Sophia Powers as Fox, Mark Ezekiel Rivera as Ritchie Perez, Mark Critch as Mike Critch, Claire Rankin as Mary Critch, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Mark Critch, and Colton Gobbo as Mike Critch Jr., and Malcolm McDowell as Patrick “Pop” Critch in SON OF A CRITCH – Season 1 Key Art | ©2024 Project 10 Productions

SON OF A CRITCH, now in its third season Thursday nights on The CW, is originally based on a book by Mark Critch, who co-created the half-hour comedy with Tim McAuliffe. Critch plays his own father, 1980s St. John’s Newfoundland radio host Mike Critch. Malcolm McDowell (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, O LUCKY MAN, TIME AFTER TIME) plays Mike’s irascible father, Patrick “Pop” Critch. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth plays Mark Critch as his young teen self.

As a writer, Critch has done a lot of comedy, including THE MUPPETS ALL-STAR COMEDY GALA; as an actor, he was a regular on REPUBLIC OF DOYLE and appeared in the recent award-winning feature BLACKBERRY.

McDowell, the English actor renowned for his film and stage performances, has also been a series regular on several television series, including TRUTH SEEKERS – McDowell says his role on that was a bit like Pop, although Critch contends the TRUTH SEEKERS character was much crankier – FRANKLIN & BASH, and the 1998 reboot of FANTASY ISLAND. However, prior to SON OF A CRITCH, the closest he’d come to being a sitcom regular was his recurring role on ENTOURAGE.

McDowell is emphatic about not having been actively seeking a half-hour comedy. “No, no, no. The delivery system is the last thing you think about. I couldn’t care less. It could have been a radio play and I would have done it, because I love the scripts. I loved the character immediately. And also, I don’t want to be first in, last out. I’ve done that, and I don’t want to do that anymore,” he laughs. “It’s a young man’s game, that. If you’re going to lead in a television series, you’d better be prepared to work damn hard. And I’ve done my fair share of that, have been a lead actor. Leave that to the young ones and move on, play a lovely part that’s three days a week.”

Arguably, SON OF A CRITCH is a very young man’s game, as fifteen-year-old Ainsworth is its leading man. At the outset, Critch says, “The big worry was, how do you find the right kid? Where are they? We looked at a lot of kids in Canada, and not all of them but many of them were kind of trying to be cutesy, things like that, more of a Disney kind of vibe, honestly. And then we had to go across the pond, and we found [Ainsworth] in England, where the tone is a bit different.”

Ainsworth was the third English youth seen for the role of Mark, Critch continues. “I called back to the casting people, and I said, ‘It’s Number Three, right?’ ‘Yeah, he’s best.’ I said, ‘What else has he done?’ ‘He just did the voice of Pinocchio opposite [Tom] Hanks in PINOCCHIO.’ I thought, ‘Well, we won’t get him.’ [The casting people said], ‘Well, we might get him.’ We had a Zoom with him, and he was a bit of an old soul. He really related to the character, as Malcolm did, because it was a lot like him. And we found that quite interesting. We had a lovely chat with him, and of course, when you’re working with a kid, you’re also working with parents, so we talked to them, they seemed like lovely people.”

“They really are, actually,” McDowell corroborates. “And you very rarely can say that. They’re usually a nightmare.”

Critch was concerned, as he felt that if they didn’t get the right young man to play Mark, “There wasn’t any show. And once I saw [Ainsworth], I was immediately disappointed, because I knew I would never see anyone else of that caliber. I didn’t think we’d be able to get him, and then I thought, ‘He’s going to spoil it, because now, whoever is after him, [we’ll think] ‘If only we had that other guy.’ But then he did it. And then, when we had him, I thought, ‘Okay, now we have a chance to make this really something funny, because of his skill.’ So, working with him, I don’t think of him as a minor. He’s a peer – he’s one of the best actors I’ve ever worked with.”

McDowell concurs. “Benjamin is one of the best young actors I’ve ever worked with. I mean, he’s a revelation.”

The actor is likewise complimentary about costar Critch’s teleplays. “He’s a wonderful writer. I don’t want to make him blush. Actually, it’s impossible. But when I read the scripts, I just knew that it was something really special. I’d been playing too many serial killers, God knows what else, scums of society. I’m really just a comedian at heart, and I love doing more family kinds of shows.”

Critch explains that McDowell’s Pop character is actually a composite. “The grandfather is a mixture of two different people in my life who were seniors, who were in our house. My dad’s actual father died of [tuberculosis] in the Twenties … But [Pop] is based on an older guy who was very witty, the kind of person who would turn you on to things like different cool music or UFOs. Put that in your mind, is that real or not? Would challenge you to think outside the box. And I can’t think of a better person to challenge young people to think outside the box than Malcolm McDowell.”

McDowell’s portrayal of the thoughtful H.G. Wells in TIME AFTER TIME is indelible to most of those who have seen it. “It’s a lovely film,” he recalls. “I don’t often get a chance to play a kind of character like that. I usually get the heavies. That is such a lovely kind of character, and I reprise it, a little bit, in this Western [that] hasn’t opened yet, called LAST TRAIN TO FORTUNE. It’s that sort of Victorian comes to the Old West.”

Does McDowell think that H.G. Wells might have become something like Pop Critch later in life? McDowell considers this for a moment. “Pop is a homegrown philosopher who gives some very bad advice. But there’s a bit of him that we can all relate to. And people really relate to Pop, big-time. I’m kind of amazed. It’s beautifully written, very heartfelt. You think one thing, and Pop always surprises. He’s actually this vulnerable character with a great heart. You can’t ask for better than that – wonderful to play.”

SON OF A CRITCH is not only set but is actually shot in Newfoundland. McDowell describes the province as “a character, by the way.”

Critch agrees. “Yeah, the place is very much a character. We needed to get that right. It’s so much of the recent ‘whatever is wrong with me is wrong with me is because of where you grow up and the environment.’ And so, it’s important to have it set there, to have it shot there as well.”

There is plenty of filmmaking infrastructure in Newfoundland, Critch adds. “Newfoundland is Neverland in the new PETER PAN, and THE SHIPPING NEWS with Kevin Spacey and different movies have shot there over the years, as well as our own series that aired in Canada. It’s always been a very artistic place, and it’s a very beautiful place as well, so lots of film productions come here, and TV shows, more so in the last couple years, but [it’s especially rewarding] to have one set in the place that’s about the place.”

While St. John’s, Newfoundland looks something like a U.S. suburb in the 1960s, the Beach Boys’ “Kokomo” on the radio charts puts the actual era a few decades later. “The show takes place in the Eighties,” Critch confirms, “and that particular year is 1989, right when ‘Kokomo’ was on the charts. The music of the time is a key thing, too, having to get those proper songs, because music and smell are the two great starters of memory. You hear that song, and it puts you in the place. It has to be the real songs. It’s much cheaper, of course, to have just,” he sings and invented on-the-spot snatch of generic lyrics, “‘Rah, rah, rock and roll, rock and roll music’ in the background that you just make up, but you have to have those real touchstones of the time.

“Newfoundland in the Eighties was kind of like the Sixties, because we joined Canada in 1949. Before that, we were our own dominion, and so we had our own passports and our own currency.”

“Biggest mistake they ever made,” McDowell interjects, then adds, “That’s Pop talking.”

Critch continues, “We always say, if something was popular in Montreal, it would get popular in Newfoundland about three years later. It’s more remote, it’s harder to get to, and very much its own culture, so the outside world didn’t matter as much. And very British, very Irish.”

For McDowell, “It’s really more like going to Scotland or Ireland in the Fifties, except all the infrastructure, of course, is as modern as anything you could get. But just the feeling of it, the camaraderie, the closeness, the sense of community and family is very high there, and very refreshing, very comforting to be around.”

Although McDowell is enjoying playing an overall decent fellow, does he get a kick out of showing Pop’s naughtier side on occasion, such as when he flirts with a visiting nun? “Well, the nun and I had a raging affair. Or, if they haven’t yet, they soon will. Here’s another interesting thing. I met this girl who said, ‘That [flirtation is] my favorite part of the show.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, why is that?’ And she goes, ‘Well, my mother was a nun, and my father was a priest.’ And I went, ‘Bingo!’”

Critch explains, “There’s a story that appears in Episode Three of the first season. A nun picked me out and made me play the cello in the school orchestra, which was akin to being given a death sentence in high school, because it’s hard to run away from bullies with a cello. And so, these guys took my cello, they hid it, and I was really upset, and had to [explain why the cello was missing to] my parents. Dad decided to write a letter on my behalf, saying, ‘Please excuse Mark.’ Turns out the nun had known Dad from their youth, and they clearly had had a bit of a fling. Something had happened, and she had picked me, I think, because of my father. ‘What’s going on?’ Then Dad would write me a letter to give the nun, and the nun said, ‘I need to give a letter to your father.’ Dad said, ‘Can you write her back?’ And then, I’m just this messenger between the two of them, and I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on?’ At a certain point, I didn’t have to play the cello anymore, but I still had to carry these messages back and forth.”

“People kind of love that kind of stuff,” McDowell observes, “because it’s a little raunchy, and it’s a nun – ooh! Scary nun! And she’s all like fluttering away. It’s sort of delicious stuff. It’s fun.”

How do Critch’s real-life family feel about his onscreen recollections of their family? “Well, I have two sons of my own, and my parents were alive when they were growing. And so, it’s interesting to them. They’ve heard a lot of these stories before, and I’ve been doing comedy for a long time, so they’re – I wouldn’t say numb to it, but I wouldn’t say shocked. And my brother [Mike Critch Jr.] is a character in the show [played by Colton Gobbo], so I had to really get my brother on board.”

“And he loved it,” McDowell says.

“He loves it now,” Critch says, “but he was also a bit like, ‘Why do you have to do this? Why can’t you be a plumber or something? You need to do stories about our family on television, is that what you need to do?’ Joking about it. But I think he didn’t know what to expect, so it’s been quite a lovely experience, because we bring to life different things.

“It’s depictions of the family. It’s not exactly as it was. The spine of every episode is generally true, the main story. So, it’s actually a really sentimental, reflective thing. For him, it’s odd, because for me, I’m making it happen. But for him, he’ll come visit the set – there’s a recreation of our childhood home that hasn’t been there since the Nineties. I’m dressed up in a recreation of my dad’s clothing. And so, he’s there, watching it.

“He’s become quite close with Malcolm, and the crew, and my brother is a radio personality, so he ended up working, as the character does on the show, on radio. He still has a radio show today, he’s the Number One morning guy. And Malcolm’s been in to appear on [Mark Critch Jr.’s radio] show, so it’s neat that way.”

What would McDowell and Critch both most like people to know about SON OF A CRITCH?

McDowell replies, “Thursdays, get in front of the telly and watch it, and tell your friends, because I’ll tell you this – once the audience find it, they’ll keep it in their hearts. They’ll love it.”

Critch answers, “I’d say it’s the kind of show people can watch with the family. A lot of parents will watch for the nostalgia, but the younger people watch because, even though it happened in the Eighties, these are things they’re still going through, whether it’s being bullied, or how do I get the courage to tell someone I like them, or feeling like you’re an outsider, but then realizing that you just haven’t found your people yet, and don’t change, and you’re a good person, you are who you’re supposed to be. So, I find parents think it’s for them, and the kids think it’s for them, and they can watch and talk about it together, which is not really something you can do much anymore. Everybody’s on their own devices. But it is a show that people can watch together, and that’s been a great compliment.”

This interview was conducted during The CW’s portion of the Winter 2024 Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour.

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Article: Exclusive Interview with SON OF A CRITCH actor Malcolm McDowell and actor-creator Mark Critch on new The CW sitcom

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