Wingfield

Your humble reviewer could simply say that the quality and entertainment value of this simple series is so extraordinary that it leaves in the dust the hundreds of millions of dollars of Canadian film "knock offs" (subsidized by the Canadian taxpayer) that, compared to Wingfield, are mere "poseurs" to the medium.

But that would be a poor review, and the reader deserves better.

Once upon a time there was a Canadian actor of immense talent who got together with a Canadian writer of equal talent, and the two of them developed a "one man stage show" played by the former, and written by the latter, about a stockbroker turned farmer, where ALL THE PARTS ARE PLAYED BY THE SAME ACTOR based on physical gestures mainly.

How good is this? Galvanizing, mesmerizing, hypnotic, entertaining, provocative and generally the best entertainment you are are likely to see in your lifetime.

Much of this was captured for TV but (this is a mystery even to Canadians) only the last season (the 2006 episodes) were ever released into the wild.

If you get a chance to watch this, do so. You will never regret it.

Walt has a dream of living the "simple life" going back to the days when horses pulled the plow and not tractors. Along the way towards realizing his dream he meets an assortment of characters who are only too willing to watch his follies, but are also always there to help him up, dust him off and encourage him to keep trying. An amazing performance by Rod Beatie, his ability to change characters is nothing short of phenomenal and then there is the writing.... After having read the books several times, seen these performances several times, I still have to laugh out loud at the performances, I guess the only thing left is to go see the plays in person and hopefully shake Mr Beatie's hand for so masterfully bringing Dan Needles characters to life. Although the plays started as Television episodes they have been translated into collections of the plays on discs. There are 6 Discs in this collection