Mark Critch has been making his life flash before his eyes for half a decade now \u2013 and though it hasn\u2019t quite driven the long-time This Hour has 22 Minutes satirist mad, it\u2019s occasionally brought him to the brink.<\/p>\n
Son of a Critch, the CBC show inspired by his Newfoundland youth, which he produces, writes and acts on, begins its fifth and final season on Sept. 8. The sweet coming-of-age comedy stars English actor Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as a young version of Critch making his way through Catholic school and discovering his vocation in comedy.<\/p>\n
Narrated by Critch, it\u2019s been in part a nostalgia trip back to the 1980s and 90s \u2013 and to the style of TV shows of that era such as The Wonder Years.<\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n The cast of the first season of Son of a Critch.CBC\/Supplied<\/p>\n Behind the scenes, however, Son of a Critch was more of an avant-garde, auto-fictional art project \u2013 think Synecdoche, New York but a sitcom. At least that\u2019s what comes to mind listening to Critch, 52, over lunch as he tries to untangle memories from the hall of mirrors he\u2019s created.<\/p>\n A typical day at work might see him dressing up like his late father, the radio broadcaster Mike Critch, whom he plays on the show, or watching actors recreate scenes from his high-school theatre arts class in the actual St. John\u2019s classroom where they took place \u2013 an \u201cout of body experience,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n But the moments Critch really felt as if he had stepped onto the Star Trek Holodeck happened when he filmed scenes on the studio set, which had faithfully recreated the cramped house he grew up in. <\/p>\n Located on a four-lane stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway outside of St. John\u2019s, the comedian and actor\u2019s real childhood home \u2013 a company house next to the radio station VOCM where his father worked \u2013 was demolished decades ago; all that remains is the old driveway and a field, taken over by the roses his mother once planted.<\/p>\n Comedian Mark Critch plays ‘house’ in the empty lot where his childhood home once stood.<\/p>\n Johnny C.Y. Lam\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n Critch pulled real family furniture and heirlooms out of storage to dress the set simulacrum, including the radio seen on the kitchen counter, through which a young Mark heard his father\u2019s disembodied voice delivering breaking news with his signature phrase: \u201cDetails are scanty.\u201d<\/p>\n Critch has slipped through the portal to the past he\u2019s created from time to time. One day when shooting the final season, he let his mind wander and found himself headed over to the windows of the set to see what was going on with the neighbours.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I touched the curtain, I realized what I was doing,\u201d recalls Critch. \u201cBut for that six seconds, they could have been there, you know what I mean?\u201d He pauses \u2013 and the curtain that\u2019s his usual droll tone pulls back, for a moment. \u201cEverybody was alive for that second in my head,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Mark Critch’s late parents, Mike and Mary. Son of a Critch has not only been a project to resurrect Critch\u2019s late family \u2013 but to build a new one around the show with cast and crew. <\/p>\n Mark Critch\/Supplied<\/p>\n The deaths of Mark Critch\u2019s parents immediately preceded what has become a more than 10-year project to entertain Canadians by resurrecting them in words and on screen. <\/p>\n His father passed away at age 93 in 2015, and his mother, Mary Critch, played by Claire Rankin on the show, died at age 80 in 2017.<\/p>\n In between these overwhelming losses, Critch started work on Son of a Critch: A Childish Newfoundland Memoir, which was published in 2018 and became a national bestseller.<\/p>\n The timing suggests the project was designed to channel grief \u2013 or dodge it. But Critch insists none of this was ever really his idea at all.<\/p>\n Penguin Random House Canada approached him in 2016 about writing a book \u2013 and Critch says he originally pitched a Canadian showbiz memoir, one that would cover his rise doing theatre, sketch comedy and satirical commentary on Newfoundland stages and regional television, anecdotes about being cash-strapped and couch-surfing at Rick Mercer\u2019s, and his national breakout on 22 Minutes. (He would eventually write this \u2013 his 2021 follow-up, An Embarrassment of Critch\u2019s.)<\/p>\n After submitting a chapter about his childhood, however, an editor urged Critch to expand it into a book of its own, to which he recalls thinking: \u201cMan, that\u2019s really stretching it out.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n A young Mark Critch.Mark Critch\/Supplied<\/p>\n Similarly, Critch says he was skeptical of a TV adaptation when first suggested by showrunner Tim McAuliffe, a long-time collaborator who he used to write 22 Minutes sketches with on the back of napkins over dinner. <\/p>\n But the idea sold quickly to the CBC after a pitch at Just for Laughs in Montreal, and the show premiered in 2022 to an initial audience of 740,000 viewers and, the network says, remained the country\u2019s most-watched comedy in its fourth season.<\/p>\n Regardless of whether it\u2019s been on purpose or by accident, Critch now finds himself at the end of that journey juggling three versions of his childhood in his mind. It\u2019s like watching a contortionist unknot himself as he answers questions about the differences between the comically embellished memoir he penned, the scripted series based on it and what really has happened in his life.<\/p>\n Take the Son of a Critch grandfather Patrick \u201cPop\u201d Critch, played with verve if not anything resembling a Newfoundland accent by the Liverpudlian actor Malcolm McDowell.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Malcolm McDowell plays Pop in the series, with whom Critch has become close with off set.DERM CARBERRY\/CBC\/Supplied<\/p>\n Critch says Pop is partly inspired by Frank Leonard, a cousin of his father who had a wicked anarchist streak, and partly by his father himself in his later years when he was grandfather to Critch\u2019s two boys, Will and Jacob.<\/p>\n But the very first version of the character \u2013 Critch clarifies by text a month on from our first interview, still untangling his phantom family \u2013 was inspired by his grandmother, who lived with his family and died one night just as his parents were about to go out for the evening.<\/p>\n That shocking story of being a child and nearly left with a lifeless grandparent plays out like farce in Critch\u2019s memoir \u2013 which he originally intended to recreate in the TV series but thought would only be comically palatable with the genders swapped. \u201cI could play the death of a cranky grandfather for laughs more than that of a sweet nan,\u201d he texts. (He decided not to kill off the character, he says, only after McDowell was cast in the role, and he wanted to keep him around.) <\/p>\n It\u2019s a long Newfoundland tradition, of course, to find laughter in loss and humour in hardship.<\/p>\n The real Patrick Critch, the comedian\u2019s patrilineal grandfather of that name, died long before his grandson was born \u2013 on Christmas Day in 1928, when Critch\u2019s father was still a boy.<\/p>\n Patrick had fallen off a roof, then contracted tuberculosis in the hospital, becoming the second Critch man in a row to experience a workplace-related death, his father having drowned at sea on a whaling expedition in 1896.<\/p>\n That tragic but not anomalous Newfoundland family history stopped repeating with Critch\u2019s father \u2013 the first of three generations of men to enter fields such as broadcasting and entertainment.<\/p>\n That includes Mark\u2019s two twentysomething sons: Jacob, the older, is a software engineer who is also a songwriter and has penned a number of J-pop and K-pop hits that have charted abroad; Will, the younger, performs as a drag artist under the name Gravy.<\/p>\n As Critch puts it in his memoir, self-deprecatingly: \u201cIt\u2019s no wonder we Critches stopped being useful. Being useful was dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Critch says he was skeptical of turning his book into a TV series initially when the idea was presented to him.Johnny C.Y. Lam\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n While Critch can expand, over months, upon the multitudes that Pop contains, he is more cautious about some of the other composites in his oeuvre. <\/p>\n Fox, Mark\u2019s romantic interest in the show played by Sophia Powers, was inspired by three girls he knew growing up, he says \u2013 while Fox, the childhood frenemy in the memoir who ends up in jail, is an amalgam of three different boys.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to name them or make anyone in Newfoundland, which is a very small place, read the book and go, \u2018oh that\u2019s so and so,\u2019\u201d says Critch.<\/p>\n That level of discretion has not been extended to all the living \u2013 notably, his older brother Mike Critch Jr.<\/p>\n Better known as Mike Campbell, the name he adopted for his Newfoundland radio career to distinguish himself from his father, he has spent years on what he calls the \u201cemotional roller coaster\u201d of watching his parents come back to life in semi-recognizable sitcom form on screen alongside a version of himself played by Colton Gobbo, which he says is sweeter and less acerbic than he is.<\/p>\n \u201cMark has done this with reckless abandon,\u201d says Mike, who hosts a morning show on K-Rock 97.5 and is director of programming for Stingray for Newfoundland and Labrador, over the phone from St John\u2019s.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Mike Critch followed in his father\u2019s footsteps and works as a morning show host on K-Rock 97.5.Mark Critch\/Supplied<\/p>\n While the original memoir was being written, Mike says he had to hear about drafts of chapters from his brother\u2019s famous pals such as Saint-Pierre star Allan Hawco and Great Big Sea singer Alan Doyle, but did not get an advance look himself.<\/p>\n \u201cRight before the book came out, Mark texted me saying, \u2018I\u2019ve used some of your stories. I\u2019ve changed a few things, but you\u2019re getting a free book so I think that this makes it square,\u2019\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n As for the CBC series, Mark had to get his brother\u2019s legal permission to include him as a character \u2013 and Mike says that request came at the last minute, with a half-hearted apology for needing his signature by end of day. \u201cHe texted me a 15-page legal document, which disallows me to ever write my own book, to ever do my own show,\u201d he says, with the resigned tone of a sibling eight years older.<\/p>\n Mark admits he may have at times asked for forgiveness rather than permission, waiting, for instance, until after he\u2019d shot the season-three plotline based on his brother dating a young woman who was pregnant with another man\u2019s child to talk to him about it. <\/p>\n \u201cI could do that because it\u2019s my brother \u2013 because that\u2019s what brothers are for, I guess,\u201d Mark says. \u201cIt was out of love. It was out of admiration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you just kind of gotta swallow something and ask yourself, \u2018Is it worth it?\u2019\u201d Mike says. \u201cWith Mark, I find myself continuously doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n But the admiration is mutual. \u201cI\u2019ve always been super proud of my brother,\u201d says Mike.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Sophia Powers as Fox and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Mark Critch in the fifth season of Son of a Critch.CBC\/Supplied<\/p>\n Son of a Critch has not only been a project to resurrect Critch\u2019s late family \u2013 but to build a new one around the show with cast and crew. <\/p>\n Critch FaceTimes with his young on-screen alter-ego Ainsworth and his family in England on Christmas and has become great friends with McDowell, going down to visit him in Los Angeles. <\/p>\n \u201cIn a way, we were kindred spirits,\u201d says McDowell, now 83, who found aspects of Newfoundland culture that reminded him of Liverpool growing up and was gifted a membership at the St John\u2019s Crow\u2019s Nest Officers\u2019 Club by Critch early on.<\/p>\n Ainsworth, now 17, says he\u2019s come to appreciate exactly what a welcoming set Critch created over time after experiencing more isolated sets. \u201cHe\u2019s really made it such a lovely environment to grow up in for me and the other actors my age on the show,\u201d he says, recalling going fishing with Critch and catching a sea cucumber during the first pandemic-shot season.<\/p>\n Son of a Critch is coming to an end as the Critch character leaves high school \u2013 but also in part because Ainsworth has grown up and blown up. He\u2019s one of the Targaryen clan on HBO\u2019s House of the Dragon, and he recently filmed The Legend of Zelda, a movie adaptation of the video game in which he plays main character Link. <\/p>\n This fall ends a watching ritual for many Canadian families \u2013 like that of former prime minister Justin Trudeau. A friend of Critch since he was an MP, this spring he visited the set with his son Hadrien, who got to be an extra for a day.<\/p>\n When he was a kid in the 1980s, Trudeau would watch comedies such as Family Ties, Cheers and reruns of Happy Days with his family \u2013 but, in an e-mail interview, he ruefully notes how viewing has became more of an individual experience with his older kids; he\u2019d be watching Andor, while his son Xavier, tuned into The Boys and his daughter, Ella-Grace, streamed Gossip Girl.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Scenes are set around the dinner table in the series, often prompting viewer conversations of their own.DERM CARBERRY\/Supplied<\/p>\n \u201cI was looking for a show that my 11 year old and I could really share, and Son of a Critch was exactly that,\u201d Trudeau writes. \u201cOver the years, watching an episode together after dinner or just before bed once or twice a week became one of our little rituals.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt gave us time to laugh, talk and connect, and it sparked so many conversations that we\u2019d both remember long after the show ended.\u201d<\/p>\n Critch has made a point of including storylines that could spark those conversations \u2013 starting with the Mount Cashel Boys\u2019 Home sexual abuse scandal in an episode the first season, which he says CBC executives initially pushed back against.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew young kids were watching; I didn\u2019t want to have to make this super uncomfortable dark episode, but when I was a kid, when I was that age, everybody was talking about it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Critch\u2019s love of Newfoundland history \u2013 which helped forge his initial connection with his wife of seven years, Melissa Royle, a lawyer who was chief of staff to former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Andrew Furey \u2013 is what makes the series a true contribution to Canadian culture, incorporating events from the 1988 hydroponic cucumber disaster to the failure of the Meech Lake Accord in 1990.<\/p>\n Set in 1992, the final season will reckon with the effects of the cod moratorium, which left nearly 30,000 in Newfoundland and Labrador out of work just as Critch became an adult.<\/p>\n The economic challenges came a year earlier for the Critch family when Mike Critch was, as his son puts it, \u201cgiven the nudge\u201d and had to retire at age 70.<\/p>\n With his mother’s flowers still covering the empty lot and his father’s former-radio station next door, the area holds a lot of nostalgia for Critch and his family.<\/p>\n Johnny C.Y. Lam\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n The loss of his job also meant the Critch family had to move out of the house Mark grew up in.<\/p>\n On the second last day of shooting Son of a Critch, the actor arranged for his sons Will and Jacob, his wife and her parents, and Mike to spend some time in the recreation of that home alone. <\/p>\n It was an emotional experience. \u201cIt was almost the end of two eras,\u201d Mike recalls.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were processing a lot of our real parents,\u201d says Mark. \u201cI lost them the first time; I let them go now.\u201d<\/p>\n Critch seems ready to now put away his childhood \u2013 he\u2019s got his 24th season on 22 Minutes ahead of him (the record tenure, by Cathy Jones, is 28) and is working on a historical novel inspired by the surrender of a German U-boat at Bay Bulls, Newfoundland, in 1945.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s his own family to take care of after a tragedy earlier this year. Emily Drake, Critch\u2019s son Jacob\u2019s long-time fianc\u00e9e, died of cancer on Valentine\u2019s Day at 27.<\/p>\n It was a difficult time, but he was heartened by the way this century\u2019s less nuclear Critch clan \u2013 from his brother, to his wife, to his ex and kids\u2019 mother, Sherrie Windsor \u2013 were all able to come together with love and support for Jacob.<\/p>\n \u201cWe hadn\u2019t spent all that much time as a unit over the years, you know, just because everything\u2019s back and forth,\u201d says Critch, who like many Newfoundlanders has spent so much of his life as a seasonal worker, travelling to Halifax to shoot 22 Minutes each year, then back home for the summer.<\/p>\n Making Son of a Critch has left him pondering what turns a moment into a memory. He says there will be maybe 13 moments that he really remembers in a year. He\u2019s has been filling in the gaps between with humour, with heart and no lack of chutzpah.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get to put things back a little better than they happen, you know,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause it\u2019s TV, where the sun always shines.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n DERM CARBERRY\/CBC\/Supplied<\/p>\n More from The Globe<\/p>\n Alan Doyle, Air Canada and a floor-crossing Carney: Takeaways from This Hour has 22 Minutes\u2019 700th episode<\/a><\/p>\n Mark Critch: Small province, big heart: Why I stay in Newfoundland and Labrador<\/a><\/p>\n