Home | Legacy | Television | I Know a Secret (1982) Short Television Film

I Know a Secret is a 1982 short film based upon a short story by L.M. Montgomery. The short story, I Know a Secret, was originally published in Good Housekeeping Magazine in August 1935. The story was republished in 1979 as part of an L.M. Montgomery short story collection The Doctor's Sweetheart and Other Stories collected by Catherine McLay. The story was repeated by L.M. Montgomery in Anne of the Ingleside, Chapter 30, where Nan is tempted to know Dovie's secret.

I Know a Secret is Montgomery's story of Jane Lawrence, a young girl in a Prince Edward Island village who yearns to know a secret that might win her the friendship of the local children and particularly Dovie Johnson. Dovie tells her Jane the secret that Jane was exchanged at birth for the daughter of a local peddler. Jane takes her words at face value at the expense of her identity.

I Know a Secret by L.M. Montgomery, was originally
published in Good Housekeeping Magazine in August 1935.

The 25 minute long film was produced by Atlantis Films Ltd. in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and participation of the Canadian Film Development Corporation. The short film aired on the CBC in Canada and on Thames Television, in the UK in 1984.

On the CBC, I Know a Secret aired as part of "Sons and Daughters,"an anthology of 6 adaptations, 5 short stories and one long poem all produced by Atlantis Films. Don McBrearty's Boys and Girls, which aired as part of the series, starring Megan Follows and Ian Heath as Margaret and Laird. Boys and Girls was based on a short story by Alice Munro and won an Oscar.

Cast:
Fiona McGillivray - Jane Lawrence
Andrea Swartz - Dovie
Danny Higham - Eddie
Laurel Smyth - Mother
Maureen A. Hume - Aunt Helen
Sean McCann - Six-Toed Jimmy

Credits:
Director - Bruce Pittman
Screenplay - Amy Jo Cooper.
Producers - Michael MacMillan, Seaton McLean, and Janice Platt

Other Details:
Description - 1 16 mm film reel
Distributed by Atlantis Films, Toronto
Published: Norwood, MA : Beacon Films, 1982.
Also issued as a videorecording
Running time: 25 min. Colour
CBC airdate: January 26, 1984.
UK air date: Thames Television, 10/07/1984

References and Acknowledgments:
Thanks Julia for sending in your research and the videocasette cover.
Atlantis at 20: a feature interview with Michael MacMillan, TAKE ONE, Summer, 1998 by Wyndham Wise
Sons and Daughters Episode Guide, TVArchive.com
I Know a Secret - IMDB.com
I Know a Secret - BFI
Prince Edward Island - Films of L.M. Montgomery's Work
Bruce Pitman Biography

Created 10.22.07, Last Updated 04.03.08
© An L.M. Montgomery Resource Page and TickledOrange.com