Bell Island to star alongside Jonny Harris
Season 3 of ‘Still Standing’ premieres tonight on CBC-TV
“Tell me when to shut up,” Jonny Harris interrupts himself, excited about the story he’s telling.
It’s about his favourite-ever episode of “Still Standing,” his CBC-TV show that will see its Season 3 premiere tonight with two back-to-back episodes.
The show sees actor/comedian Harris travelling the country and visiting rural areas, immersing himself in the stories and the lives of the residents before performing an original stand-up show for the community based on his experience.
His favourite episode so far is one of tonight’s: a visit to Bell Island. It is not far from his hometown of Pouch Cove, but a place he had never really gotten to know well, and he was amazed and thrilled at what he learned.
“It’s one of the most fascinating stories I’ve come across,” Harris says. “In the 1930s, Germany was one of the biggest consumers of iron ore from Bell Island, and the Germans knew the waters well. Bell Island was one of the only locations in North America that were directly attacked by the Germans during the Second World War. Two U-boats, in two attacks, sank four ore carriers.”
With the help of Ocean Quest Adventures, Harris had the opportunity to scuba dive down to see the wrecked carriers. Ocean Quest’s Rick Stanley, in a story Harris laments was edited down for time on the episode, told Harris a story of having met the son-in-law of Rolf Ruggeberg, one of the German U-boat captains responsible for the attacks, at a trade show in the United States.
“His wife was Rolf Ruggeberg’s daughter and it took them three years to convince her to come to Bell Island. When she does, she brings these two Nazi iron cross medals that her father received for the sinking with her, and donates them to the museum,” Harris says. “It’s incredible when you think that those medals and possibly the German submarines themselves were made of iron that could have come from Bell Island.”
Over the past three years with “Still Standing,” Harris — known best for his role as Const. George Crabtree on “Murdoch Mysteries” — has visited dozens of Canadian towns, doing everything from joining a seniors’ ukulele band in P.E.I. to panning for gold in B.C. The show has taken him to his home province only once before, at the end of the first season, when he visited Fogo Island. This season, he’ll also visit Avondale, where viewers will watch him take a race car for a spin on the track at Eastbound International Speedway.
“It’s been a wild way to see this vast, enormous country of ours,” Harris says. “When I did the show in Inuvik, I said despite having travelled so much through Europe and western America, I’m now further away from home than I’ve ever been.”
It’s challenged areas that Harris and his crew select for the show, though he’s quick to point out they aren’t necessarily looking for financially strapped places — they’re looking to showcase communities with a survivor spirit.
Saskatchewan’s Manitou Beach will be featured in this season’s third episode. Once a thriving resort town due to the high mineral content of Little Manitou Lake and its purported health properties, the community is facing issues with rising water levels.
“They say Al Capone used to go there. He apparently had bad skin due to syphilis,” Harris says. “It was a real jiving place, with dance halls and the spa and everything. Now half the town is sandbagged and they might lose Danceland (dance hall) and have to evacuate. They can’t even irrigate it.”
Harris says of all the communities he’s visited, none of the residents have expressed any protest over him pulling from their life’s experiences to create comedy, which is exceptional, given that people today are more sensitive about comedy than ever before. The show he delivers is more of a toast than a roast, he explains.
“I remember when I was younger, asking my mom why people told Newfie jokes,” Harris says. “She put it to me as a point of pride, saying we are so secure in our identity that we don’t mind having a laugh at ourselves. I think it’s like that in a lot of rural places.”
“Still Standing” airs Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. Newfoundland time on CBC-TV.