At the end of the first episode of Murdoch Mysteries back in 2008, inventor Nikola Tesla proclaimed, “We are men of the future, Detective Murdoch, and what a future it shall be.”
He was the first of many historical figures to become a character on the quirky, long-running Canadian series, set at the turn of the 20th century, and his words were certainly prophetic. Flash forward to 2022, and Murdoch and Co. are still forging boldly into the future: Season 15 premieres on cable channel Ovation Saturday, February 26 and streaming service Acorn TV Monday, February 28.
By the time all 24 episodes air, Murdoch Mysteries will have produced more installments — 239 plus three stand-alone Christmas specials — than Canadian counterpart Heartland, Canada’s longest-running one-hour scripted drama, whose 15th season concluded with the 234th.
“That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” says Yannick Bisson, who has played scientifically minded Toronto police detective William Murdoch since day one. “It’s an honor just to be in the same season count as them.”
This past year Bisson and his colleagues have had better things to do than tally episodes. They’ve been filming their longest season to date, and were still wrapping things up in February, when the Montreal native spoke with TV Insider.
“At first there was a sense of elation,” Bisson says when discussing the large episode order. “That quickly transitioned to, ‘How on earth am I going to be able to do this?’ Twenty-four is a lot. When we first started out, it didn’t matter. You could be up all night, start at 6am on a Monday, end at 6am on a Saturday morning and it was no big deal. It’s a little different now.”
Murdoch’s world has certainly changed as well. At the end of last season, he discovered that he had a son with his former love Anna Fulford, who had been hiding from organized criminals known as the Black Hand. Hoping to keep mother and son safe, Murdoch followed young Harry (Etienne Kellici) to Montreal. (Kingston, Ontario, stood in for the Quebec city on location shoots.)
Nigel Bennett, Yannick Bisson and Hélène Joy (Ovation)
That’s where things kick off in the two-part season opener. Back in Toronto, meanwhile, Murdoch’s wife Julia (Hélène Joy) wrestles with her feelings about this new family member, and Constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris) does something drastic to find out what happened to Effie Newsome (Claire McConnell) before he could propose to her.
The Montreal crisis resolves in those episodes, but problems crop up again later in the season. “Things leave off in a little bit of a precarious situation,” Bisson says. “That comes back and bites Murdoch in the pants.”
Bisson directed Episodes 3 and 4. The first sees the return of Nigel Bennett, whose character, former chief constable Giles, went from copper to inmate; in the second, Julia and Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) search for a killer on a derailed train, while Murdoch, alone at the police station and working on his latest invention, ends up being outsmarted by Constable Higgins’ (Lachlan Murdoch) precocious tyke.
“That was an exercise as a director that was just tons of fun,” Bisson says of the train mystery. “We had to re-create a train interior to work for the entire episode. Then we had to go and travel to shoot the train exterior. Then we had to have it crash. It ended up coming off better than I thought it would.”
Bisson directing Episode 4 (Ovation)
The show continues to blend dark storylines with lighter ones. The Halloween episode, “I Know What You Did Last Autumn” (premiering in April!), is a not-so-subtle nod to teen horror flicks. Arriving in May, the Christmas episode is especially meaningful to Murdoch and Julia.
Returning guest stars include Peter Keleghan as government spy Terrence Meyers, who has an unexpected domestic life; Peter Stebbings as unlucky inventor James Pendrick; and Colin Mochrie as maniacal evildoer Ralph Fellows. Another case involves one of George’s flowery-named aunts (Zinnia).
Historical figures also get the spotlight: Mary Pickford, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung pop up. And Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse, who led the team to an NBA championship, appears in an episode about the early days of basketball. It was written by Maureen Jennings, the writer who gave birth to Murdoch 25 years ago in her novel Except the Dying.
Despite Murdoch Mysteries’ international popularity, it seems like it’s taken nearly that long for the show to find a following in the United States. But Bisson has noticed increased recognition now that the series is streamable on services like Ovation Now, Acorn TV and Hulu.
“It’s really been an interesting grassroots thing to watch,” he says. “It didn’t have one pivotal moment or one particular outlet that led to a big proliferation of the show. It’s just been one episode at a time.”
Make that 239 — and counting.
Murdoch Mysteries, Season 15 Premiere, Saturday, February 26, 7/6c, Ovation. Also streaming Monday, February 28, Acorn TV
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