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With the recent passing of Dinah Christie at 83 we go back into the vault for my 2014 conversation with the beloved Canadian entertainer. 
Always a welcome presence on television in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, Christie was a touchstone for many boomers. I used to rush home from school to see the CHCH charades series Party Game where Christie, along with impish comedian Billy Van and "Captain" Jack Duffy, formed the almost unbeatable home team. 
As we discuss in this interview, the weekday favourite was kind of Canada's low budget Tonight Show. It allowed viewers to see homegrown singers, actors and other celebrities as themselves in a relaxed and casual setting. 
Christie's more serious side shone a decade earlier when she was the self-admitted "token blond" on the landmark (but short-lived) Canadian newsmagazine This Hour Has Seven Days. Hear her on those experiences as well as her three seasons opposite Don Adams on the less acclaimed grocery store set sitcom Check it Out!.

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 Adam Growe is happy to be back behind the wheel of Cash Cab for a 10th season (airing Wednesdays on MUCH and streaming on Crave). Raised in Vancouver, the stand-up comedian had to re-take and pass his special cab licence in Toronto before shooting took place last October/November. 
The series, which has been franchised in 40 counties, first took to the road back in 2008 in Canada. This new edition comes with a karaoke twist; passengers, after correctly answering trivia questions before arriving at their destination, can double their cash prize by answering one more and then singing a few bars of the song in question.
Growe talks about what passengers leave behind in the cab, the contestants who freaked and bailed when they learned cameras were involved, and answers the all-important question: naming his favourite character from the classic sitcom Taxi.

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 Who’s a good boy? All the puppies on the new CBC/CBC Gem series Must Love Dogs, that’s who. Premiering April 20, the 10 episodes feature a couple I met last December at the CBC Broadcast Centre in Toronto –  Brady Oliveira and Alex Blumberg. They live in Winnipeg and are very dedicated to rescuing and finding forever homes for canines all across Manitoba.
Brady can catch any dog. He is the star running back with his hometown club the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Over his six seasons, he’s been the leagues rushing leader twice and was part of two Grey Cup winning teams. He was also the CFL’s most outstanding player in 2024.
Alex is equally impressive in her zeal to rescue as many dogs as possible. The relator will crawl under fences and sheds, as you’ll see in the pilot episode, to sack and tackle as many puppies as possible. Fetch this episode right here at brioux.tv: the podcast.

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I first met today’s guest, BC native Benjamin Ayres, in 2010 when he was co-starring with Corner Gas’s Fred Ewanuick on a little Canadian comedy called Dan for Mayor. Ben’s 110 IMDb credits go back even further and show him to be skilled at both comedy and drama with roles in such shot-in-Canada gems as Saving Hope, Less Than Kind, Family Law, Burden of Truth, Suits, and going way back, jPod. 
Now he’s saddling up as a no-nonsense rancher in Hope Valley 1874, a prequel to the ever popular When Calls the Heart. Bethany Joy Lenz and Jill Hennessy are also along for the ride. The new series is streaming now on both Hallmark+ and the W Network. We get into the whole cowboy deal and spend a lot of time talking about the most important thing about being cast in a western – picking the right hat.

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In this special episode, we go beyond the scandal and into the storytelling of one of the most infamous moments in Olympic sports history with the cast of Hate the Player: The Ben Johnson Story. 
Through candid interviews conducted at the red carpet preview, hear from Mark McKinney, Andrew Phung, Emma Hunter and other top Canadian sketch players who bring this audacious mocumentary to life. Also interviewed is writer/creator Andrew Q Farrell (The Office), co-stars Karen Robinson, Andrew “King Bach” Bachelor who plays preening American sprinter Carl Lewis, and even Ben Johnson himself, who spent more than 9:79 seconds talking to me. 
Shamier Anderson (as Johnson), Ennis Esmer (as Johnson’s needle-happy sports doc), Ryan Bellville and Kristian Bruun also star.
The six-part series is streaming now at GameTV as well as on Paramount+.