# Witness to Yesterday

Witness to Yesterday is a Canadian docudrama television series which featured staged interviews with historical personalities. It was first broadcast by Global Television Network in 1974 then produced by TVOntario to 1976. A 12-episode revival of the series was produced in 1998 for History Television.

## Synopsis

Each episode featured a historical person as portrayed by a guest actor in conversation with host Patrick Watson who took the role of an interviewer.
Witness to Yesterday was among the first series to be broadcast by Global. Original episodes were broadcast on Global in a regular Tuesday 10:00 p.m. time slot from 8 January 1974 to 21 May 1974. The debut episode featured Sandy Dennis as Joan of Arc.

## Production

The series was produced in Montreal by Look Hear Productions, a division of the McConnell advertising company.
Laurier Lapierre conducted research for the series. Scripts were written, but the filming often incorporated ad-lib dialogue. Each episode was produced for approximately $6000 with actors paid from $600 to $2500. Host Patrick Watson earned 15% of the international sales income plus his base $500 per episode. Writers included Patrick Watson, Patrick Withrow and Doug Scott.
Global Television Network encountered financial difficulties in its initial months and cancelled most of its original Canadian programming by May 1974. Global owed Look Hear Productions $130,000 for producing 24 episodes of Witness to Yesterday. The last episode filmed prior to Global's cancellation featured Donald Sutherland as doctor Norman Bethune. Global eventually paid 30% of its bill for the series as part of its financial settlement with creditors.
CBC Television considered picking up the series but by then had booked other productions. Witness to Yesterday was transferred to Toronto educational station CICA-TV (OECA) which planned the production of three new episodes for the 1974–75 season and another 13 for the 1975–76 season, in addition to rebroadcasting the initial 20 episodes.

## Episodes
### Global Television Network episodes (1974)

Global broadcast the series on a regular 10 p.m. Tuesday time slot.
| No. | Title / Historical figure | Starring | Original release date | Notes / Refs |
| 1 | "Joan of Arc" | Sandy Dennis | 8 January 1974 (1974-1-8) | Pilot episode |
| 2 | "Sitting Bull" | August Schellenberg | 15 January 1974 (1974-1-15) | |
| 3 | "Queen Victoria" | Kate Reid | 22 January 1974 (1974-1-22) | |
| 4 | "René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle" | Laurier LaPierre | 29 January 1974 (1974-1-29) | |
| 5 | "Catherine the Great" | Zoe Caldwell | 5 February 1974 (1974-2-5) | |
| 6 | "Patrick J. Whelan" | Patrick McFadden | 12 February 1974 (1974-2-12) | |
| 7 | "Sarah Bernhardt" | Denise Pelletier | 19 February 1974 (1974-2-19) | |
| 8 | "Billy the Kid" | Richard Dreyfuss | 26 February 1974 (1974-2-26) | |
| 9 | "John A. Macdonald" | Robert Christie | 5 March 1974 (1974-3-5) | |
| 10 | "Nell Gwyn" | Dawn Greenhalgh | 12 March 1974 (1974-3-12) | |
| 11 | "Christopher Columbus" | William Hutt | 19 March 1974 (1974-3-19) | |
| 12 | "William Shakespeare" | Barry Morse | 26 March 1974 (1974-3-26) | |
| 13 | "Thomas Paine" | Robert Vaughn | 2 April 1974 (1974-4-2) | |
| 14 | "Walter Raleigh" | Chris Wiggins | 9 April 1974 (1974-4-9) | written by Doug Scott |
| 15 | "Socrates" | Mavor Moore | 16 April 1974 (1974-4-16) | |
| 16 | "Judas Iscariot" | Donald Davis | 23 April 1974 (1974-4-23) | |
| 17 | "Mata Hari" | Maruska Stankova | 30 April 1974 (1974-4-30) | |
| 18 | "Duke of Wellington" | Christopher Plummer | 7 May 1974 (1974-5-7) | |
| 19 | "Leonardo da Vinci" | Patrick Watson | 14 May 1974 (1974-5-14) | |
| 20 | "Rembrandt" | Robert Markle | 21 May 1974 (1974-5-21) | |

### CICA/TVOntario episodes (1974–1976)

| Historical figure | Starring |
| "Al Capone" | Henry Ramer |
| "George Gershwin" | Steve Allen |
| "Akhenaten" | Allan Migicovsky |
| "Mohandas Gandhi" | Louis Negin |
| "Earl of Durham" | Colin Fox |
| "Emma Goldman" | Marilyn Lightstone |
| "Lucrezia Borgia" | Alexandra Bastedo |
| "Adolf Hitler" | Robin Gammell |
| "Catherine de' Medici" | Sydney Sturgess |
| "Norman Bethune" | Donald Sutherland |
| "Mark Twain" | Alex Trebek |
| "George Bernard Shaw" | Barry Morse |
| "Grigori Rasputin" | August Schellenberg |
| "Mary Todd Lincoln" | Marian Waldman |
| "Cleopatra" | Jayne Meadows |

## Reception

Witness to Yesterday was sold to broadcasters in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and on other Canadian stations.
Blaik Kirby of The Globe and Mail deemed the premiere to be "flat and undramatic", noting that French-Canadian actress Geneviève Bujold should have been considered for the role of Joan of Arc over the less appropriate performance from American Sandy Dennis. Later, Kirby gave the overall series a favourable review, noting that it "was in almost everyone's opinion, one of the very best of Global's Canadian programs, which were a worthy achievement even as a group."

## 1998 revival

New episodes of Witness to Yesterday were broadcast by History Television in 1998. Watson again hosted the series and was its primary writer with additional writing by Hugh Graham. 12 episodes were completed of a 13-episode plan under a $700,000 budget. Eight episodes were recorded in December 1997 at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. The remaining episodes were recorded in Toronto. Alan Gough directed this series revival with Watson. New Brunswick company Cinefile and Toronto's The Film Works co-produced the series revival. Victor Solnicki and Barry Cameron were executive producers from Cinefile and The Film Works respectively. Its budget was supported by History Television, PBS which aired these episodes and a $168,500 credit from provincial agency Film NB.

### History Television episodes (1998)

| No. | Title / Historical figure | Starring | Original release date | Notes / Refs |
| 1 | "Marie Antoinette" | Cynthia Dale | 24 March 1998 (1998-3-24) | |
| 2 | "Niccolò Machiavelli" | David Calderisi | 31 March 1998 (1998-3-31) | TBA |
| 3 | "Marie Curie" | TBA | 7 April 1998 (1998-4-7) | TBA |
| 4 | "Genghis Khan" | Gordon Tootoosis | 14 April 1998 (1998-4-14) | |
| 5 | "Amelia Earhart" | Martha Burns | 21 April 1998 (1998-4-21) | |
| 6 | "Tecumseh" | Raoul Trujillo | 28 April 1998 (1998-4-28) | |
| 7 | "Mary Pickford" | Charmion King | 5 May 1998 (1998-5-5) | |
| 8 | "Mary Ann Shadd" | Sylvia Sweeney | 19 May 1998 (1998-5-19) | |
| 9 | "Vladimir Lenin" | Michael Ironside | 26 May 1998 (1998-5-26) | |
| 10 | "William Stephenson" | John Neville | 2 June 1998 (1998-6-2) | |
| 11 | "Alexander the Great" | Paul Gross | 9 June 1998 (1998-6-9) | |
| 12 | "Sigmund Freud" | TBA | 16 June 1998 (1998-6-16) | TBA |