By Greg Quill
October 27, 1992
Vampire Cop: It's a premise made in lergic to sunlight, drinks three or four bottles of cows' blood after finishing work, and who doesn't quite know whether to embrace attractive women or puncture their jugular veins with his pointy canines, is tracking down the perpetrator of what appear to be vampire murders,
Somehow Forever Knight, produced by Toronto's Paragon Entertainment and starring Geraint Wyn Davies as a vampire yearning for redemption and mortality, works. The series, a late-night ratings hit for the CBS network since May, premieres at last tonight in the country of its origin, on CFTO (Channel 9) at 10.
Of course, it's utterly preposterous. But Forever Knight demands - and will likely achieve - the degree of suspension of disbelief that allowed the Night Stalker TV movies starring Darren McGavin to survive in the early 1980s.
In tonight's pilot, we learn detective Nick Knight was "brought over" to the vampire realm in Paris in the 13th century, by his potent "father/brother" LaCroix (Nigel Bennett) and the seductive Janette (Deborah Duchene), a former lover who still exists in a parallel netherworld.
Knight's only ally in 20th-century Toronto is Natalie Lambert (Catherine Disher), who's trying to help him work him off his addiction to the Dark Side, despite the detective's occasional need to revert to bat-like status in order to bring criminals to justice. The brilliant and hard-working John Kapelos, a former Second City alumnus, plays Knight's crude, ignorant police partner, Det. Schanke.
Copyright 1992 Toronto Star Newspapers, Ltd.