March is shaping up to be a good month for CBC.

Things get rolling with the miniseries The Englishman’s Boy, a two-parter based on Guy Vanderhaeghe’s book, starting tomorrow, Sunday (March 2), and finishing next Sunday (March 9).

First…The Englishman’s Boy. Check this weekend’s edition of TV Times, distributed in all CanWest dailies, for my full review…but a few highlights…

Nick Campbell has never been better…when Clint Eastwood finally gets around to working on that sequel to Unforgiven, he ought to give Campbell a call. Seriously, he is absolutely riveting and heartbreaking as Shorty McAdoo, the all-grown up cowboy of the book’s title.

He disappears under McAdoo’s worn cowboy hat so completely that there’s no discernable trace of Campbell himself, and certainly none of his old alter ego Dominic DaVinci. Campbell’s performance is entrancing, powerful and ultimately heart-breaking.

When I chatted with him about a month ago about the project, he was a bit nervous about how the work would be received. He needn’t be. It was the role of a lifetime and he made the most of it. The only surprising thing about the project is that Campbell, who loves horses and was a fixture at Hastings Race Track when he was in Vancouver, isn’t seen on a horse, not even once. “I thought ‘f**k it,’ I don’t want to blow this chance,” he said, of possibly getting injured. He went to cowboy camp anyway and watched wranglers teach his co-stars the ways of the old West. Giddy 'up.

Novelist Guy Vanderhaeghe does a great job adapting his Governor General’s Award-winning (1996) book for the project. And as usual, John N. Smith does a great job directing. Kevin DeWalt’s Minds Eye Entertainment in Saskatchewan helmed the project. And yes, the same team brought to TV the controversial Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story.

Next up, on March 19 the fifth estate’s Gillian Findlay presents an in-depth look at the Canadian medical staff on post in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The fifth estate team spent a month with the men and women of the multinational medical unit. Should be dusty, bloody and fascinating.

The next instalment of The Next Great Prime Minister goes March 23 and the month wraps up with Paul Gross’s The Trojan Horse airing Sunday, March 30. The man keeps busy, no?