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Holiday classic The Shepherd flies onto the screen in movie starring John Travolta

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As It Happens18:04The Shepherd, a holiday classic on CBC Radio, is now a movie starring John Travolta

CBC Radio listeners have long been familiar with Frederick Forsyth’s short story The Shepherd. Now, the spooky holiday classic has been made into a movie.

The new Disney+ film is an adaptation of Forsyth’s 1975 novella about a Royal Air Force pilot who is flying home from Germany for Christmas┬аwhen a dangerous fog sets in and cuts off his radio communications.

CBC’s As It Happens has aired a reading of The Shepherd almost every December since 1979, either on Christmas Eve┬аor as close as possible for the weeknight program.┬а

Listening to The Shepherd on CBC is a generations-long tradition for many Canadian families тАФ and, apparently, for actor John Travolta, too.

“He heard, and really enjoyed, the Christmas Eve broadcast over the years тАж with his family,” the movie’s director, Iain Softley, told As It Happens host Nil K├╢ksal.

“He always had this desire to see it on the screen in some form.”

WATCH | Trailer for The Shepherd:

In fact, it was Travolta тАФ himself an avid pilot тАФ who first pitched Softley on the adaptation about 30 years ago, after he┬аoptioned the novella in the hopes of playing the young protagonist.┬а

It didn’t work out, but Travolta held onto the dream of making the beloved book into a movie.┬а

Now тАФ with the help of Softley and producers Alfonso Cuar├│n, Gabriela Rodriguez┬аand the late Bill Kenwright тАФ that dream is finally a reality.

“Alfonso had also been in love with the story as a child,” Softley said.

“So all of these remarkable people тАж we made the film together, which was incredibly satisfying that it all turned out that way.”

Ben Radcliffe stars as The Shepherd’s protagonist pilot. Unnamed in the novella, he’s called Freddie Hooke in the movie тАФ a nod to author Frederick Forsyth. (Sean Gleason/Disney)

Actor Ben Radcliffe, best known for the 2022 film┬аAnatomy of Scandal, portrays the young protagonist. Unnamed in the book, he’s called Freddie in the film┬аin a nod to Forsyth.┬а

Travolta plays the titular Shepherd тАФ a mysterious pilot who appears out of nowhere to guide Freddie to safety.

The Shepherd’s origin story

Forsyth, an English novelist and journalist best known for his thrillers, never intended The Shepherd for public consumption. In fact, he never intended to write it all.┬а

In a 2006 interview with As It Happens, Forsyth explained that he’d bought his wife a diamond ring for Christmas 1974, and┬аkept it in his pocket┬аbecause of her tendency to root around the house looking for her presents ahead of time.

When she couldn’t find anything, she asked in exasperation: “What did you get me for Christmas?”

“I pretended to be a fool. ‘Oh, no, I forgot all about it.’ So she got pretty put out and said, ‘Well, if it’s going to be like that, then write me a ghost story,'” he said.┬а

“Christmas afternoon, having had the big blow-out feast, my parents who were with us went to their little afternoon siesta, [and my wife] went and had a nap, and I couldn’t sleep. So I sat down and, in about five hours, I wrote The Shepherd.

Close up of smirking man, wearing a blue suit jacket and white collared shirt.
Frederick Forsyth, pictured in 2015, is an author and journalist known for writing thrillers. He wrote The Shepherd on Christmas Day in 1974. (Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images)

It never crossed his mind to publish the story, he said. But his wife recognized gold when she saw it. She reached out to Forsyth’s agent on his behalf тАФ and the rest is history.

When Softley first read it, he says he was drawn in by its “atmospheric, Christmas-like setting.”

“Under the stars, under a full moon, snow-covered landscape, a dream for this young pilot to be going home to see his family. And then the dream turns to a nightmare and it becomes this gripping story of survival,” he said.

“I was just seduced by it.”

An As It Happens tradition

In 1979, As It Happens debuted its reading of The Shepherd, narrated by then-host Alan Maitland, whose dulcet, comforting tones┬аearned him the nickname “Fireside Al.”

Since then, it’s become a staple for radio-listening households, many of whom have written to the show to say they once listened with their parents as children,┬аand now listen with their children as parents.

“All of us at As It Happens know how important the program is to generations of listeners. But you really feel that weight when the calendar flips to December and the first calls and emails come in: ‘What is Shepherd day this year?!'” Austin Webb, executive producer of As It Happens, said.┬а

“We love finding ways to present the classic Al Maitland reading with a little twist every year тАФ this time it’s the initially shocking news that Disney and John Travolta wanted in on the action.”

Portrait of a man with grey hair.
The Shepherd director Iain Softley says he was seduced by Forsyth’s ‘atmospheric’ Christmas story. (Sean Gleason/Disney)

When the movie trailer launched last month, the show’s staff was taken aback to see the tagline: “A timeless holiday classic, brought to life for the first time.”

When asked to explain himself, Softley clarified: “It’s brought to life for the first time on the screen.”┬а

The movie, he says, will bring some new context to the classic story, giving the protagonist pilot a more fulsome backstory, including a complicated relationship with his late father, and love interest, Lizzie, played by Millie Kent.┬а

“I hope people will watch the film and I hope that they will find it to be an equivalent experience,” he said. “Maybe┬аthe tradition now on Christmas Eve will be both the audio and the visual version.”

This year’s reading of The Shepherd will air Dec. 22 at 6:30 p.m. on CBC Radio One┬а(7 p.m. in Newfoundland). You can also stream it live or on demand on CBC Listen, or listen any time on the As It Happens website.

The Shepherd, starring Ben Radcliffe and John Travolta, is now streaming on Disney+.

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