When Calls the Heart on Hallmark Channel

Category: Television and Streaming

Facing our fears and following our dreams are the messages in this Hallmark Channel Original movie. When Calls the Heart is the story of Elizabeth Thatcher (Poppy Drayton), a young woman in her early 20s, living a rather elaborate lifestyle with her parents and sisters. The year is 1910 and they are well off, financially. Their house is staffed with servants and the Thatcher girls are lacking nothing.

When Elizabeth gets her teaching degree, she is offered a post in a small western frontier town. Elizabeth is fearful. She has a lot of inner fears and isn’t sure she can survive in the rough and tumble world of the frontier. Her mother is against her daughter going out west, and her sister Julie (Daisy Head) does everything in her power, including trickery, to make her stay home.

The two girls discover their Aunt Elizabeth’s (Maggie Grace) diary and finally learn about their aunt – and the woman for whom Elizabeth was named – who has been absent all of their lives. As Elizabeth reads the diary, Aunt Elizabeth’s life is played out and Elizabeth learns she and her aunt are two of a kind. They are both teachers and both posted in small frontier towns. And, they both have Royal Canadian Mounties as friends/beaus.

This film is the story of two Elizabeth Thatchers. It’s the story of how they forged ahead with their dreams and faced their fears to fulfill their destinies.

Michael Landon, Jr., who penned the screenplay from the Janette Oke novel, directed When Calls the Heart. Both Landon and Oke have based their careers on family-friendly stories and collaborated on many films, including the popular Love Comes Softly series of made-for-TV movies.

Lori Loughlin has a brief part in this movie as Abigail Stanton, one of the residents in the frontier town where Elizabeth comes to teach. She will continue her role as Stanton in the upcoming Hallmark Channel series, which is scheduled to start airing in January. This will be the second original series for the network, having had enormous success with Cedar Cove, their first series.

When Calls the Heart premiers on Hallmark Channel Saturday, October 19, 2013. This is definitely a family film, so gather your kids together, make some popcorn, and enjoy this story of facing fears and forging ahead.