MURDOCH MYSTERIES SETS SAIL ON SEASON 17 FILMING IN GRAVENHURST THIS WEEK

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — Fans of the popular “Murdoch Mysteries” will want to tune in to the season premiere of the popular CBC detective show this fall for a glimpse of Gravenhurst.

Producers, actors, crews, some 150, are at the Muskoka Wharf and Gull Lake Rotary Park this week filming segments for the start of season 17.

While producer Jeremy Hood was coy about the exact nature of the “B storyline,” he said the two-part episode entitled “Due the Right Thing” will feature the town and its two lakes prominently.

“It’s part of the story.”

The series is based in Toronto and “Season 17 is 1911.”

He said the premiere won’t specifically cite Muskoka as its location.

Cast and crew from the Murdoch Mysteries TV show are in Gravenhurst this week shooting on Lake Muskoka and Gull Lake for this fall’s two-part season premiere on CBC and CBC Gem.

It has something to do with a “life boat rescue” apparently, “but I can’t tell you that,” said Hood.

“Without going too far, they’re travelling by water on a boat. It doesn’t specifically say where they are. It could be the St. Lawrence, it could be Muskoka, it could be wherever.”

Hood said they had shot on the Keewatin years ago and now that the ship has been relocated to Kingston it’s not available yet.

“But the boat never moved. On the Wenonah we can actually get shots of the boat moving.”

Hood, who is entering his third season as producer after 10 years as production manager, says “people like it. No fans, no show.”

Asked to quantify what makes the Toronto-based Shaftesbury show such a hit and go in to worldwide syndication, he posed his own question back: “What makes a Leafs fan?”

“It could be so many things, great stories, great actors, local people. I don’t know.”

Though star Yannick Bisson, who plays William Murdoch, won’t be on set this week, his co-star Thomas Craig was among 150 actors, local extras and production company workers at the two sites Monday to Friday.

Co-star Thomas Craig, centre, who plays Inspector Thomas Charles Brackenreid, leaves the ship with a crew member, left, and director Jeremy Hood, right, yesterday morning after their first shoot out in the big lake.

Blair Foley, of Gravenhurst, in a cool white summer suit, was among those filling in the background on the Wenonah II Tuesday as she sailed through the Narrows out into Lake Muskoka for the week’s first shoot in the morning.

The cast and crew will also be at the Rotary park Thursday for filming other scenes as film trucks filled parking lots around town. They were in Belleville last week.

Season 16 ended with another two-part episode, aired April 3 and 23, entitled “The Long Goodbye.” In it Murdoch’s investigation of a constable’s murder is hampered by interference from Brackenreid’s zealous over-replacement. And disgusted by the new inspector’s tactics, Murdoch resigns and is privately enlisted to find a missing heiress.

Cheers to 1986 ‘Boy in Blue’ 

While Muskoka  won’t be mentioned by name, it’s impossible for Muskoka film buffs to miss recognizing the locale. It is reminiscent of “The Boy in Blue,” which was filmed on sister ship the Segwun in 1986.

Muskoka Real Estate owner Ken Little, whose office is next to the Wharf, recalls that movie shoot with star Nicholas Cage as Toronto international rowing sensation Ned Hanlon.

But it was his co-star Canadian acting great Christopher Plummer, who Little fondly remembers.

“He dropped by my office for a drink on the deck after a late supper in the Lion’s Pavilion,” Little recalled yesterday while watching and overseeing production in the parking lot behind his office.

Producer Jeremy Hood wouldn’t say a lot about the plot of the premiere, other than to say “Without going too far, they’re travelling by water on a boat.” And that Gravenhurst is featured prominently in the ‘B storyline,’ one of four plots in the two-part series this fall. 
Cool-looking Gravenhurst extra Blair Foley heads for a lunch break yesterday afternoon.
About 150 cast and crew are in town, including this pair of actors leaving the Wenonah II Tuesday.
‘MM17’ signs around town point to the Murdoch Mysteries season 17 set locations this week in Gravenhurst. Including at this Muskoka Wharf location, where in 1986 neighbouring business owner Ken Little says he shared late night libations with ‘Boy in Blue’ Canadian co-star Christopher Plummer on back his deck here overlooking the lake during filming of that local classic flick.

EMAIL: [email protected]

30th year of ‘Local Online Journalism’

Twitter: @muskokatoday, Facebook: mclairmont1

Leave comments at end of story

SUBSCRIBE for $25 by e-transferring to [email protected]

Or go online to https://muskokatoday.com/subscriptions