Richard Crouse

On the Saturday August 16, 2025 episode of The Richard Crouse Show we meet Patrick Tarr. He has over a decade of experience in the film and television world in Canada—currently he is the co-executive producer and writer of CBC’s “Saint-Pierre,” and he was the head writer and executive producer on CTV’s “Cardinal.”  He’s also written for Saving Hope, Nurses, Cracked and The Colony, as well as Canadian institution Murdoch Mysteries to name a few.

Today we’ll talk about his television work, but I also want to tell you about his debut novel, “The Guest Children,” which is now available wherever you buy fine books. The book was inspired by the real-life thousands of “guest children,” British children who were sent to Canada during WWII to stay safe from the bombings.

Then, I don’t know if you’ve been watching the Billy Joel documentary on Crave called “And So It Goes.” It’s a fascinating and revealing two part look at the life and music of the “Just the Way You Are” singer, exploring love, loss and struggles that contributed to his songwriting.

As a companion to those documentaries, I dug into the archive and found an intercview I did a few years ago with Liberty DeVitto. As Billy Joel’s drummer from 1976 to 2003, he’s credited as drummer on records with sales of over 150 million copies. Do you love “Just the Way You Are”? That Liberty DeVitto. How about “She’s Always a Woman,” “Only the Good Die Young” “You May be Right” or “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”? All Liberty DeVitto. He’s what they call a New York City style drummer, solid and powerful. He also an author with a memoir called, “Liberty: Life, Billy and the Pursuit of Happiness,” available wherever you buy fine books. It details not only the good times with Joel, but also the bad… leading up to their split in 2006.

Today, I chose some excerpts from the interview to share an insider’s view of what it was like working with Billy Joel as he became a superstar.

Finally, I love going to live theatre, but I recently had a chance to experience it in a different way. “Back to the Future: The Musical” is now playing at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto, and I was invited to not only see the show, but to visit the theatre, on stage and backstage, to chat with the show’s stars, DAVID JOSEFSBERG who plays Doc Brown and LUCAS  v who brings Marty McFly to vivid life.

The show is based on the iconic 1985 movie “Back to the Future,” and sees Marty McFly accidentally change the course of history when he is transported back to 1955 in a time machine built by the eccentric scientist Doc Brown. He’s in a race against time to fix the present, escape the past, and send himself… back to the future.