''X Company'' is a Canadian/Hungarian

spy Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangib ...

thriller television series created by '' Flashpoint's'' Mark Ellis and

Stephanie Morgenstern Stephanie Morgenstern is a Canadian actress, filmmaker, and screenwriter for television and film. She has worked extensively on stage, film, and television in both English and French. Her most widely seen feature film credits have been '' The S ...

which premiered on February 18, 2015, on

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

. The series takes place during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and follows five recruits as they are trained as agents at a secret Canadian training facility,

Camp X Camp X was the unofficial name of the secret Special Training School No. 103, a Second World War British paramilitary installation for training covert agents in the methods required for success in clandestine operations. It was located on the ...

near

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

east of Toronto and then sent out into the field in Europe. The final episode of the series aired on CBC on March 15, 2017. Camp X Site - Sunday, October 9, 2011

X Company was produced by Temple Street and Pioneer Stillking Kft. Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern wrote some episodes and were also executive producers with Ivan Schneeberg, David Fortier, Kerry Appleyard (Temple Street) and Bill Haber (Ostar Productions). Directors included Grant Harvey,

Amanda Tapping Amanda Tapping (born 28 August 1965) is a British-Canadian actress and director. She is best known for portraying Samantha Carter in the Canadian–American military science fiction television series ''Stargate SG-1,'' ''Stargate Atlantis,'' an ...

, Paolo Barzman, Julian Gilbey and Stephanie Morgenstern. On March 4, 2015, CBC renewed the series for a second season with ten episodes, two more than the first season of eight. On March 31, 2016, CBC announced that the series would be renewed for a ten-episode third season, to début in the winter of 2017. On September 1, 2016, it was announced that this would be the final season for the show.

International distribution

The series was shown in several countries, via distribution by Sony Pictures Television. Broadcasters that aired the series included TF1 in France, History in Latin America, History in the UK, Mystery in Japan, D-Smart in Turkey, 365 Media in Iceland, MBC in the Middle East, Mega in Greece and by Pickbox in Slovenia and Bosnia/Herzegovina. On April 2, 2017, the series was picked up by

Ovation The ovation ( la, ovatio from ''ovare'': to rejoice) was a form of the Roman triumph. Ovations were granted when war was not declared between enemies on the level of nations or states; when an enemy was considered basely inferior (e.g., slaves, p ...

in the United States.

Cast

;Notes

Production

''X Company'' had been an idea being considered for over a dozen years by creators Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern. They made a short film entitled '' Remembrance'' which did well enough on the festival circuit to encourage them to develop a feature script which eventually became ''X Company''. Originally titled ''Camp X'', the series was filmed in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, from August to October 2014, and in

Orlovat Orlovat (; hu, Orlód) is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Zrenjanin municipality, in the Central Banat District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority (95.52%) and its population numbering 1,789 people (2002 censu ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

and is a Canadian-Hungarian co-production. ''X Company'' is inspired by the real spy training facility,

, which was located between

Whitby Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Clif ...

and

Oshawa Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Season 2 filmed for four months in Budapest, and

Esztergom Esztergom ( ; german: Gran; la, Solva or ; sk, Ostrihom, known by alternative names) is a city with county rights in northern Hungary, northwest of the capital Budapest. It lies in Komárom-Esztergom County, on the right bank of the river Danu ...

, Hungary beginning in July 2015. Season 2 aired on January 27 on CBC. Season 3, the final of the series, was also filmed in and around Budapest, Hungary; location work was completed in November 2016 and the premiere was on January 11, 2017.

Critical reception

Writing in the ''Huffington Post'', Denette Wilford said: "''X Company'' is another history lesson CBC is offering audiences, and it nails it once again". The ''Globe and Mail''s TV critic John Doyle called it "vastly entertaining" and "a good solid thriller".

Episodes

Season 1 (2015)

Season 2 (2016)

Season 3 (2017)

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 4338336 2015 Canadian television series debuts 2017 Canadian television series endings 2010s Canadian drama television series CBC Television original programming World War II television drama series Espionage television series Television series based on actual events Television series by Sony Pictures Television Canadian thriller television series Television series set in the 1940s Spy thriller television series Television series by Temple Street Productions