The National Dream (miniseries)

The National Dream, also known as The National Dream: Building the Impossible Railway, is a 1974 Canadian television docudrama miniseries based on Pierre Berton's 1970 book of the same name, plus Berton's 1971 follow-up book The Last Spike.^[1] The television adaptation was written by William Whitehead and Timothy Findley. Berton is listed as a consultant on the credits.

The series portrayed the concept and construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway during the late 19th century, with Berton himself as narrator.^[2] The National Dream combined dramatic reconstructions of the events (directed by Eric Till) with documentary content (directed by James Murray).^[2][3] Production required two years and cost $2 million. Royal Trust, which was the executor of Cornelius Van Horne's estate, paid $400,000 to be a principal sponsor.^[4]

CBC Television premiered the eight-part hour-long series on 30 March 1974^[1] and aired its final instalment on 28 April 1974. The series' rated audience of three million within Canada set a record for CBC in terms of dramatic programming. The series was also dubbed in French and broadcast on Radio-Canada,^[4] and was later seen in modified form on BBC in the United Kingdom.

The series was never intended for international sales to cover any significant portion of its production costs.^[4] Berton, however, was believed to have earned at least $250,000 from it, as well as from a re-release of the related books.^[4]

There has never been a home video release, but it is available to educational institutions in DVD on special order from the CBC.^[5]

• University Directory of CBC Television Series: The National Dream, accessed 5 June 2008
• The National Dream at IMDb