Period saga ‘When Calls the Heart’ a throwback to family fare

TORONTO – It’s hard to find a show more Canadian than “When Calls the Heart.”

The period drama is based on Janette Oke’s bestselling Canadian book series, is set in a small Prairie town, and centres on a young school teacher struggling to adapt to life in the rural West. Then there’s the handsome Mountie who catches her eye.

The B.C.-shot show debuts this Sunday on the most of Canadian of networks, CBC-TV, more than a year after launching on the Hallmark Channel in the United States and on the premium cable service Super Channel here.

“It’s a Canadian show on an American network, now on a Canadian network, which is probably where it belongs,” star Daniel Lissing chuckles during a recent media event.

The Australian-born Lissing plays the dashing Jack Thornton while Philadelphia-born actress Erin Krakow stars as Elizabeth Thatcher.

Set in 1910, their romance unfolds in a beleaguered coal-mining town where dozens of men have lost their lives in a mining accident.

“It’s a show with a lot of heart, it’s a family show,” Lissing says.

“Your six-year-old can watch it, your 86-year-old can watch it. It’s going back to the days when ‘The Little House on the Prairie’ kind of shows were really popular, ‘Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.’ And this is almost like a throwback to that, we’re sort of bringing back a little bit of family television and I think it’s going to go really nicely with ‘Heartland’ up here.”

Over on Super Channel, the show’s second season is set to wrap on July 5. Krakow says CBC viewers new to the series will have to guard themselves against spoilers.

“Spoilers are out there, they’re certainly all over the Internet,” Krakow admits.

“But people are hopefully going to fall in love with the show and I think they’ll just have to make sure not to do too much research about what’s happened in season 2.”

“When Calls the Heart” premieres Sunday on CBC-TV.