Vision TV puts its faith in Our Man

Canada's Vision TV has greenlit its first original sitcom Our Man, which will be made with independent production company Leda Serene Films.

The 13-part series, which has sourced development funding from Telefilm Canada, is slated to premiere on the faith network in 2002-2003.

Shooting of the half-hour pilot episode is expected to commence this fall.

Our Man is set at a Caribbean storefront church in the heart of downtown Toronto and revolves around the ambitious but inept Youth Pastor Gooding and his pragmatic, easygoing father-in-law, Pastor Stevens.

The cast will include Jamaican actress Leonie Forbes, as well as Canadian talent including Richard Chevelleau (Earth: Final Conflict) and Russell Peters.

Director Frances-Anne Solomon, who earned a BAFTA award for her 1997 feature Peggy Su!, and writer Vanz Chapman (Drop the Beat) are the series creators.

{Our Man is precisely the kind of programme we believe in putting on air: one that tells entertaining stories and reflects the diversity of Canadian voices; it's a groundbreaking project that is rooted very strongly in the community,{ said Paul de Silva, vp of Programming at VisionTV.