8 August 2009
A Midsummer Weekend With No Reruns
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Scene from Iron Road.
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Iron Road Sunday, CBC, 8 p.m.
Massive, meandering, and at times magnificent, Iron Road is about Chinese workers who worked on the construction of the Canadian
Pacific Railway in the late-19th century.
A sprawling Canadian production directed by David Wu and written by Barry Pearson and Raymond Storey. It is mainly about Little Tiger
(Sun Li), a feisty girl who, disguised as a boy, travels from China to Canada to find out what really happened to her father, who died
while working on the CPR project.
The drama unfolds this way and that for more than four hours - it continues next Sunday - and it becomes a series of small dramas
featuring distinct and sometimes overwhelming characters.
For a start, there's Peter O'Toole playing a recruiter of Chinese workers who helps Little Tiger learn English.
Many Canadian actors appear in important supporting roles, including Ian Tracey and Charlotte Sullivan.
In fact, there are probably too many characters and too many side stories - Iron Road could be an eight-hour drama.
John Doyle.
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