Holiday classic The Shepherd flies onto the screen in movie starring John Travolta

As It Happens6:06How Frederick Forsyth wrote The Shepherd

CBC Radio listeners have long been familiar with Frederick Forsyth's short story The Shepherd. Now, the spooky holiday classic has been made into a movie.

The new Disney+ film is an adaptation of Forsyth's 1975 novella about a Royal Air Force pilot who is flying home from Germany for Christmas when a dangerous fog sets in and cuts off his radio communications.

CBC's As It Happens has aired a reading of The Shepherd almost every December since 1979, either on Christmas Eve or as close as possible for the weeknight program. 

Listening to The Shepherd on CBC is a generations-long tradition for many Canadian families — and, apparently, for actor John Travolta, too.

"He heard, and really enjoyed, the Christmas Eve broadcast over the years … with his family," the movie's director, Iain Softley, told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

"He always had this desire to see it on the screen in some form."

In fact, Travolta — himself an avid pilot — optioned the novella 30 years ago in the hopes of playing the young protagonist. 

It didn't work out, but Travolta held onto the dream of making the beloved book into a movie. 

Now — with the help of Softley and producers Alfonso Cuarón, Gabriela Rodriguez, Richard Johns and the late Bill Kenwright — that dream is finally a reality.

"Alfonso had also been in love with the story as a child," Softley said.

"So all of these remarkable people … we made the film together, which was incredibly satisfying that it all turned out that way."

Actor Ben Radcliffe, best known for the 2022 film Anatomy of Scandal, portrays the young protagonist. Unnamed in the book, he's called Freddie in the film in a nod to Forsyth. 

Travolta plays the titular Shepherd — a mysterious pilot who appears out of nowhere to guide Freddie to safety.

The Shepherd's origin story

Forsyth, an English novelist and journalist best known for his thrillers, never intended The Shepherd for public consumption. In fact, he never intended to write it all. 

In a 2006 interview with As It Happens, Forsyth explained that he'd bought his wife a diamond ring for Christmas 1974, and kept it in his pocket because of her tendency to root around the house looking for her presents ahead of time.

When she couldn't find anything, she asked in exasperation: "What did you get me for Christmas?"

"I pretended to be a fool. 'Oh, no, I forgot all about it.' So she got pretty put out and said, 'Well, if it's going to be like that, then write me a ghost story,'" he said. 

"Christmas afternoon, having had the big blow-out feast, my parents who were with us went to their little afternoon siesta, [and my wife] went and had a nap, and I couldn't sleep. So I sat down and, in about five hours, I wrote The Shepherd."

It never crossed his mind to publish the story, he said. But his wife recognized gold when she saw it. She reached out to Forsyth's agent on his behalf — and the rest is history.

When Softley first read it, he says he was drawn in by its "atmospheric, Christmas-like setting."

"Under the stars, under a full moon, snow-covered landscape, a dream for this young pilot to be going home to see his family. And then the dream turns to a nightmare and it becomes this gripping story of survival," he said.

"I was just seduced by it."

LISTEN | 2006 interview with Frederick Forsyth: 

In 1979, As It Happens debuted its reading of The Shepherd, narrated by then-host Alan Maitland, whose dulcet, comforting tones earned him the nickname "Fireside Al."

Since then, it's become a staple for radio-listening households, many of whom have written to the show to say they once listened with their parents as children, and now listen with their children as parents.

"All of us at As It Happens know how important the program is to generations of listeners. But you really feel that weight when the calendar flips to December and the first calls and emails come in: 'What is Shepherd day this year?!'" Austin Webb, executive producer of As It Happens, said. 

"We love finding ways to present the classic Al Maitland reading with a little twist every year — this time it's the initially shocking news that Disney and John Travolta wanted in on the action."

When the movie trailer launched last month, the show's staff was taken aback to see the tagline: "A timeless holiday classic, brought to life for the first time."

When asked to explain himself, Softley clarified: "It's brought to life for the first time on the screen." 

The movie, he says, will bring some new context to the classic story, giving the protagonist pilot a more fulsome backstory, including a complicated relationship with his late father, and a love interest, Lizzie, played by Millie Kent. 

"I hope people will watch the film and I hope that they will find it to be an equivalent experience," he said. "Maybe the tradition now on Christmas Eve will be both the audio and the visual version."

This year's reading of The Shepherd will air Dec. 22 at 6:30 p.m. on CBC Radio One (7 p.m. in Newfoundland). You can also stream it live or on demand on CBC Listen, or listen any time on the As It Happens website.

The Shepherd, starring Ben Radcliffe and John Travolta, is now streaming on Disney+.