Together at last: 'Flashpoint's' Sergio Di Zio shows up on this week's episode of 'The Listener'
We’ve been dreaming of it for years now and on this week’s episode of “The Listener,” “Flashpoint’s” ETF finally meets up with Oz’s paramedic team.
The only thing missing is a bunch of firefighters!
“It’s like when I was a kid and Fonzi showed up on ‘Mork and Mindy,’ laughs Sergio Di Zio on a recent visit to “The Listener” set.
Di Zio plays Spike, the explosives and tactical toys expert on “Flashpoint.”
“There’s this thing that happened in The Junction, (a neighbourhood in Toronto), with all this C4. It all went off at once and blew up half the building,” Di Zio explains about this episode of “The Listener.”
But “Flashpoint” fans need not worry – “It’s nothing, just a couple stitches,” Di Zio promises.
“There are definitely more offices and ambulances and fewer guns than on ‘Flashpoint,’” Di Zio says about the set. “Fewer guns in a hospital is probably a good thing, though!”
Di Zio notes that the Toronto Police Force’s Emergency Task Force, the inspiration behind “Flashpoint’s” Strategic Response Unit, always has a paramedic with them. “As much as ‘Flashpoint’ guys can do everything, they need professionals to take care of injuries.”
Though Team One doesn’t have paramedic with them, Di Zio reveals that Ennis Esmer, who plays Oz, has already made an appearance on the cop drama as an off duty cop. “Not as Oz, but it was in our fourth episode ever!” he says.
Esmer thinks his next appearance on “Flashpoint” should be a bit more involved…and in character. “What I want is ‘Flashpoint’ and ‘The Listener’ do ‘Big Brother,’ where we all live together, but we play our characters. Obviously they would have guns and we would have Epipens, and stethoscopes,” he jokes.
Arnold Pinnock, who plays Oz’s superviser, George Ryder, joins Esmer on dreaming up the ultimate collaboration. “If there was a point where they were going to kill off one of their characters, we could come in and bring them back to life,” he suggests.
“Or maybe Ryder snaps one day and takes the rest of the hospital hostage and then they have to come in, but then one of them gets shot and Ryder has decide if he’s a hostage taker, or EMS,” Esmer continues. “Or we could do a sitcom – ”
“And we could all meet at a bar after our shifts,” Pinnock suggests.
“And let’s be honest, we’d totally be the cooler ones, because our uniforms are nicer,” Esmer jokes. “We’d get nice snifters of brandy – you think you do that if you’re a cop?”
Season 5 of “Flashpoint” will air later this year. But “The Listener” airs on CTV on Wednesdays at 10pm ET on CTV.



