Here’s everything new coming to CBC Gem in April 2021, including these highlights by NOW critics.
Farm Crime (season 2)
Those of us who caught the first season of Gem’s true-crime web series back in 2018 already know the intelligent, empathetic texture of Geoff Morrison and Christina Carvalho’s approach to agricultural investigations; the whole point of the show is to peel back the superficiality with which news media usually treats stories of honeybee heists and blueberry burglars, and explore the very real costs of each case. Season 2 will tackle murder hornets, eel and lobster poaching, bootleg canola sales and two very different cases of horse theft. April 1
First Day
Technically a late addition to Gem’s March slate, this four-part Australian miniseries about a trans girl preparing to start high school in Adelaide is the first Aussie TV series to star a trans actor: Evie Macdonald, who’d never acted in anything before writer/director Julie Kalceff cast her in the award-winning 2017 short on which the show is based. The short was excellent; we’re hoping the show makes the most of its potential. March 31
Us
This six-part BBC adaptation of David Nicholls’s novel stars veteran character actor Tom Hollander (Rev., Bird Box, Taboo) as a husband and father whose world is shattered when his wife (Belgravia’s Saskia Reeves) admits she’s thinking of leaving him just as they embark on a long-planned European vacation with their distant teenage son (Tom Taylor); he spends the trip trying to knit things back together, and occasionally making things worse. Episodes will air Sundays at 9 pm on CBC TV, but the entire show is dropping on Gem at once on April 4
Ghosts (season 1)
Created for the BBC by the producers of Horrible Histories and Yonderland, this supernatural sitcom stars Kiell Smith-Bynoe (Man Like Mobeen) and Charlotte Ritchie (Feel Good) as a young couple who buy an old mansion with the intention of opening a hotel… only to discover that the place is thick with obnoxious spirits prepared to annoy the hell out of anyone who dares disturb them. Imagine a British spin on Beetlejuice and you’ve basically got the gist. April 9
National Canadian Film Day
Gem marks the annual celebration of homegrown cinema by spotlighting Stella Meghie’s Jean Of The Joneses, Mina Shum’s Meditation Park, Paul Gross’s Men With Brooms and Richard J. Lewis’s Barney’s Version, along with Peter Chelsom’s Hector And The Search For Happiness, which was produced with Canadian money. April 21
The full list of new titles available on CBC Gem in April 2021 by date:
April 1
Farm Crime (season 2)
First Day
April 2
The Life-Sized City (season 2)
Paul O’Grady: For The Love Of Dogs – What Happened Next
Paul O’Grady: For The Love Of Dogs – Back In Business
Prince William: A Planet For All
April 4
Us
April 5
Mighty Express
April 9
The Dog Doc
April 10
Super Agent Jon Le Bon (season 3)
April 14
The Secrets She Keeps
April 16
Blackstone (season 2)
Climate Change: Ade On The Frontline
Grand Designs New Zealand
My Big Family Farm: 5 Years On The Farm
April 23
Altman
Call The Midwife (season 5)
The Dog House (season 2)
April 30
Happy Valley
