Heartbeat: Changing Places (1998)

When Nick Berry decided to leave Heartbeat after 6 seasons, the producers gave him a storyline that allowed him (with his TV family) to move to Canada for Constable Rowan to start over as a Mountie.

As a longtime fan of the show, I recognized the writing as being still British, even though they were trying to write for a different country. There were stereotypical individuals throughout: a pensioner who was aiding and abetting poachers; a public house owner who claimed to know how to handle troublemakers; a Sergeant who was resistant to Rowan’s softly, softly approach to policing; and lots of local folk who make up the rest of the population.

Although they don’t exactly say so, the filming location looks to be Lake Louise. (It’s Cochrane, AB.)

The cabin, shown here in a photo I took in the same decade, may have been the inspiration for the “R.C.M. Police” station in the film. (In Canada, RCMP would have been enough.)

Maybe I’m being a little harsh here, but I can well understand why they didn’t make a separate series of it. Besides, the production costs alone would have been prohibitive.

Anyway, because I was living in the UK at the time, it was fun to see some Alberta scenery on the TV.