KNIGHT AT END OF THE TUNNEL;
CANADIAN SERIES MAY FINALLY BE OUT OF TV LIMBO
By: Claire Bickley
October 2, 1995
Forever Knight fans have needed the patience of immortals to keep track of its trips in and out of TV limbo.
"It's like the Easter Bunny, really. Everybody's heard of it but nobody's seen it," Geraint Wyn Davies jokes of the series in which he stars as Nick Knight, homicide cop and non-practicing vampire.
After four years of delays, schedule switches, changes in broadcasters and long disappearances, the stylish made-in-Toronto drama is returning to Canadian TV and finally staking claim to a timeslot. The first episode airs tonight at 10 on CFTO with others scheduled for Oct. 9, 18 (barring a baseball pre-emption), 23 and Nov. 1. Although the shows are from Forever Knight's 1994-95 season, they haven't been seen here before. Twenty-two new episodes are to air on CFTO Monday nights at 10 starting Nov. 6.
While Forever Knight was languishing in tape libraries here, it was becoming a cult phenomenon on U.S. cable and in syndication. Davies became a popular attraction at sci fi/occult conventions and the ranks of the show's fan club swelled.
The Welsh-born actor has lived here long enough to catch the kind of Canadianesque self-deprecation that makes anonymity enjoyable.
"It's been fun shooting the show here without any of the problems that go along with being recognized. It's been wonderful to be incognito," he says.
"It gives you a normal existence. Then you fly down to someplace like Atlanta or Washington or Los Angeles and do a convention, and down there you have to have people walking around you, that bodyguard thing, which is really bizarre, I'll tell you."
But it's welcome news to everyone involved that Canadian TV will finally treat something homegrown almost as well as its American broadcaster does. This season Knight is airing south of the border on the USA cable network, which has been touting its premiere with full-page ads in People magazine.
"Down in the States, the swell of support it's been getting is quite incredible," says Davies.
"It shocks me occasionally how a country you're not even a part of can embrace you with such wide open arms. It's weird. I've never quite understood that."
To keep his enthusiasm alive, Davies is directing a handful of the show's episodes and continuing to fill in corners of the character.
"Basically Nick shouldn't have a whole lot to say because there's more strength in the silence of the character, and although humor is an important part of him, it's more a sort of irony as opposed to ha-ha-ha, " he's decided.
The classically-trained actor is contracted to spend one more season inside Nick's skin. Which is fine with him, but not what he ultimately wants to be remembered for.
The new episodes will add some younger characters and aim for a "sexier, edgier tone."
"I suppose it means introducing more guest necks-of-the-week kind of thing," he says. "More necking. Lots more necking."
Also ahead are vampire dogs, an Indian-inspired spirit journey and an episode in which Nick, ever the unwilling immortal, will seem to die.
Davies thanks Dallas and its Bobby-resurrecting shower scene for giving TV shows permission to break any rule they make.
"You've set up a formula of, 'No, you can't see yourself in the mirror. Okay, well this week you can' ... Anything you think can't happen, is happening."
Copyright 1995 Toronto Sun Publishing Corporation