After the death of his character in Alertsmurdered in cold blood in the parking lot of the SQ HQ, Jean-Michel Anctil will be back this winter in a brand new series, a comedy, which focuses on the world of funeral homes.
Funny kid or clever transition?
The host of It’s a good end to the week had the idea for this new project, Come to the living roomwith Louis-Philippe Dandenault, during the funeral of his friend Marc Poulin, the president and producer of Avenue Productions, in 2019.
Photo Agence QMI, MARIO BEAUREGARD
“We knew the widow, but not the rest of the family. With Louis-Philippe, we wondered how long we should stay. We started talking about the service and making each other laugh, but we didn’t want to laugh about it too much, and as we held back, it made it worse. That’s where I lit it,” said Jean-Michel Anctil during an interview with the QMI Agency.
“I looked at the photo of Marc in the living room and I said to myself: ‘You, my kind, are sending us an idea.’” continued the comedian, who plays the character in the series of Daniel, an embalmer who wishes to take over the family funeral home after the death of his uncle.
Photo provided by TVA
Despite his long-standing involvement, his mother, Paulette (Chantal Baril), is not ready to hand over the reins to him just yet and insists that his brother Luc (Louis-Philippe Dandenault), a former hockey player “a “not very crooked” and who always needs money, gets more involved in the business.
“As Louis-Philippe often says, they are half-men, but if you put them together, they form one. There is one who has an easier time with the living, the other has an easier time with the dead,” described Jean-Michel Anctil.
The comedy directed by Jean-Carl Boucher also stars Roger Léger, Myriam Fournier and Emi Chicoine.
An extraordinary atmosphere
On set, the actors had a lot of fun returning the lines to each other, being interrupted a few times by the giggles of the technical team.
“When you’re shooting a scene and you hear the technical team laughing, it tells us: ‘Ah! Ultimately, what we shoot is funny.” There was a cameraman who even fell down, he was laughing so hard. It was an extraordinary atmosphere,” said Jean-Michel Anctil, who said he was happy to come back with a humorous project like this.
Photo Agence QMI, MARIO BEAUREGARD
“I did comedy on stage for a long time. There, to do it on TV with a project that we designed from start to finish, it was really something easy for me and it makes me super proud. I like playing drama, but now, I think it will do me good to dive into this universe,” he said, admitting to having relied fully on his director to create his character.
A cousin thanatologist also accompanied him in the preparation of this, in particular to help him in his interventions with the bodies of the deceased, but also to tell him some anecdotes of his profession.
Keep your eyes open
Several elements serving as winks were hidden in the background throughout the different scenes of the series. In the first episode, we can notably see a photo of Marc Poulin, whose funeral inspired the series, on Paulette’s desk.
“Other references have been hidden, but we let the public discover them,” said Jean-Michel Anctil.
Directed by actor Jean-Carl Boucher, with a screenplay edited by François Avard, Come to the living room will be broadcast on TVA starting January 8, 9 p.m.
