The October Wind is cold enough to chill the bone, but the cast and crew of Emily of New Moon stoically turn up their collars. Overlooking the pounding surf on the red soil of Cabot Beach Provincial Park, on the northwest shore of Prince Edward Island, a cluster of Victorian buildings sits exposed to the elements. There's New Moon House, and a general store, and a one-room schoolhouse, built in 1847. The abandoned Disappointed House, where Emily plays, is nestled in a sand dune, surrounded by sharp bladegrass. The wind is picking up, but the crew, who filmed through two hurricanes last year, don't seem to notice it or the scenery anymore; they just hope the audience will.

Based on Lucy Maud Montgomery's novels Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest, the new TV series stars newcomer Martha MacIsaac in the title role, Sheila McCarthy (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing) as Aunt Laura and Susan Clark (Butterbox Babies) as stern Aunt Elizabeth. With 26 episodes already shot at a cost of $26 million, Emily of New Moon is guaranteed a two-season run on CBC and will repeat later in the year on WIC stations across the country. (A third season will be decided on by the end of the month.)

The series follows the adventures of Montgomery's dark-horse heroine, Emily Byrd Starr, never quite as famous as that freckled redhead, Anne Shirley. Like Anne, Emily is a spirited orphan who wants to be a writer, and is sent to be raised on P.E.I. But unlike Anne, Emily's mischievous streak can turn devious, and her fertile imagination leads to "out of body" moments when she escapes into a fantasy world of her own. "She's unusual," says Stephen McHattie, who plays Jimmy, Emily's cousin and confidant. "She doesn't get her way, by being sweet, and doesn't go along with just anything. It's an odd character."

Thirteen-year-old P.E.I. native Martha MacIsaac, however, is anything but odd - she's as friendly and unspoiled as the Island itself. During a break in shooting, MacIsaac, dressed in a plaid corduroy pinafore, her hair in pigtails, is nervously chewing the lip of a Styrofoam cup. This is her first acting job after being discovered by supervising producer Marlene Matthews, who saw her picture in a P.E.I. tourism magazine and knew she had found her Emily. (A later, cross-country audition process didn't change her mind.) MacIsaac still isn't comfortable talking to reporters but seems to relish the prospect of being noticed on the street. "When I'm with my friends and someone recognizes me it will be kind of embarrassing," she says with a laugh, "but I think it will be fun too."

Many other Islanders are enjoying the limelight as extras, but the real "star" of the series, according to Matthews, is the Island itself. To locals, this is a welcome departure from that other series based on Montgomery's work, Road to Avonlea, which was filmed almost entirely in Ontario. Matthews, who worked on Avonlea for seven years, felt strongly that Emily should be filmed where Montgomery's novels were set. "The Island mentality of being surrounded by the sea, the red earth, the cliffs, the loneliness - this is what made a writer out of Lucy Maud, and it would make a writer out of Emily," she says. Others agree. "It's very important, because the essence of her writing is with the Island," says local artist and Emily extra Kilmeny Boates-Green. "You can't copycat that."

They have a point: there is no faking the dark-red soil and sand-stone cliffs, and the rugged beauty often steals attention away from the actors. Despite the higher costs of filming on the Island, Matthews says it was worth every penny. A walk through the wardrobe department shows how costly it is keeping the cast in authentic dress. The rare Murray tartan was imported from Scotland at $80 a yard. Skates with wooden blades had to be handmade by special craftsmen. Wardrobe staff combed vintage-clothing shops throughout the Maritimes for Victorian castoffs, while new costumes were aged with handrubbing in a sand-and-water paste.

The provincial government pitched in with a $1.9-million grant to co-producers Salter Street Films and CINAR Films. That money has gone partly towards production costs, but some of it has been earmarked for a theme park, "Emily Village," which will maintain the sets once the series ends and, the government hopes, boost the Island's Lucy Maud Montgomery tourism.

However, fans of Avonlea should be warned: the sugar-coated storylines of the earlier series have been replaced in Emily with a gritty realism that can at times be down­right gloomy. In the first episode, Emily watches her father (guest star Michael Moriarty) die slowly only to have her relatives draw lots to see who will raise her. In another, Aunt Elizabeth orders Emily's cat drowned. Matthews says the grimness comes directly from the novels, written 15 years after the happier Anne series, when Montgomery "didn't feel the need to put a sunny spin on the truth." But it's not all doom and gloom, and there are tender moments between Emily and the poetic Jimmy, as well as with kindly Aunt Laura. Best of all are the pranks Emily gets up to with her best friend, Ilse Burnley (played by MacIsaac's real-life best friend, Jessica Pellerin).

Still, Sheila McCarthy believes viewers will tune in for the chance to have a good cry. "I used to sit down to Avonlea for my weekly sob, and I'd be disappointed if I didn't get it. Well, with Emily, you're going to get it!"

Ultimately, though, what viewers will get is the unfolding, through fiction, of the life of one of the country's most beloved storytellers. As Matthews says, "I think [the series] is authentic. It is not just about Emily's development but rather an unveiling of the secrets of Lucy Maud Montgomery's own life."

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