Putting The ‘fight’ In Crime-fighting
The new police drama Saint-Pierre debuting on CBC and CBC Gem in January proves once again that adversaries can once again put differences aside to solve intriguing crime mysteries.
The premise of two opposite personalities putting aside their differences and coming together to fight crime has been popular throughout storytelling. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes, history’s most famous, mysterious and unorthodox detective, could not have been more different than his mild-mannered partner Dr. John Watson, but for years they solved some of literature’s most famous mysteries, set in Victorian England. In more recent times the Moonlighting TV series begun in 1985 brought together the buttoned-down Cybill Shepherd character with the wild and zany Bruce Willis character at their Blue Moon Investigations agency to solve crime and basically drive each other crazy until their romantic union in 1989, the series’ final year.
The new drama series Saint-Pierre, beginning January 6, 2025, at 9:00 pm ET on CBC and CBC Gem, follows this intriguing premise of opposites attracting in order to fight crime, this time in on idyllic islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, the French Territory nestled near Canada’s shores off the Atlantic coastline.
Two seasoned officers with very different policing skills and approaches are fated to work together to solve crimes. | Photo By Derm Carberry
The series features Canadian star Allan Hawco (Republic of Doyle, Jack Ryan) playing Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Inspector Donny “Fitz” Fitzpatrick and French actress Josephine Jobert (Death in Paradise) playing Saint-Pierre and Miquelon Deputy Police Chief Geneviève “Arch” Archambault. Actors James Purefoy, Benz Antoine, Erika Prevost and Jean-Michel Le Gal round out the stellar cast.
The story begins after Fitz, doing his police job in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador digs a little too deeply into an influential politician’s nefarious activity. For his troubles, Fitz is exiled to work in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, a quiet tourist backwater where the only crime would seem to be not finishing your crêpe. Fitz’s arrival disrupts the life of local Deputy Chief Arch, a Parisian transplant who is in Saint-Pierre and Miquelon for her own intriguing soon-to-be-revealed reasons.
These two seasoned officers with very different policing skills and approaches are forced by fate, it would seem, to work together to solve dramatic and exciting crimes. The location’s idyllic façade conceals the worst kind of criminal activity, which tends to wash up on its beautiful shores. At first at odds and suspicious of each other, Fitz and Arch soon discover that they are better together, and become a veritable crime-fighting force.
Filmed in St. John’s, Saint-Pierre is co- produced by CBC and Hawco Productions, a film and television production company founded by actor, writer and producer Allan Hawco, which has built a growing and diverse portfolio and a strong presence in the Canadian entertainment industry.
