Jason, Peter and Audrey from custom shop Midnight Oil in High River, Alta. Photo by Sean F. White – Copyright 2022 Omnifilm Entertainment
High River, Alberta — In case seeing your town overtaken by an apocalyptic viral infection is not the sort of media exposure you were looking for, the southern Alberta town of High River is set to be seen in a new light, as a local husband-and-wife car-building duo takes over the spotlight on Bush Wreck Rescue.
The Last of Us may have been the largest film production to ever take place in Alberta, but that over-hyped trauma simulation of a show has nothing on some genuine Canadian talent, such as that displayed by Audrey Steele and Peter Nickerson on this season of the Discovery channel program.
The married couple, who has owned Midnight Oil Custom and Classic Auto Builders Inc. in High River since 2000, say they felt compelled to submit a demo video for this show after being recommended by a friend who appeared on another Discovery show, Highway Through Hell.
“It was just about what we do,” Nickerson told CTV. “I mean none of this is scripted, we do what we do, basically, they filmed it and presented it to Discovery and they approved it almost immediately so they were quite pleased I guess and the rest is history.”
The couple said they were quite happy with how natural their performances and the final product came out in the end.
“I’m very happy, the crew did an amazing job, the photography, the drone shots, just the scenery around here and in Kelowna is amazing, I do love the show for that,” said Nickerson.
“It does pick out what we do very well, it does demonstrate both shops, the one in BC and ours, it’s good and I think everybody involved is quite pleased, I haven’t heard anything bad yet from any of the cast so yeah, I think we’ve got a winner.”
Steele added that she appreciated the ability to publicly show off the specific challenges associated with their job and provide a peek into a world that’s work often goes uncredited.
“I don’t think people understand and realize how time-consuming all of this stuff is,” she said.
“You’re taking the old (material) off, you’re trying to maybe make up a new pattern with some of the old pieces and some of the old pieces are in really bad shape so you’ve got to figure out to how to make that work and then you’re getting your new material, making new patterns, (and) it’s very time-consuming—I wish it wasn’t….but that’s just the way it is.”
While a second season has yet to be confirmed, the couple remains hopeful that a TV crew will be waiting outside their shop at some point this summer.
“I don’t see a reason we wouldn’t do that,” said Nickerson. “We don’t have the official thumbs up yet, but if it continues to a second season, I would think a third, fourth and yeah, just who knows–that’s show business.”
