It’s official: television production on the Sunshine Coast is about to make a killing for the second year in a row.
Last week the drama programming and development arm of the Fox Television Network announced the renewal of Murder in a Small Town, which aired its first season on the Global network. Its inaugural eight episodes, filmed at locations across the Coast early in 2024, were televised starting Sept. 24.
The series stars Rossif Sutherland and Kristin Kreuk, both of whom are slated to return for the 10-episode second season. In stories inspired by the Karl Alberg mystery novels by L. R. Wright, Sutherland plays a careworn police chief seeking the solace of a quiet community. He is routinely swept up into murderous mayhem and a tentative love affair with the community’s civic-minded librarian (Kreuk).
“I see a lot of comments from people on the Sunshine Coast, and they’re almost universally positive,” said executive producer Nick Orchard, whose company Soapbox Productions originally purchased the television option for the Wright series. “They love it. They hooked on it, and a lot of what they like is the romance, the relationship between Alberg and Cassandra. I think that’s something that you don’t necessarily see in a murder procedural: it’s a strong ongoing storyline that resonates with our audience.”
Viewership data from the first season indicated strong retention rates, suggesting that spectators stayed with each episode once they tuned in. The first season’s weekly rollout was paused on two occasions, making room for election coverage and a baseball game. “We were a little worried about that,” observed Orchard, “but the audience came back quite strong.”
Reports indicate that Murder in a Small Town ranked among the top three of the Fox network’s new shows in 2024, while it also attained a high ranking on the Hulu streaming platform.
Head writer Ian Weir has already developed scripts for approaching on-location shoots which begin on Feb. 24 and will continue until mid-June. Weir is a longtime collaborator with Orchard, who first hired him 35 years ago to write for the teen drama Northwood. Weir went on to publish three novels and served as showrunner for another teen series, Edgemont, where he discovered actress Kristin Kreuk.
“It’d be hard to imagine doing it without Ian,” said Orchard. “He’s so talented.”
Filming locations will continue to be centred on Gibsons (although the original novels were set in Sechelt). Producers have been intentionally ambiguous about the nationality of the town’s small-screen doppelganger — Orchard has actively rejected requests to place American flags in shots, even though the majority of the show’s viewership is from south of the border. Characters routinely reference neighbouring communities like Halfmoon Bay, Roberts Creek, and Sechelt.
“Anyone who was interested and clever could go on the Internet and find out where we really are,” chuckled Orchard, “but characters in the show make references to being from Seattle or contacting the police chief in Philadelphia or whatever, so it does sort of vaguely reside somewhere, perhaps, in Washington state.”
The second season’s story arc will continue to trace the restive romance of Alberg and Cassandra, with a few roadblocks thrown in their path: the Season 1 finale hinted that the librarian might take a stab at municipal politics.
Orchard acknowledged that scenic shots of local geography have contributed to the show’s appeal, echoing the strength of the erstwhile Beachcombers series (1972-1990) on which he worked as a production manager. The global success of Beachcombers led to it being syndicated in 35 countries; in 1980 a German-Canadian co-production called Ritter’s Cove even spun off its own one-season vehicle to capitalize on European appetites for Sunshine Coast landscapes.
A meeting for prospective background performers for Murder in a Small Town’s second season will take place at the Gibsons Community Centre on Feb. 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. More information is available by emailing [email protected].
