by suicide after a malicious prosecution.
Other new dramas include Northern Rescue, starring William Baldwin as a widower who moves with his three kids away from the city to take command of the local Search & Rescue service. Kathleen Robertson plays the aunt who helps them cope.
In Coroner, which is inspired by the M. R. Hall series of books, a recently widowed mother investigates suspicious deaths while grappling with her own clinical anxiety.
New comedies include Cavendish, co-created by Mark Little and Andrew Bush, founders of sketch comedy troupe Picnicface. The two star as siblings who return to their hometown on Prince Edward Island to take care of their ailing father.
A total of 17 new series and 36 renewed titles are on the docket unveiled Thursday.
New factual and arts programming on the schedule includes From the Vaults, which features musical performances, interviews and CBC Archive recordings to explore Canadian history and music. Amanda Parris and Tom Power will host.
Meanwhile, High Arctic Haulers looks at Canada’s northern communities, and In the Making profiles Canadian artists.
And Kim’s Convenience star Paul Sun-Hyung Lee will host Canada’s Smartest Person Junior, in which 12 Canadian kids test their intelligence. Speaking of Kim’s Convenience, it’s been renewed for two more seasons.
Other returning series include Baroness von Sketch Show, Still Standing, Anne with an E, Frankie Drake Mysteries, Schitt’s Creek and Workin’ Moms.
Mr. D is also on the schedule for what’s billed as its final season.
“CBC is thrilled to present such a wide range of original programming produced by Canadian creators for audiences on all our platforms,” said Heather Conway, executive vice-president of CBC’s English Services.