David Hatch is ready for new horizons.

Fresh off of producing the last Motorcycle Experience, he stopped by the Picton Yacht Club to speak at the Rotary Club lunch meeting on November 3. Mr. Hatch is a well known television producer and host with a background in motorsports. He has worked for TSN and Global television, and produced multiple documentaries and TV series.

It all began at Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute in Scarborough. Mike Myers attended the same school, which had the benefit of an in-house TV studio for students.

“I was a kid with ADHD and dyslexia, and I was doomed. I was horrible in math, horrible in science. It was really by chance, this high school was next to where my parents chose to live. They had this TV studio, and I walked in and said, I don’t need a pen, I don’t have to write anything down, there’s no tests, I’m in!” Mr. Hatch laughs.

He launched Whistlestop Productions to produce Motorcycle Experience, and has experimented in various genres since. 

The original plan was not always to put down roots in the County.

A friend who had spent summers here asked Mr. Hatch and his wife, Stacey, if they’d like to plan a weekend visit. Already looking for an alternative to producing in Toronto, where it was difficult to get out of the city to shoot, Hatch was interested.

“We rode down across Carrying Place, came into the County and I was like, what is this, why didn’t I know about it? It was an instant love affair.” 

Sold on the scenery, the Hatches moved in. For the first couple of years, he commuted to a studio in Toronto three days a week. But the technology soon caught up with his intentions, and he started operating Whistlestop here full time. The community and landscape soon became regular features of the show.

But that was just the beginning. As he says, “everything happens in Prince Edward County. Take the documentary Atomic Reaction, available on CBC Gem. It follows the Canadian role in the Manhattan Project, revealing the ins and outs of a top secret facility.”

Hatch got the idea driving past Port Hope, where he spotted the unused facility.

“It’s about Canada’s role in the Manhattan Project, something I knew nothing about. I’m seeing this huge factory on the water front, and I’m thinking, ‘why would anybody want to live here with that smokestack next door?’

“I started digging and found the uranium that was used for the Manhattan Project was refined there. I thought, ‘how come Canadians don’t know this, and what is the fallout?’.”

A documentary gathered steam thanks to a chance encounter with Bernie Finkelstein at Books & Company in Picton. From there the two collaborated on the film with Gemini-award-winning documentary film maker Michèle Hozer, who just happens to live in Waupoos.

“I had always thought, I want to be independent, just like Bernie, and make documentaries just like him. There he was in Books & Company having a little chat about his book. I went up to him, said what an honour to meet you, I would love to run some ideas by you, and he said, ‘yeah, let’s do it’. Four years later we were business partners and we put out this full-feature film,” Mr. Hatch recounts.

Freshly retired, “what’s next” is not a question he wants to hear. Anyone who thought he would quit cold turkey after a lifetime of creativity, however, is kidding themselves. Hatch still intends to have a project, or three, on the go.

“I don’t want to commodify another thing. Every hobby I have owned I turned into a television series. But, I do have two books half-written, and I want to finish those books,” he says. 

At the same time, he will be continue to hone his musical skills, fulfilling a childhood dream. Modestly, he sets the goal of writing one good song. He says studying four-time Grammy winner Lyle Lovett’s music has revealed that is no easy feat.

“I study his music and how he plays. I’ve come to realize, writing a hit song, doing it well in terms of the composition, it’s so difficult. If I can write one good song before I leave that would be amazing.” 

Stay tuned.