Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 14, 1990 TAG: 9007140470
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARTIN KNELMAN THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Love and Hate," which concludes Monday, stars Kenneth Welsh as Thatcher and Kate Nelligan as his former wife, JoAnn Wilson.
When it was broadcast in Canada last year, the miniseries was the top-rated TV drama of the year, and according to Ivan Fecan, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s director of programming, "this is a prime example of the breakthrough that has occurred in the quality of Canadian drama in the past few years."
"Where the Spirit Lives" and "Glory Enough for All" are among the Canadian films recently shown on American public television.
Canadian-made series are shown regularly on United States channels; "Degrassi High" is on public television, and "Danger Bay" and "Avonlea" are on cable's Disney Channel.
But "Love and Hate" is the first CBC sale to one of the big three American networks.
Seeking something to bolster his summer line-up, Brandon Tartikoff, president of NBC Entertainment, asked Fecan, who worked for Tartikoff from 1985 to '87, if he had anything that might appeal to American viewers.
"Love and Hate" was among the tapes; the quality of the production impressed Tartikoff.
For the United States telecast, NBC has added a subtitle: It is now called "Love and Hate: A Marriage Made in Hell."
The miniseries is less a murder thriller than a domestic drama about the emotional price of divorce and a chronicle of a devastating custody battle.
It is also the story of a driven man who sees himself as above the law, a John Wayne of the North, who isn't going to let himself be pushed around by judges.
The story goes back to 1979 and the breakup of the Thatcher marriage, which began a bitter and public custody battle over two of the three children, Regan and Stephanie, as well as a dispute over financial matters.
The oldest child, Greg, stayed with his father throughout. As JoAnn discovered, winning in court doesn't always count, especially if your opponent is a master of dirty tricks.
As portrayed in the film, when Colin Thatcher is thwarted, he barges in and takes what the courts have refused to give him.
He behaves like a bully; he sees himself as a persecuted loner battling back against an unfair system.
To him, the enemies are all part of the same system; it's as if JoAnn and his socialist critics in the legislature were part of the same evil conspiracy.
As a child, Thatcher had to get used to being criticized and ridiculed in public by his famous father, the provincial premier, Ross Thatcher, which may explain his character flaws - the mean streak and the explosive temper.
But on the campaign trail he was a charismatic charmer; indeed, Thatcher remained the favorite celebrity of the town of Moose Jaw, even after being convicted of first-degree murder in the gruesome 1983 bludgeoning of his former wife.
And apparently his nasty temper failed to deter the long line of attractive women who were drawn to him.
However, it was a disillusioned girlfriend who gave the most damning testimony at Thatcher's trial when she recounted a conversation she had had with him in Palm Springs, Calif., after reading of JoAnn's demise in the local newspaper.
The response she attributed to him: "I have to admit it is a strange feeling to have blown your wife away."
Even now, a few years into his 25-year sentence (with no parole), Colin Thatcher remains a defiant self-dramatizer still capable of catching the public's fancy.
Working from "A Canadian Tragedy," a book by Maggie Siggins about the Thatcher case, the screenwriter Suzette Couture assembled a mass of research information from which she could extract sharp details.
To direct the film the CBC producer Bernard Zukerman chose Francis Mankiewicz, best known for a 1980 French-language feature, "Les Bons Debarras."
by CNB