This man really IS Canadian

On Sunday we were watching Stargate Atlantis , one of those sci fi shows where all the alien planets are covered in temperate forests sort of like North America and all the aliens speak English. A bunch of earthlings has set itself up on the planet known as Atlantis in an abandoned ancient city that was underwater when they came along. Anyway, while the American military dominates the colony, there's an international flavour to the team and a lot of exaggerated accents.

One of the main characters is a dorky scientist Dr Rodney McCabe played by David Hewlatt. He's quite cowardly a bit like Zachariah Smith on Lost in Space, hopeless with women - actually with most people not just women, very sure of himself technically but kind of cuddly and a genuine genius.

He's meant to be Canadian. I can't actually pick a Canadian accent and over the years have caused a great deal of offence by accusing Canadians of being American so I was idly wondering whether he really was Canadian and what, if anything, making the token Canadian such a neurotic but clever character said about the state of US-Canadian relations.

So I was pleasantly surprised to find that he is quite famous in Canada as a Canadian person.

I was less pleasantly surprised to find that the show is filmed around Vancouver which means that, not only can I not spot Canadians, I also can't spot Canada.

So now I'm wondering if including Canadian local content (not just actors) is a condition for filming dodgy telly shows in Canada. I wish we'd pushed for Australian characters in Farscape rather than condemning years of NIDA graduates to playing aliens.