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In a brilliant adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's timeless novel, three young people experience life, love, and loss against the epic backdrop of Russia's wars with Napoleon.

Drama | 0 part

War & Peace

Join host Rick Mercer for the 30th anniversary edition of the Giller Prize celebrating the best in Canadian fiction with a $100,000. 00 prize awarded to one special book and author.

Award shows | 56 min

Scotiabank Giller Prize (2023)

Elliot Page sits down with Tom Power to talk about his new memoir, Pageboy. He tells us how writing his story helped him heal and what brings him joy now that he’s living openly as a trans man.

Interview and talk-show | 34 min

Elliot Page on Q with Tom Power

A cranky, retired author reluctantly embarks on a final book tour to help out a young publisher.

Comedy | 102 min

Best Sellers

It’s the great Canadian book debate! Five champions choose books by Canadian writers that they believe the entire country should read. After four days of debate, one book is named the winner.

Education | 8 seasons

Canada Reads

Joanna, a young aspiring writer lands a day job at J.D. Salinger’s literary agency. While her old-fashioned boss Margaret assigns her to answer fan mail, Joanna struggles to find her own voice.

Drama | 101 min

My Salinger Year

The story of iconic writer, poet, actress and activist Dr. Maya Angelou, whose life intersected with some of the most defining moments in America's recent history.

Documentary | 114 min

Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise

Anne is a coming-of-age story about an outsider who, against all odds and many challenges, fights for love and acceptance, and her place in the world.

Drama | 3 seasons

Anne with an E

The journey that led to Charles Dickens' creation of "A Christmas Carol," a timeless tale that would redefine the holiday.

Comedy | 104 min

The Man Who Invented Christmas

The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a reference to the town of Windsor, also the location of Windsor Castle, in Berkshire, England. Though nominally set in the reign of Henry IV, the play makes no pretence to exist outside contemporary Elizabethan era English middle-class life. It features the character Sir John Falstaff, the fat knight who had previously been featured in Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2. It has been adapted for the opera on several occasions. The play is one of Shakespeare's lesser-regarded works among literary critics.

Drama | 116 min

The Merry Wives of Windsor

Poet and novelist, Margaret Atwood is a household name. Millions of her readers worldwide know her books from cover to cover, but few know the woman behind these stories.

Documentary | 78 min

Margaret Atwood: A Word After a Word After a Word is Power

Every two years, a group of authors in their 50s-80s, combine their forces and write an anthology of murderous short stories. They call themselves The Mesdames of Mayhem. While most fiction writing has historically been dominated by men, we see an exception with crime writing. The readership of crime fiction is mostly women. So why do women love murder? Through the stories of four Mesdames, Lisa, Melodie, Jane and Donna, we learn why women are drawn to the crime fiction world and how they restore chaos and obtain justice — even if it is just on paper.

Documentary | 15 min

The Mesdames of Mayhem

The Stratford Festival’s “riveting” and “exhilarating” (The New York Times) production of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, directed by genre-defying theatre artist Robert Lepage, has been called “the show of the decade … a landmark production for the Stratford Festival. Maybe for William Shakespeare, too” (The Globe and Mail), and “the greatest contemporary staging of this play that I have ever seen” (Chicago Tribune). The production stars “André Sills, a magnetic and imposing actor” (The New York Times), with a stellar cast delivering “performances that send shivers down the spine” (The Globe and Mail). Lepage takes the story about the rise and fall of a legendary general who must face off against the angry Roman mob and infuses it with the energy of Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring. “By resetting dialogue-heavy scenes as talk radio gabfests, and representing the uninformed mob as anonymous voices on social media, Robert Lepage helps clarify Shakespeare’s portrait of a world, like ours, overwhelmed with insincerity” (The New York Times). He “wrangles a difficult play into a heart-stopping narrative” (Chicago Tribune), “rendering a clear and cinematic version that’s riveting, invigorating and smart” (The Globe and Mail). “Rarely has Lepage’s reputation as a cinematic theatremaker been more earned” (Toronto Star).

Drama | 117 min

Coriolanus

Hosted by CBC Radio's Rosanna Deerchild, Turtle Island Reads is a panel discussion celebrating stories written by and about Indigenous people in Canada.

News | 1 episode

Turtle Island Reads

What happens when a Deaf amateur theatre director and his hearing girlfriend unite a group of thrity Deaf and hearing people to mount a unique adaptation of The Little Mermaid? Turns out: a whole lot of drama, onstage and off. That's the story we're telling in Seen & Heard.

Documentary | 1 season

Seen & Heard

The Athenian nobleman Timon is renowned for his lavish gifts and extravagant hospitality. His loyal steward, Flavius, and the cynical philosopher Apemantus warn him that his reckless generosity can only lead to ruin and disillusionment, but Timon, espousing an almost fanatical belief in human goodness, ignores their advice. When his money runs out and his creditors demand payment, Timon sends confidently to his “friends” for help. When all refuse him, he throws one last party, at which he curses all the guests before retreating to the woods outside the city to nurse his newfound hatred of humanity. His anger remains unabated even when, digging for roots to keep himself alive, he comes upon a buried cache of gold. Cursing it as an evil, he gives some to Alcibiades, a former Athenian general who is about to attack the city in revenge for his unjustified exile, and some to Flavius, his former steward. Refusing an offer of friendship from Apemantus, Timon also rejects a desperate plea from the Athenian senate for help in defending the city against Alcibiades’s army. His last act is to compose his own epitaph, which bitterly reaffirms his misanthropy. News of Timon’s death, however, has a sobering effect on Alcibiades, who vows to enter Athens in a spirit of forgiveness rather than revenge.

Timon of Athens

Two families of Verona, the Montagues and the Capulets, are embroiled in a long-standing and deadly feud. One night, Romeo, a Montague, gate-crashes a party being given by the Capulets, in hopes of encountering Rosaline, with whom he is infatuated.
Thoughts of her are driven from his mind, however, when he catches sight of Juliet, the daughter of Lord Capulet. Juliet, whose father has promised her to a young nobleman, Paris, is likewise smitten with Romeo and agrees to marry him in a secret ceremony conducted by a well-intentioned priest, Friar Laurence. But no sooner is this done than Romeo is drawn into a brawl in which Tybalt, Juliet’s cousin, kills Romeo’s friend Mercutio – and Romeo in turn kills Tybalt. Under sentence of banishment, Romeo spends his wedding night with Juliet before going into hiding; meanwhile, Capulet orders Juliet to marry Paris within three days. Friar Laurence devises a plan: Juliet will take a potion that will make her appear to be dead, allowing Romeo to steal into her family vault and rescue her when she revives. But the message explaining this to Romeo goes astray, and he, believing Juliet to be truly dead, commits suicide over her seemingly lifeless body. Awakening to find her husband dead beside her, Juliet too kills herself, leaving both families to mourn their children and abandon their feud.

Romeo and Juliet

To mark Black History month Asha Tomlinson hosts Being Black in Canada. The program highlights the work of two Windsor teachers who show their students what's missing in many of their history books. Asha speaks with Book of Negroes author Lawrence Hill about how the TV mini-series is bringing Canadian Black history to a wider audience, and we hear the story of Western Canada's Black Pioneers and how they're preserving their ancestors' history.

News | 23 min

Being Black in Canada (2015)

When small-town girl Vickie is accepted into the prestigious National Ballet School and selected to play the role of Clara in the Company's holiday production of The Nutcracker, things look like they couldn't get any better. As it turns out, they can't - because that's when Vickie finds out about the mysterious Curse of Clara. Thankfully, she's got a good friend, the 1972 Summit Series, and an imaginary mentor (in the form of Phil Esposito) to keep her "on pointe." Writer/producer Vickie Fagan also wrote the autobiographical short story upon which this animated special is based.

Animation | 22 min

The Curse of Clara: A Holiday Tale

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