I Know a Secret (1984)
Cast and Credits
Produced by Atlantis Films Ltd. in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Produced with the participation of the Canadian Film Development Corporation. Running time: 23 minutes. CBC airdate: 26 Jan. 1984.
Fiona McGillivray (Jane Lawrence), Andrea Swartz (Dovie), Danny Higham (Eddie), Laurel Smyth (Mother), Maureen A. Hume (Aunt Helen), and Sean McCann (Six-Toed Jimmy).
Atlantis Films Limited presents a film based upon a short story by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Screenplay by Amy Jo Cooper. Produced by Michael MacMillan, Seaton McLean, and Janice Platt. Directed by Bruce Pittman.
Commentary and Synopsis
Based a short story by Montgomery published in Good Housekeeping in August 1935, this award-winning dramatic program aired as part of Sons and Daughters, CBC’s umbrella miniseries of six half-hour dramas that “focus on young people and the pains and pleasures of growing up” (”Programs” 13). Filmed in Prince Edward Island and set there in 1931, I Know a Secret is a sensitively-directed story of a young girl who years to know a secret so that she will win the friendship of the local children. When Dovie claims that Jane was switched at birth with the daughter of Six-Toed Jimmy, Jane must reassess her identity and learn to feel good about who she is.
Fiona McGillivray, who played the protagonist in this film, would later have a small role in Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel. Amy Jo Cooper would eventually write two novelizations of episodes of Road to Avonlea. Bruce Pittman would later direct two early episodes of Road to Avonlea.
Further Reading
“Programs aim for children’s minds.” Globe and Mail Broadcast Week 24 Sept. 1983: 13.
