Patrick Watson, one of Canada's most innovative broadcasters, passed away yesterday. No cause of death was released. He was 92.
Canadian baby boomers remember Watson best as one of the co-hosts of the CBC's This Hour Has Seven Days, a controversial current events show which aired between 1964 and 1966 and was cancelled despite being the network's most popular program. Ironically, a quarter century later, Watson would be named Chairman of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Canadians of my generation remember him as the voice behind Canadian Heritage Minutes including basketball, Jackie Robinson's time with the Montreal Royals and Winnie The Pooh.
What I remember him best is for his innovative series Witness to History which aired on Global TV and later TV Ontario during the mid-1970's and would be briefly revived in the late 1990's on the Canadian version of The History Channel. The premise of the show was Watson interviewing a figure from history in a contemporary setting. Many of these figures were portrayed by well known actors including Donald Sutherland who played Dr. Norman Bethune, who invented the mobile army surgical hospital (or MASH units), Richard Dreyfuss as Billy The Kid, Sandy Dennis as Joan of Arc, Robert Vaughn as Thomas Paine and Steve Allen as George Gershwin.
I also remember him for his mini-series The Struggle for Democracy which aired in numerous countries including in the U.S. on PBS. In light of our current struggle for democracy and in tribute to Patrick Watson, it would be well worth to re-air this series once more.
I leave with you a brief interview of Watson discussing his time on This Hour Has Seven Days, being in the first Western film crew to shoot an independent documentary in Communist China and the Canadian Heritage Minutes. R.I.P.
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