When the envelope containing the win-
ning entry for best cable production is
opened at Showcase `96 tonight in Saska-
toon, a Access Communications project is guaranteed
to win.
The only question remaining is which
one.
The winners of the 1996 Saskatchewan
Motion Picture Association Showcase
awards are being named tonight and two
Access Communications productions are vying for the
nod for best cable production.
Heartbeat: World Rhythms, directed by
Jay Willimott and produced by Willimott
and Pat Butler is one of two nominations
in the category; episode 2A of The James
and Kevin Show is the only other nomi-
nee.
Jack Hilkewich and John Kennedy directed
the episode, and Kennedy produced it. The
episode, which ran earlier this year,
features, among other skits, the irrepressible
pair going to a drive-in movie,
a segment on bagpipe lessons and parodies
of Alanis Morrissette and a Depends under-
garments commercial.
"It's an honor to be nominated," says
James Whittingham, the "James" of James
and Kevin. "It's always great recognition
for the show."
He notes the judges who pick the final-
ists are respected people in the film and
video industry and their opinions mean
a great deal.
He and Kevin Allardyce - the "Kevin"
- have been doing the show for nearly three
and a half years, but their association goes
back further than that.
Whittingham was a film and video stu-
dent 10 years ago at the University of Regi-
na, and he had a friend working at Cable
Regina making cable productions.
Allardyce was acting in some of those and
he and James became friends. We
developed sort of a comic chem-
istry," Whittingham recalls. The pair filmed
a segment for Access Communications's "What's Up"
at the exhibition, and the positive response
led the duo to film more segments and
package them into a one hour show - that
special won a Showcase award in 1993,
and the rest as they say is history.
So who watches the James and Kevin Show?
That's not as easy a question to answer as
Whittingham thought it was.
"We thought our audience was from Grade 8
to Grade 12 boys, but now we're constantly
surprised. We get approached by all sorts of
people," he says.
People of both sexes watch the show, and
the range is big - from five- and six- year olds
to "My elderly mother's church minister,"
Whittingham says.
And why are people watching?
"I don't know," he says. "I can't explain
it."
James and Kevin are also up for the award
as best host/presenters, and they're also in
the running for the best commercial under
two minutes and which cost less than
$10,000 to make.
This one is for their Bad Cops feature.
"It's a movie trailer for a movie that does-
n't exist," Whittingham says. "That one
was a lot of fun."
Look to the Free Press to see how James
and Kevin do, as well as a rundown of
the rest of the winners.