Forgive Me

Forgive Me is a bold half-hour drama that breaks the seal of the Catholic confessional. A young Priest becomes engrossed in the very private lives of his congregants while trying to protect a secret of his own that could put his calling in peril. The ensemble of characters are people who struggle to retain their religiosity in an era when that's hard to do in the face of the news, abuse scandals, reproductive technology, the sexual revolution, gay civil rights – it's not easy to balance old school religion and this new world. They are ordinary people seeking to find a balance between life and not just their spirituality, but organized religion. A young insomniac Priest (Mike McLeod) lives in a rectory with three older priests, played (John Dunsworth, Jeremy Akerman, Rob Joseph Leonard). He has a lot of responsibility – the church congregation is shrinking – so when his elders retire he'll be doing all three jobs. The Priest has a family – the grandmother (Olympia Dukakis) who raised him, and his ne'er-do-well brother (Craig Layton). Each episode focuses on one congregant conveying dark sins inside the confessional booth. It's an incredibly intimate, honest space. Jane Alexander plays Bookie, who's returning to the church after a fifty-year absence. Hugh Thompson plays Smith, plagued with violent thoughts and Brenda Fricker is Smith's bitter anti-Catholic mother. But the Priest's secret past is coming back to haunt him with revelations that could end his career and his nightmares start to impede on his waking life. (Super Channel)