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Reviews
Excerpt from John Doyle's Globe and Mail column on Celtic Angels at Christmas
John Doyle - Globe & Mail
December 21, 2007
Celtic Angels at Christmas is evidently the Celtic Christmas thing to beat all Celtic Christmas things. It airs not once, or twice, over the next few days, but four times! It’s on Vision on Monday at 11pm, and again on Tuesday at 7pm. Bravo also airs it Tuesday at 11am. So what is this phenomenon? The Celtic Angels are Gillian Boucher, Stephanie Hardy, Kendra MacGillivray, Sabra MacGillivray, Maggie MacInnes, and Patricia Murray. One’s from Scotland, I think, and the rest are from Nova Scotia or Newfoundland. They’re fine-looking women and they sing, play instruments, and one of them does a spot of step-dancing. The TV special has plain production values and a great deal of sincerity. These Angels are not show-biz polished.
The program opens with Stephanie Hardy singing The Holly Bears a Berry, and Hardy does it with considerable oomph. When she swings her hips to the rhythm of the music, there is something splendidly earthy and sexy about the performance (Apart from being an Angel, Hardy is a singer-songwriter to watch, with a fabulous CD recently released). Then the Angels sit demurely and talk about the music. Some dancing happens. There’s harp music. Patricia Murray sings an outstanding version of The Holly and the Ivy. It’s all utterly mesmerizing and enjoyable. Maybe it’s me, because I’m a Celt. Or maybe it is Stephanie Hardy throwing her entire body into the singing of a carol. But it sure beats a lot of holiday specials.
John Doyle writes a weekly arts column in one of Canada's National newspapers, The Globe and Mail .
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