Rideau Hall (TV series)

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Rideau Hall is a Canadian television series broadcast since 2002 on CBC. It stars: Bette MacDonald, Fiona Reid, Jonathan Torrens, Joe Dinicol, and Rejean Cournoyer.

It is a sitcom about an earthy, fading disco queen (MacDonald) who is appointed Governor General by a sleazy republican Prime Minister who hopes she will disgrace the position, allowing him to eliminate it entirely.

Each episode has her becoming embroiled in one scandal or another -- usually not of her making -- only to have things resolve in her favour by the end. Reid plays her prim and proper executive assistant, Torrens her flakey, gay secretary, and Dinicol her laconic, level-headed son. Cournoyer plays the Prime Minister's sleazy aide.

Barry Flatman played the P.M. in the pilot, but did not appear in the regular series.

The series brought in fairly good ratings for the CBC and it was expected the show would be renewed for a second season; however, the show was cancelled after the Canadian Television Fund's budget was slashed by the federal government and CBC could only afford to keep its more popular shows, like Royal Canadian Air Farce, on the air. Six half-hour episodes plus an hour-long pilot were produced.

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