9.3 /10 2 Votes
Country of origin Canada No. of episodes 8 Running time 1 hour (time slot) Final episode date 28 April 1974 Narrated by Pierre Berton | 8.7/10 IMDb Original language(s) English Producer(s) James Murray
Eric Till First episode date 3 March 1974 Original network CBC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring John Colicos
Gillie Fenwick
William Hutt
Joseph Shaw
Gerard Parkes
Chris Wiggins Written by William Whitehead, Timothy Findley Similar Swiss Family Robinson, Strange Empire, Road to Avonlea, 11 Cameras, Da Vinci's City Hall | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
De railed the national dream trailer
The National Dream, also known as The National Dream: Building the Impossible Railway, was a 1974 Canadian television docudrama miniseries based on Pierre Berton's 1970 book of the same name, plus Berton's 1971 follow-up book The Last Spike. The television adaptation was written by William Whitehead and Timothy Findley.
Contents
The national dream the great lone road ep1 1974
Production
The series portrayed the concept and construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway during the late 19th century, with Berton himself as narrator. The National Dream combined dramatic reconstructions of the events (directed by Eric Till) with documentary content (directed by James Murray). Production required two years and cost CAD 2 million. Royal Trust, which was the executor of Cornelius Van Horne's estate, paid $400,000 to be a principal sponsor.
CBC Television premiered the eight-part hour-long series on 30 March 1974 and aired its final instalment on 28 April 1974. The series' rated audience of three million within Canada set a record for CBC in terms of dramatic programming. The series was also dubbed in French and broadcast on Radio-Canada, and was later seen in modified form on BBC in the United Kingdom.
After initial release
The series was never intended for international sales to cover any significant portion of its production costs. Berton, however, was believed to have earned at least $250,000 from it, as well as from a re-release of the related books.
There has never been a home video release, but it is available to educational institutions in DVD on special order from the CBC.