Celebrate Asian Heritage Month with the ASIAN HERITAGE COLLECTION, including the exclusive Canadian premiere of NADIYA’S COOK ONCE EAT TWICE (May 1), featuring beloved TV chef and author Nadiya Hussain; NOT YOUR BUTTER CHICKEN (May 1), celebrating the untold stories of South Asians in Western Canada through the eyes of food and wine expert Shiva Reddy; the exclusive Canadian premiere of FOUR YEARS LATER (May 2), a romantic drama that unfolds across two countries; and MEET THE PATELS (May 2) a real-life romantic comedy about comedian Ravi Patel
Acclaimed international series include PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (May 2), a reimagining of the timeless Australian novel starring Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones); the exclusive Canadian premiere of Swedish crime drama CRY WOLF (May 9) based on the acclaimed novel; the final season of THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL (May 9); the second half of season 3 of Joel McHale comedy ANIMAL CONTROL (May 16); season 3 of New Zealand paranormal mockumentary comedy WELLINGTON PARANORMAL (May 23) from Emmy® Award-nominated Jemaine Clement and Oscar® winner Taika Waititi; and season 6 of madcap UK hit BRASSIC (May 30)
New documentaries coming to CBC Gem in May include ASD BAND: THE MOVIE (May 9), following four talented autistic musicians; the exclusive Canadian premieres of WILLIAM & HARRY: THE RISE AND FALL (May 16), charting the royal siblings’ relationship, and SOPHIE MORGAN’S FIGHT TO FLY (May 21), a powerful look at the mistreatment of disabled passengers by airlines; the Ininew-language version of Tanya Talaga’s personal docuseries THE KNOWING (May 30); a new instalment of THE NATURE OF THINGS (May 29) looks at ANIMAL PRIDE and new ABSOLUTELY CANADIAN doc, DEAR LUNCH BOX (May 1), explores the “lunch box moment” and cultural shaming
Lifestyle series include new seasons of ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY (May 7) and SORT YOUR LIFE OUT (May 14), helping families upcycle and recycle their way to a new home
Kelly Reichardt’s acclaimed feature FIRST COW (May 16) follows two travellers in the 1820s Northwest who dream of striking it rich
Tween series THE NEXT STEP (May 16) returns for Season 9 as A-Troupe battles heartbreak, betrayal, and the toughest competitors on the road to Internationals
ASIAN HERITAGE COLLECTION
NADIYA’S COOK ONCE EAT TWICE (6×30, Lifestyle, Wall to Wall, UK)
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
Begins streaming Thursday, May 1
Food waste has never tasted so good! Beloved TV chef Nadiya Hussain is back with a playful and inventive series packed with delicious recipes and tips that help make ingredients go further. She spins leftovers into exciting new recipes, rustles up convenient batch-friendly bakes and treats to eat now and freeze/store for later, and turns otherwise-wasted ingredients into thrilling new meals that make the most of every second spent in the kitchen. Each episode features five recipes aligning with her ‘cook once, eat twice’ philosophy. Nadiya shares her trademark helpful hacks and tricks throughout, demonstrating how to cook efficiently and economically by making the most of every ingredient – all without compromising on fun, flavour, or quality. It’s a joyful and colourful watch that taps into the real-world trend of utilising leftovers and food scraps to create mouth-watering meals.
NOT YOUR BUTTER CHICKEN (4×22, Documentary, Real People Real Stories Inc., Canada)
Begins streaming Thursday, May 1
Over the course of four episodes, NOT YOUR BUTTER CHICKEN takes us from Vancouver to Kamloops and Kelowna, BC, and Lethbridge and Fort McMurray, Alberta, while host Shiva Reddy explores her culture with other South Asians to fill in the gaps that come with being a second-generation Canadian. Once a competitive hockey player, Reddy grew up to be one of the first South Asian women to make it in the world of wine and fine dining in Canada. Now, grappling with her mother’s battle with dementia, Reddy is on a journey to piece together the story of her Indian heritage through food and community.
FOUR YEARS LATER (8×60, Drama/Romance, Easy Tiger Productions, Australia/India)
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
Begins streaming Friday, May 2
Despite being an arranged marriage, Sridevi and Yash’s connection is electric. But on the night of their wedding, Yash discovers he has been granted a medical traineeship in Australia, which means leaving Sridevi behind in India. After four years apart, Sridevi is finally able to join Yash in Sydney, but will their marriage survive the test of time and distance?
MEET THE PATELS (88min, Documentary, directed by Geeta Vasant Patel, USA)
Begins streaming Friday, May 2
A laugh-out-loud real-life romantic comedy about Ravi Patel, an almost 30-year-old Indian American who enters a love triangle between the woman of his dreams, and his parents.
ACCLAIMED INTERNATIONAL SERIES
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (6×60, Drama, Fremantle Australia, Australia)
Begins streaming Friday, May 2
A trailblazing reimagining of Joan Lindsay’s timeless novel, Picnic at Hanging Rock is a prestige drama series with style, sex and mystery. Deep in the Australian outback on Valentine’s Day, 1900, the mysterious disappearance of three schoolgirls and their governess from a picnic in the wilderness around the infamous Hanging rock unlocks a dark web of deceit and secrecy, touching on modern notions of sexuality, nationhood and identity. Pulsating with intrigue, the series unfolds as we follow the events leading up to their disappearance and watch as the perplexing details of the case come to light.
CRY WOLF (6×60, Drama, Nordic Drama Queens, Sweden)
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
Begins streaming Friday, May 9
Human remains found in the stomach of a dead wolf. A drug deal gone wrong. An assassin of rarely seen skill. When brutal events start to pile up in the remote northern town of Haparanda, police detective Hannah Wester finds herself on the precipice of chaos. Based on Hans Rosenfeldt’s acclaimed novel.
THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL Season 5 (9×60, Comedy, Amazon MGM Studios, USA)
Begins streaming Friday, May 9
In the fifth and final season, Midge finds herself closer than ever to the success she’s dreamed of, only to discover that closer than ever is still so far away.
ANIMAL CONTROL Season 3 (B) (5×30, Comedy, Fox Entertainment, USA)
Begins streaming Friday, May 16
A group of local animal control workers’ lives are complicated by the fact that animals are simple, but humans are not. Leading the crew is Frank, an opinionated, eccentric animal control officer who may not have gone to college but is still the most well-read person in the room. In his past life as a cop, Frank tried to expose corruption in his department, but his efforts got him fired, leaving him cynical and curmudgeonly. Despite his rough exterior, he is blessed with an almost superhuman ability to understand animals.
WELLINGTON PARANORMAL Season 3 (6×30, Comedy, Piki Films and New Zealand Documentary Board, New Zealand)
Begins streaming Friday, May 23
O’Leary (Karen O’Leary), Minogue (Mike Minogue) and Sergeant Maaka (Maaka Pohatu) return in series 3 of TVNZ’s popular paranormal police reality comedy. Wellington’s finest ghost cops are back on the streets of New Zealand’s capital city battling all sorts of paranormal entities from a van-load of ghostly rugby fans dressed as Where’s Wally, to a shapeshifting entity that becomes your worst nightmare, to an invisible monster who’s a little bit ‘handsy’. Helping the paranormal team more this season is the chronically terrified but super-keen Officer Parker (‘snapchat dude’ Tom Sainsbury) who tags along on all the cases despite not always being welcomed by Minogue and O’Leary. From Emmy Award-nominated Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Concords, What We Do in the Shadows) and Oscar-winning Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit).
BRASSIC Season 6 (7×60, Comedy, Clerkenwell Films, New Zealand)
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
Begins streaming Friday, May 30
After an epic end to the last season, the gang are back with as much wild adventure and hilarity as ever. Reeling from the explosive encounter with Manolito, they set about getting their lives back in order. Only now the landscape is changing, people are getting older and the question of growing up looms in the air. But what does ‘growing up’ mean to a bunch like this?
Season 6 is a madcap journey involving man-eating crocodiles, bigamists and a naked cult. The MacDonagh’s are creating trouble again, stepping it up a gear as they get high on new-found power. And amongst all this, we’re taken on an emotional rollercoaster with some heartfelt goodbyes and new priorities on the horizon.
DOCUMENTARIES
ABSOLUTELY CANADIAN: DEAR LUNCH BOX (60min, Documentary, directed by Lourdes Lasala)
Begins streaming Thursday, May 1
DEAR LUNCH BOX is a heartfelt documentary that delves into the concept of the “lunch box moment.” It highlights how favourite Filipino and other cultural foods created hurtful experiences for filmmaker Lourdes Lasala and some family and community members, who aim to heal memories tied to traditional dishes. From Windsor, Ont.
WILLIAM & HARRY: THE RISE AND FALL (3×60, Documentary, Spun Gold, UK)
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
Begins streaming Friday, May 16
Once the closest of friends, the two brothers grew up under a global spotlight, forging a bond that seemed impervious to the pressures of royal duty. Today, however, their relationship lies in tatters. From incidents going as far back as their Eton days, to the more recent disputes concerning their wives, Catherine and Meghan, this series will chart the rise and fall of the royal siblings’ relationship and the human cost of royalty.
ASD BAND: THE MOVIE (54min, Documentary, directed by Mark Bone, Canada)
Begins streaming Friday, May 9
ASD BAND: THE MOVIE follows the members of The ASD Band, four talented autistic musicians, as they embark upon the challenging journey of writing their first original album and gearing up to perform in their first live show.
SOPHIE MORGAN’S FIGHT TO FLY (60min, Documentary, Hello Sunshine with Making Space Media, UK)
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
Begins streaming Wednesday, May 21
In this powerful documentary, Sophie Morgan takes direct action to hold airlines to account for the shocking mistreatment of disabled flyers. From wheelchairs being broken, to a passenger having to drag himself on the floor to use the toilet, this important programme reveals the battle disabled flyers face. Determined to make change, Sophie discovers an invention that could allow passengers to stay in their wheelchairs while flying. She becomes the first British female paraplegic to take a zero-gravity flight to show that if you can make aerospace accessible, aviation should be too.
THE NATURE OF THINGS: ANIMAL PRIDE (60min, Documentary)
Begins streaming Tuesday, May 29
Through a journey of scientific discovery, naturalist Connel Bradwell explores how homosexuality and unique gender expressions are common throughout the natural world, yet we hardly ever hear about it. He challenges mainstream biology’s blindspot for queer animal behaviour, and celebrates the wild, wonderful, and downright sexy side of nature. This is Nature’s coming out story.
THE KNOWING (4×60, Documentary) *Ininiw-language version*
Begins streaming Wednesday, May 30
THE KNOWING is a four-part narrative docuseries that follows journalist Tanya Talaga and her family’s eight-decade long search for family matriarch Annie Carpenter, revealing a story deeply intertwined with Canada’s residential school system. Using sweeping imagery of the land, blended with rare archival footage and deeply personal conversations with Survivors, knowledge holders and newly found family, Talaga takes us on an emotional journey of both familial reclamation and an exploration of Canada’s true history. Based on the book by Tanya Talaga, THE KNOWING is written and directed by Talaga and Courtney Montour. The English version of THE KNOWING is available to stream now on CBC Gem.
LIFESTYLE & UNSCRIPTED
ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY Season 31 (B2) (13×60, Lifestyle, Naked TV/Boundless, UK)
Begins streaming Wednesday, May 7
When homeowners are reviewing their quality of life and questioning the need to live in expensive and polluted urban spaces, ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY’s satisfying journeys of rural property searches and lifestyle changes have never felt more relevant. Having been on screen for twenty years, this heritage brand now focuses on escaping to the countryside in its broadest sense, presenting practical lifestyle content and constructive suggestions for the viewer, all the while capturing the seasonal beauty of the British landscape. A warm and knowledgeable cast of presenters helps a broad range of property hunters with differing budgets and wish lists.
SORT YOUR LIFE OUT Season 3 (5×60, Lifestyle, Optomem Television, UK)
*Exclusive Canadian Premiere*
Begins streaming Wednesday, May 14
Stacey Solomon and her team of experts help makeover Britain’s cluttered homes. All of the homeowners possessions are taken to a warehouse where they will choose what to let go and what will return to their reorganised home.
FEATURE FILMS
FIRST COW (121min, Period Drama, written and directed by Kelly Reichardt)
Begins streaming Friday, May 16
Two travelers, on the run from a band of vengeful hunters in the 1820s Northwest, dream of striking it rich — but their tenuous plan to make their fortune on the frontier comes to rely on the secret use of a landowner’s prized dairy cow.
KIDS & TWEENS
THE NEXT STEP Season 9 (22×26, Tween, Temple Street Productions and Boat Rocker Studios)
Begins streaming Friday, May 16
The Next Step’s A-Troupe battles heartbreak, betrayal, and the toughest competitors they’ve ever faced, and learns that it’s not about how you fall, but how you get back up on the road to Internationals.
THE BEST OF CBC
The Canadian streaming home of hit CBC original series including THE GREAT CANADIAN BAKING SHOW, HEARTLAND, KIM’S CONVENIENCE, MURDOCH MYSTERIES, SCHITT’S CREEK and WORKIN’ MOMS, plus BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW, BLACKBERRY, BONES OF CROWS, MR. D, PRETTY HARD CASES, THE PORTER, RUN THE BURBS, SKYMED, SON OF A CRITCH, SORT OF, STILL STANDING and TALLBOYZ, and classic CBC hits like BEING ERICA.
COMING IN JUNE
THE AFFAIR
BEAR’S LAIR Season 2
THE MAN IN THE ORANGE SHIRT
ONE MISSISSIPPI
SETTLE DOWN
TRIBAL Season 2