Peggy Delaney

Created by James W. Nichol

About time someone put the “broad” back in “broadcasting” at the CBC.

PEGGY DELANEY is a hard-drinking, hard-writing forty-ish Toronto newspaper columnist who can more than hold her own with any of the guys in the newsroom, in a 1998 series of radio dramas which originally aired as part of The Mystery Project.

Peggy’s column for The Toronto Tribune provides the focus for each week’s plot, and the CBC, in its oh-so-earnestly-correct way, assures us that “these plays are much more than reassuring puzzle mysteries. The object is to penetrate the process of newsgathering without trivializing the issues raised by the headlines. Beyond our entertainment mandate, we’d like to leave listeners with something substantial to chew on. We do this by relating the given story to Peggy’s own life, allowing for a portrait of a contemporary career woman who is profoundly flawed.”

Uh-huh.

“Profoundly flawed”?

I assume they mean that she’s a divorced single parent who drinks like a fish, with a personal life that’s a mess, although she has a “good heart.” Aiding and abetting Peggy in her fight for truth, justice and the Canadian Way is old Cabbagetown childhood buddy Bernie Sniderman, a wise and gentle spirit who now runs Cinderella Cleaners, and Nick Bauer, a former Washington correspondent with old-fashioned journalism values, barely surviving a City Desk job at “The Trib.” And, of course, there’s friendly local barkeep Charlie, who mans the plank at the Blue Moon Saloon.

Add Peggy’s estranged fifteen-year-old daughter, Amber, who comes from Vancouver to to stay with her mom for a school term in Toronto. Amber disapproves of her mother’s lifestyle, and isn’t shy about expressing her opinions.

From the mugging of an inner-city basketball coach to the story of two squeegee kids planning to have a baby, Peggy makes the streets of Toronto her beat, all the while trying to come to terms with her alcoholism and set things right with her daughter.

James W. Nichol had been a prominent playwright in Canada since 1970, and was one of the founders of The Mystery Project, for which he also wrote the Midnight Cab series, featuring quasi-private eye cabbie Walker Deveraux. Nichol’s dramatic adaptation of Margaret Laurence’s novel Stone Angel was performed all across Canada.

RADIO

• THE MYSTERY PROJECT: PEGGY DELANEY
  (1998-2002)
  39 30-minute episodes
  Written by James W. Nichol
  Directed by Bill Howell
  Executive Producer (for The Mystery Project): Bill Howell
  Score composed and conducted by Milan Kymlicka.
  Starring Kyra Harper as PEGGY DELANEY
  Also starring John Stocker as Bernie Sniderman
  J. W. Carroll as Nick Bauer
  and Caterina Scorsone as Amber
  Guest stars: Nicholas Campbell , Janet Laine-Green, Thomas Hauff, Jason Burke, Joanne Vannicola, David Storch, Marcia Bennett, Randy Hughson, Daniel DeSanto, Simon Reynolds, Jack Newman, Peggy Mahon, David Hughes, Dawn Greenhalgh, Amos Crawley, Kathryn Long, D. Garnet Harding, David Ferry, Arlene Mazerolle, Dom Fiore, Joyce Campion, Gerard Parkes, Judy Sinclair
  • SERIES ONE
  • “Identity Crisis” (September 19, 1998)
  • “Serpent’s Tooth” (September 26, 1998)
  • “Crossing The Line” (October 3, 1998)
  • “My Brother’s Keeper” (October 10, 1998)
  • “The Wrong Place” (October 17, 1998)
  • “Casablanca” (October 24, 1998)
  • “Condition Zero” (October 31, 1998)
  • “Romeo Loves Juliet” (November 7, 1998)
  • “Baby Talk, Part One” (November 14, 1998)
  • “Baby Talk, Part Two” (November 21, 1998)
  • “The Muskoka Point Hotel” (November 28, 1998)
  • “The Old Bamboozle” (December 5, 1998)
  • “Second Chances” (December 12, 1998)
  • SERIES TWO
  • “Pink Slips” (October 7, 2000)
  • “A Death In The Family” (October 14, 2000)
  • “Odd Girl Out” (October 21, 2000)
  • “All The Lonely People” (October 28, 2000)
  • “Long Drive Home” (November 4, 2000)
  • “Tough In The Corners” (November 11, 2000)
  • “Nothing To Hide” (November 18, 2000)
  • “Special Delivery” (November 25, 2000)
  • “Going Public” (December 2, 2000)
  • “Getting The Message” (December 9, 2000)
  • “Stick Work” (December 16, 2000)
  • “The Powers That Be” (December 23, 2000)
  • “Changing” (December 30, 2000)
  • SERIES THREE
  • “Three’s A Crowd” (November 10, 2001)
  • “How Things Work Out” (November 17, 2001)
  • “Return To Sender” (November 24, 2001)
  • “The Last Drawing” (December 1, 2001)
  • “Once Upon A Time” (December 8, 2001)
  • “A Place To Call Home” (December 15, 2001)
  • “In The Shadows” (December 22, 2001)
  • “Everybody Happy?” (December 29, 2001)
  • “One of Us” (January 5, 2002)
  • “Nothing Personal” (January 12, 2002)
  • “Family Matters” (January 19, 2002)
  • “Home Again, Home Again Part One” (January 26, 2002)
  • “Home Again, Home Again Part Two” (February 2, 2002)

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• The CBC Mystery Project
  Geoff Loker’s log of all shows broadcast from Novermber 1992 to July 6, 2002.
• Stop the Presses!
  Newsroom Eyes and Others Newshawks

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.