New international programming includes THE CHEF (December 10), which tells the story of a disenfranchised former high-tech worker offered a second chance as a lowly prep cook at a famous restaurant, run by a charismatic and tempestuous chef.
Nav Bhatia has attended almost every Toronto Raptors home game since the team’s first season in 1995. The new documentary SUPERFAN: THE NAV BHATIA STORY (December 3) tells the story of how he went from the “only guy with a turban and beard” at early Raptors games to one of the most famous basketball fans in the world — with an NBA championship ring and a place in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to prove it.
Get cozy with CBC Gem this holiday season with 140 hours of festive programming including movies, holiday-themed episodes and lifestyle series, as well as nearly 10 hours of seasonal kids content
CHATEAU DIY season 4 (December 3) continues to follow brave chateau owners and their ambitious renovation plans.
CBC Gem will offer new programming from AMI (Accessible Media Inc.) in honour of INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES including DOUBLE TAP (December 3), which provides viewers with the latest technology news from an accessibility point-of-view, WHITE CANE JOURNEYS (December 3), which introduces four Canadians with blindness at various stages learning to use a white cane, and FOUR SENSES (December 3), a celebrity chef cooking show with an accessibility twist. Also featured in this collection is critically acclaimed and award winning Israeli series ON THE SPECTRUM, a bittersweet comedy about three roommates, living together under one roof.
New Kids programming includes the world premiere of BIG BLUE (December 4), a new sci-fi animation comedy series about caring for our planet and each other.
ACCLAIMED INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING
THE CHEF (9×40, Drama, Kastina Communications, Israel, 2020)
Begins streaming Friday, December 10
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
Nimrod (Guri Alfi, Matsav Ha’Uma), a disenfranchised former high-tech worker, desperate to provide for his family and restore his self-esteem, is offered a second chance as a lowly prep cook at a famous restaurant, run by charismatic and tempestuous chef/owner Dori (Gal Toren, Up The Wrong Tree), who battles to stay relevant in the ultra-competitive culinary world. Finding his place and learning to enjoy the microcosm of the upscale kitchen, Nimrod strikes up a friendship with a new talented chef, Sara (Yael Elkana, Spell Keepers), which throws his home and work life into a tailspin.
KIDS SERIES
BIG BLUE (52×11, Guru Studio, Canada, 2021)
Begins streaming Saturday, December 4 on CBC Gem and broadcast on CBC Kids
*Exclusive World Premiere*
Created by Ghanaian-Canadian artist Gyimah Gariba — named one of Animation Magazine’s 2020 Rising Stars of Animation and one of “15 Young African Creatives Rebranding Africa” by Forbes — BIG BLUE is a new sci-fi animation comedy series for kids 5-9 about caring for our planet and each other. The imaginative series follows sibling underwater adventurers Lettie and Lemo who lead a quirky submarine crew with a magical ocean fairy stowaway named Bacon Berry. Together, they just might unravel the mysterious secrets of their underwater universe! The series drops young viewers deep into a wacky world of comic adventure, while helping to redefine what a family means and how caring for one another is the most important thing of all. Grammy-winning music producer Timbaland and his Beatclub team produced the series’ theme song.
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES COLLECTION
DOUBLE TAP S1-2 + Special (4×30, 31×30, 1×60, Lifestyle, Marc Aflalo Productions, Canada)
Begins streaming Friday, December 3
Double Tap TV provides viewers with the latest technology news from an accessibility point-of-view. Join hosts Steven Scott (Royal National Institute of Blind People) and Marc Aflalo (SiriusXM) as they help viewers better understand how technology can assist in everyday life. The show celebrates the 10th anniversary of VoiceOver, examines the best home smart speakers and pays a visit to Sight Village, an event focused on accessibility.
WHITE CANE JOURNEYS (1×60, Documentary, Accessible Media Inc. (AMI), Canada, 2020)
Begins streaming Friday, December 3
WHITE CANE JOURNEYS, hosted by Laura Bain, introduces four Canadians with blindness at various stages learning to use a white cane. This documentary explores the impact of that transition on their navigation and life.
FOUR SENSES S3 (13×24, Varner Production, Canada, 2016)
Begins streaming Friday, December 3
Hosted by Christina Ha, the first blind contestant of MasterChef and the winner of its third season in 2012, and Carl Heinrich, the winner of the Food Network’s Top Chef Canada in 2012, the celebrity pair team up with special guests for an exciting cooking show with an accessibility twist.
LIFESTYLE
CHATEAU DIY Season 4 (15×60, Lifestyle, Kindling Media, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, December 3
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
The spinoff series of the primetime hit Escape to the Chateau follows a group of British expats who pursue their dream to overhaul crumbling fairy tale French stately homes. There is the language barrier, and everything seems to be expensive, from water bills to astronomical heating costs, not to mention the long and sometimes lonely winters. To put it bluntly, maintaining a building that’s falling apart at the seams is not for the faint-hearted. In season 4, narration is taken over by Adjoa Andoh (Casualty, Doctor Who, Bridgerton).
ESCAPE TO THE CHATEAU S8 (6×60, Spark Media, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, December 10
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
Six years ago, Dick and Angel Strawbridge stumbled across Chateau de la Motte Husson, a derelict 19th century fairy-tale chateau in the French countryside. With a price tag of £280K, the couple swapped their two-bedroom flat in England for the Chateau’s 45-rooms, moat, walled garden, orangery, 12 acres of land, seven outbuildings, and huge potential for a new life in France. After decades of neglect, and with no running water, electricity, sewerage or heating, the Chateau needed hard work and dedication to bring it back to life. Dick’s engineering skills and Angel’s design talent transformed the Chateau into an incredible family home and a wedding and events business.
ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY Season 26(A) (35×60, Boundless Productions, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, December 17
ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY returns with a new season to find the perfect home for families seeking to get away from city living. Each episode features one couple or family who are looking to make the escape and relocate to the country.
JAMIE OLIVER’S QUICK & EASY CHRISTMAS (1×60, Channel 4, UK, 2018)
Begins streaming Sunday, December 19
If you loved Jamie Oliver’s 15-Minute Meals, then you’re likely to fall in love with this one-hour Christmas cooking episode where Jamie shows us how to create the ultimate holiday dinner spread with the minimum of fuss, as the dad-of-five applies his quick and easy principles to cooking at Christmas.
FESTIVE FILMS AND HOLIDAY-THEMED EPISODES
SEASON’S GREETINGS (1×90, Entertainment One, USA, 2016)
Begins streaming Wednesday, December 1
Darcy Blake (Laura Bell Bundy, Jumanji) has the perfect job working for Harrington House, a successful greeting card company. But everything is about to change when her new boss arrives at the company to take over from his grandfather and has a very different view of the holidays.
THE OFFICE HOLIDAY SPECIALS (2×45, Comedy, BBC Studios, UK, 2003)
Begins streaming Friday, December 3
Three years after the cameras stopped rolling, the BBC returns to Wernham Hogg to catch up with the staff – past and present – of the most famous paper merchants in Slough. Gareth (Mackenzie Crook, Pirates of the Caribbean) is now an office manager, driving Tim (Martin Freeman, The Hobbit) to the point of despair. David Brent (Ricky Gervais, The Invention of Lying) has blown all his redundancy on releasing a single and Dawn (Lucy Davis, Wonder Woman) has moved to Florida with her fiance. But everyone is about to be reunited for an unforgettable office Christmas party.
A CAPE COD CHRISTMAS (1×90, Off Camera Entertainment, USA, 2021)
Begins streaming Friday, December 3
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
Margot (Katie Leclerc, Switched at Birth), a children’s book author, travels to the family beach house on Cape Cod for one last Christmas with her siblings. Her parents have passed away and her siblings want to sell the house, though Margot would buy them out if she could. She visits the local art gallery with the idea of commissioning a painting of the house as a keepsake, but upon entering, she realizes the gallery owner, a local artist named Christian (Brent Bailey, Doom Patrol), who was her old friend and childhood sweetheart. Margot commissions Christian to paint a picture of the house, but Christian is a painter of much greater renown than Margot realizes, and together they hatch a plan to try to keep the house she loves.
MY BEST FRIEND’S CHRISTMAS (1×90, Nicely Entertainment, USA, 2019)
Begins streaming Friday, December 3
Ashley Seever (Breanne Parhiala, Frontier) returns home for the holidays hoping to reconnect with her high school sweetheart, Grant (Tanner Novlan, Modern Family), but soon meets his new girlfriend. In an attempt to escape embarrassment, Ashley and her best friend Liam (Colton Little, 9-1-1: Lone Star) fake their own holiday romance, but when her fake feelings for Liam start to turn real, Ashley will have to choose what her heart really wants.
CALL THE MIDWIFE S5 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (2015) (2×45, Neal Street Productions, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, December 3
Festive cheer is in plentiful supply as Poplar readies itself for Christmas. As the holidays begin, an outbreak of measles hits the town. Meanwhile, Tom (Jack Ashton, Endeavour) receives an intriguing offer from the BBC, a face from Patsy’s (Emerald Fennell, Cinderella) past returns, and Sister Monica Joan (Judy Parfitt, Dolores Claiborne) goes missing.
CALL THE MIDWIFE S6 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (2016) (2×45, Neal Street Productions, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, December 3
As Christmas approaches, Sister Julienne (Jenny Agutter, Logan’s Run) gets a call from the Hope Clinic, a mission hospital in South Africa, in danger of closure due to under-staffing on the eve of a much needed polio vaccination programme. Along with a group of midwives, the Turners arrive at the clinic to assist its lone medic, and are shocked by the lack of supplies and the rudimentary conditions, with Nurse Phyllis (Linda Bassett, East Is East) delivering a baby under a tree in the desert. They also encounter Apartheid and dysentery, caused by the lack of clean water.
THE GREAT NEW YEAR’S BAKING SHOW (2020) (1×60, Love Productions, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, December 10
THE GREAT NEW YEAR’S BAKING SHOW sees Noel, Matt, Prue and Paul reunited after Christmas and back in the tent. Joining them are Helena and Henry from 2019, Nancy from 2014, and 2018 winner Rahul, all hoping to impress the judges with their skills and creativity and take home the coveted Festive Star Baker title. Together they’ll see in the New Year with a cosy sing-song round the piano.
CALL THE MIDWIFE S7 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (2017) (2×45, Neal Street Productions, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, December 10
Boxing Day brings a large snowfall that covers the country. The adverse weather causes major disruption across Poplar as roads become blocked and pipes freeze. The milk float struggles to make its deliveries and families must queue outside for water from standpipes. Trixie’s (Helen George, The Three Musketeers) holiday with Christopher (Jack Hawkins, Raised By Wolves) is cancelled due to the snow. It’s all hands on deck to help during the weather crisis, so Shelagh (Laura Main, Murder City) comes back to work.
CALL THE MIDWIFE S8 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (2018) (2×45, Neal Street Productions, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, December 10
As Poplar prepares for Christmas, the nuns leave for the Mother House to vote in a new mother superior and to help care for a group of Chinese orphans. Meanwhile, Trixie (Helen George, The Three Musketeers) returns to Poplar refreshed and is shocked to discover that many mothers no longer want to give birth at home.
CALL THE MIDWIFE S9 CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (2019) (2×45, Neal Street Productions, UK)
Begins streaming Friday, December 17
As Christmas approaches, a bout of influenza sweeps through both Nonnatus House and the Turner family. When Mother Mildred (Miriam Margolyes, The Age of Innocence) declares that God is calling her to set up a branch house in the Outer Hebrides, it seems an ideal opportunity for the nuns and midwives to convalesce in the bracing Scottish air. As they recover, they will also be able to help the island, where there is a nursing and doctor shortage.
DOCUMENTARY
STEPHEN LEWIS: THE MAN WHO COULDN’T SLEEP (1×60, directed by Judy Jackson, Canada, 2016)
Begins streaming Wednesday, December 1
On December 31st, 2006, Stephen Lewis’s tenure as UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa came to an end. For five and a half years, he crisscrossed Africa and the world at breakneck speed. His crammed schedule has included endless speeches and high-level meetings with presidents, UN officials and anyone who will listen to his impassioned pleas for Africa. His countless visits to grassroots projects give him hope but also disturb him most deeply because the spectre of death is still everywhere. Each death haunts him.
SUPERFAN: The Nav Bhatia Story (1×44, directed by Amar Wala, Canada, 2021)
Begins streaming Friday, December 3
SUPERFAN: THE NAV BHATIA STORY follows the legendary fan’s journey and the arguably similar trajectory of the Raptors, who went from the worst team in the Eastern Conference to an unbelievable NBA championship win in 2019. The film features interviews with family, friends and famous faces like comedian Russell Peters, former NBA superstar Vince Carter, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, Raptors legend and Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas and more. Through them, we get a look at the struggles and successes of Bhatia, the immigrant Everyman who went on to become the Raptors’ most beloved superfan. Celebrating several high points in Bhatia’s life — from acting as grand marshal of the Raptors’ homecoming parade in 2019, to becoming the only fan to receive the coveted championship ring and to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame— this is an intimate portrait of a man with a very public persona.
FEATURE FILMS
NOSE TO TAIL (1×90, Drama, directed by Jesse Zigelstein, Canada, 2020)
Begins streaming Friday, December 3
NOSE TO TAIL stars Aaron Abrams (Hannibal) as a talented but abrasive chef struggling mightily with his personal demons and the relentless pressures of running a high-end restaurant. Over the course of one frantic day and night, he faces a rash of private trials and professional tribulations in a desperate bid to beat the odds and save the business that forms the very core of his identity and self-conception.
BOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD (1×90, Drama, directed by Deepa Mehta, Canada, 2002)
Begins streaming Friday, December 10
After Rahul’s (Rahul Khanna, Wake Up Sid) white pop-star fiancée dies in a bizarre levitation accident, his mother insists he find another girl as soon as possible, preferably a Hindi one. As she backs this up by postponing his sister’s wedding until he does so, he feels forced to act, the more so as he knows his sister is pregnant. But it’s a pretty tall order for an Indian living in Ontario, so when he meets striking escort Sunita (Lisa Ray, Water), he hatches a scheme to pass her off as his new betrothed. Things get complicated when his family starts to take to her and he realises his own feelings are becoming stronger than that.
THANKS FOR EVERYTHING (1×90, Drama, directed by Louise Archambault, Canada, 2019)
Begins streaming Friday, December 17
Sisters Marianne (Julie Perreault, Je voudrais qu’on m’efface) and Christine Cyr (Magalie Lépine Blondeau, Heartbeats) have been estranged for a year when they learn of the death of their father. Both a comedy and a road movie, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING tells of their trip to the Magdalen Islands to spread his ashes and escape their personal problems, without realizing that they carry both, literally and figuratively, with them.
TWEEN
ALMOST NEVER S3 (11×30, Dynamic Television, UK, 2019)
Begins streaming Wednesday, December 31
Brand new boy band, “The Wonderland,” are about to lose the final of The Spotlight, the most popular talent competition on television to all-girl band, Girls Here First. Not only do the girls get the record deal and instant fame, they also get Sasha Small (Kimberly Wyatt, Starsky & Hutch), a powerful and ruthless manager, who has backed the boys but drops them as soon as the result is announced. “The Wonderland” must now decide if they can prove her wrong by finding success the hard way – by earning it. The boys will have to overcome their overzealous parents, their own mistakes, and Sasha’s obstacles to learn that success is a journey that doesn’t come quick or easy.
THE BEST OF CBC
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Past and current seasons of CBC series including BURDEN OF TRUTH, THE GREAT CANADIAN BAKING SHOW, FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES, HEARTLAND, MURDOCH MYSTERIES, STILL STANDING, TALLBOYZ, KIM’S CONVENIENCE, BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW, and SCHITT’S CREEK; and classic CBC hits like BEING ERICA.
COMING IN JANUARY
- ANGELA BLACK
- PEOPLE JUST DO NOTHING
- MUHAMMED ALI – KEN BURNS DOCUMENTARY
- UKULELE U
