Simon Bauche is back this summer, doing everything he can to keep the Stittsville community safe. After enjoying massive success on Bell Fibe TV1, and becoming a mainstay on their list of Top 10 shows across Canada since its launch in January, Stittsville on Patrol has been renewed for a second season.
Simon Bauche, played by actor Ben Milks, is full of one-liners and hilarious physical comedy. Bauche has a gift for comedic timing and isn’t afraid to get down and dirty to get laughs. One episode sees him out in the woods in camouflage trying to catch citizens who aren’t properly maintaining their bushes.
It’s clear Milks is having a blast playing the character of Simon Bauche, who is comparable to Dwight Schrute from The Office. Both men are completely serious to the point of hilarity, have a tendency to criticize, and are hungry for power. Both Dwight and Simon are sticklers for the rules — and talented in annoying the people around them.
But while Dwight is looking to climb the ranks of Dunder Mifflin, Simon just wants to feel useful protecting a community that doesn’t actually need his help. Plus, Rainn Wilson had other cast members to play off; every episode of Stittsville on Patrol is a four- to five-minute monologue.
The show’s creator, Christopher Redmond, has been working in local film for years, and even filmed a Sesame Street segment in Ottawa in 2019. He helped launch the Ottawa division of TV1 for Bell Media in 2015 and has been a steady supporter of local filmmaking over the past decade.
But how did Christopher come up with the concept?
“Needing to fight boredom in small town Saskatchewan, my buddy and I would clown around town acting like citizens on patrol, and film ourselves taking every possible bylaw violation way too seriously,” says Christopher. “Fast forward almost 20 years, and I wanted to resurrect the concept in Ottawa.”
“Regardless of the conditions [due to the pandemic] and limited crew, shooting Stittsville on Patrol is the most fun I’ve ever had working in my life. The scripts guide everything we shoot, and then we allow ourselves to improvise and amplify every single scene.”
Stittsville on Patrol will start filming sometime in June, and will hit airwaves in September. Until then, catch all 12 episodes on Fibe TV, and by the end of the month every episode will be available on Youtube.