''Lord Have Mercy!'' is a Canadian television

sitcom A sitcom, a Portmanteau, portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troup ...

, produced by Leda Serene Films, first shown on

Vision TV VisionTV is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel that broadcasts multi-faith, multicultural, and general entertainment programming aimed at the 45 and over demographic. VisionTV is currently owned by ZoomerMedia, a company ...

in 2003. It received further showings in Canada on Toronto One, APTN and

Showcase Showcase or vitrine may refer to: *Cabinet (furniture) *Display case Music * ''Showcase'' (Bill Anderson album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Patsy Cline album), 1961 * ''Showcase'' (Buddy Holly album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Philly Joe Jones album), 1959 ...

later the same year. The series, one of the first television productions launched by Vision TV's multicultural television development fund, starred

Arnold Pinnock Arnold Pinnock (born 1967) is a Canadian actor who is perhaps best known for his appearance as Paul Greebie, Casey's guidance counselor, in '' Life with Derek''. Pinnock was born in Birmingham, England. His career began with sketch comedy at Tor ...

as Dwight Gooding, an ambitious new youth

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

at Mt. Zion, a Caribbean-Canadian church. Other main characters were Dennis "Sprangalang" Hall as head pastor Cuthbert Stevens, Rachel Price as Gooding's wife Desirée,

Leonie Forbes Leonie Evadne Forbes OD (14 June 1937 – 25 October 2022) was a Jamaican actress, broadcaster, and producer who was active in theatre, radio, and television. Forbes born and grew up in Kingston, Jamaica. She attended Kingston Senior School b ...

as pastoral assistant Hope McCauley, and Shawn Singleton and d'bi young as Hope's grandchildren Kent and Crystal. The cast also included

Gary Farmer Gary Dale Farmer (born June 12, 1953) is a Canadian actor and musician. He is perhaps best known for his role as Nobody in the films '' Dead Man'' (1995) and '' Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai'' (1999), and for his role in '' Smoke Signals'' ( ...

Russell Peters Russell Dominic Peters (born September 29, 1970) is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, and producer. He began performing in Toronto in 1989 and won a Gemini Award in 2008. In 2013, he was number three on ''Forbes'' list of the world's highe ...

and Louis Negin. ''Lord Have Mercy!'' was created by Vanz Chapman and

Frances-Anne Solomon Frances-Anne Solomon (born 28 June 1966) is an English-Caribbean-Canadian filmmaker, writer, producer, and distributor. She has lived in Britain, Barbados and Toronto, Canada. Biography Born in England of Trinidadian parents, who had gone to Br ...

, based on an idea by Paul deSilva. It was produced by Solomon, Chapman and Claire Prieto, and directed by Solomon. Scripts were written by Solomon, Chapman and Ngozi Paul. The series cost about $2 million to produce and was shot live to tape. The show was nominated for two

Gemini Award The Gemini Awards were awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television between 1986–2011 to recognize the achievements of Canada's television industry. The Gemini Awards are analogous to the Emmy Awards given in the United State ...

s, for Best Comedy Series and for Best Female Performer (

) and has been screened at the ''African Disapora Film Festival'' in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. The series has aired in subsequent years in the Caribbean including runs on Gayelle TV and NCC-TV in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is often referred to as the southernmos ...

in 2008 It has also been repeated several times on Jamaican-based Caribbean International Network (CIN-TV), a channel which is carried by

cable systems Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

in the

New York metropolitan area The New York metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the Tri-State area, is the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban landmass, at , and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The vast metropolitan area ...

Cast and characters

as Youth Pastor Dwight Gooding, an ambitious up and coming junior pastor at Mt. Zion Church. * Dennis "Sprangalang" Hall as Pastor Lloyd Cuthbert Stevens, Mt. Zion's head pastor and patriarch. * Rachel Price as Desiree, Gooding's wife *

as pastoral assistant Sister Hope McCauley * Shawn Singleton as Kent, Hope's grandson * d'bi Young (credited on-screen as Debbie Young) as Crystal, Hope's granddaughter *

as Marty C. Marten, the church's window washer and handyman, who is in love with Sister Hope *

as Ryan Sarma, Gooding's childhood friend. * Louis Negin as Pastor White, a Roman Catholic priest and friend of Pastor Cuthbert's.

Cast and characters

Episodes

References

External links