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The threat of fascism looms in this final hour of The Dark Years. As the year 1939 approaches, newspaper owner Mr. Atkinson, a pacifist, comes to accept the inevitability of another war in Europe- and ensures that The Toronto Daily Star is on the front lines.

At the breakout of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the left-leaning Atkinson insists that the story is covered by The Star, and eyewitness accounts track the 1,200 Canadians who go to Spain to fight against the fascist state.

Although some see the Spanish Civil War as signaling the end of peacetime Europe, most Canadians are concerned with domestic affairs, and The Toronto Daily Star continues to find the scoops that matter to them. The Dionne Quintuplets story remains big business during the tail end of the '30s. Also, stories about the conditions of single unemployed men, such as those involved in a post office takeover in British Columbia after the province forces them off relief.

The Daily Star heavily covers the 1936 Moose River mining disaster in Nova Scotia. Editor Harry Hindmarsh calls it "the perfect Depression story," and The Daily Star runs 24 separate articles about it in one day. Live radio news reports at Moose River also revolutionize the way in which the medium, which had been primarily reserved for entertainment, is used in Canada.

A 1937 General Motors plant strike in Oshawa, and the union organizing that follows with the help of American labor organizer John L. Lewis, leads to clashes between fears of fascism and communism, as well as provincial and federal levels of government. The Toronto Daily Star's opinion of the situation differs from that of the other major dailies, seeing it as a victory for workers organizing.

Reporter Matthew Halton finds himself in Munich in 1938, amidst Hitler and other European leaders, and it is then that The Daily Star really mobilizes its war coverage. The miniseries ends tensely with the Great Depression suddenly over, "simply on account of the war"- and dark years potentially leading to even darker ones.

Joe Atkinson, Harry Hindmarsh, Matthew Halton, Dionne Quintuplets, Adolf Hitler

"The Dark Years" uses original animation, archival footage and eyewitness accounts to bring to life colorful stories from the 1930s in Canada. Featuring the voices of some of Canada's best-known actors, this playful three-part series revolves around an adventurous group of Canadian newsmen at a big city newspaper. These spirited reporters set out to cover the major events of the decade, from record-breaking cross-Atlantic flights, and the birth of the world-famous Dionne quintuplets, to the slow march to war.

This mini-series was five years in the making.

The documentary featured a portrayal of Harry Hindmarsh, legendary editor of the Toronto Daily Star. However, neither the Star nor the Hindmarsh family participated in the making of the documentary.

Story editor and senior researcher Barbara Sears had the idea of using the Star as a framing device for the events of the story.

"The (Star) really was on a kind of mission," director Steven Silver said in an interview with the modern-day paper. "It mattered to them and to the paper and to (publisher) Joe Atkinson and to the country itself, that they document this time. It really did feel like history was ending, that the world would never be the same."

Silver decided upon using animator for the documentary: "I knew at the beginning that the kind of lightness of animation would be useful in dealing with the subject matter. "I also knew the animation was going to liberate me because I could choose the best of the stories, knowing I wouldn't have to hunt for stock footage to tell those stories."

Animation director John Halfpenny used heavy shadows and other comic-book techniques to emphasize the "larger than life" images of the reporters.

Techniques varied from cubism (to portray the Spanish Civil War) to a Looney Tunes took for the appearance of Adolf Hitler in 1930.

While Hindmarsh's narration was based on public materials, screenwriter Steve Lucas provided the words.

"I needed somebody who could speak to every moment in the Star," said Silver. "Obviously, (Hindmarsh) didn't say all the words he says in the documentary. But I needed a narrator who would be of the time."