PEI

Lights, camera, action: TV show shooting wraps in Charlottetown

TV crews and actors were noticeable on some Charlottetown streets today as shooting was underway for the TV show Cavendish.

'I'm so excited to be able to make a show based here'

A camera man gets ready to shoot a scene at the entrance of Victoria Row. A crew of about 30 people spent two days shooting in P.E.I. for the TV comedy called Cavendish. (Laura Meader/CBC)

Camera crews and actors were in Charlottetown today for the shooting of the TV show Cavendish.  Streets were not shut down so people got a first-hand look at what goes into making a TV show.  

Crew plays back video from the scene shot on Victoria Row. Scenes shot in P.E.I. will be featured in at least four different episodes. (Laura Meader/CBC)

Cavendish will air on CBC TV next winter. The show is about two brothers — played by Mark Little and Andrew Bush — who come home to Cavendish after 30 years to care for their sick father. That trip ends up leading to lots of unexpected adventures.  

Mark Little and Andrew Bush compare their comedy duo to Abbott and Costello with lots of banter and playing their characters off of one another. (Laura Meader/CBC)

The writers say although it's inspired by childhood vacations to P.E.I. the show has many fictitious, spooky, and funny fantasy elements. 

"I hope people laugh, I hope people enjoy the comedy," Bush said. 

Mark Little and Andrew Bush wrote the show and star in it. The cold September day saw them make use of heavy parkas during downtime. (Laura Meader/CBC)

It was a sunny but cold day. Shooting summer scenes at the end of September requires parkas be on hand at all times. 

Co-executive producer Kurt Smeaton says the shoot in P.E.I. went very well. 'Everywhere we looked was just a post card,' he says. 'It's been great.' (Laura Meader/CBC)

Little and Bush spent about six years developing the show, now more than 100 people are working on it. 

"I'm so excited to be able to make a show based here," Bush said. 

In this scene Mark Little's character loses his ice cream with it falling on the road. His friends don't have much sympathy to offer him. (Laura Meader/CBC)

Kurt Smeaton says it's a huge deal when a show gets the green light to go into production, explaining that any TV show costs millions of dollars to put together. 

Crews did not shut down city streets while they did their shooting. 'There might be some background people that are from Charlottetown,' says Andrew Bush. (Laura Meader/CBC)

"The scale of a show like this is pretty big," Smeaton said.

The shooting in P.E.I. marks the final day for crews to gather footage. The show will soon head into the editing phase for the next few months. 

Cavendish will be on CBC starting in January and the production company behind it hopes to distribute it internationally as well. 

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