Harry Bannink plays a medley of his opening tunes on the piano from ten years worth of television shows written by the 'writers collective' consisting of Hans Dorrestijn, Karel Eykman, Ries Moonen, Jan Riem & Willem Wilmink. Three actors who appeared in most of these programs, Aart Staartjes, Wieteke van Dort and Joost Prinsen, host this retrospective as the reminisces about the period 1970-1980. So this is in effect a clip show, which nobody likes (especially not Joost Prinsen). However, the footage herein is culled from half a dozen different series, ranging from children's television to a show for seniors.
These writers were never afraid to touch on sensitive subjects, a fact which is made clear right of the bat with the controversial 'Poep en Pies Minuet' from the third episode of "De Stratenmaker Op Zee Show" (1972). This song humorously teaches young viewers not use dirty words, but in doing so is filled to the brim with off limit words itself. Up next is a montage of clips from the longest running VARA children's program 'De Film van Ome Willem", who's title character was famous for asking for 'poop sandwiches'. After this Prinsen tells the viewers at home to put the children to bed, as the rest of the show is 'from before their time'. And while it's true that most of the sketches that follow are from more grown up programs (and even include brief nudity), there are also more clips from the Stratemaker coming up. Interestingly, most of these clips from De Straat (a show which has been mostly wiped from existence) do not appear on any of the other compilations of surviving material.
Some (if not all) of the writers in the Collective suffered from depressions, and this showed in their writing. Luckily they always managed to see the funny side of difficult subjects such as death, fear, violence and loneliness (the last three being the top three favorite subjects according to Wieteke). Luckily love always remains thankful subject to write about. Over the course of 90 minutes we are treated to a wide selection of sketches and songs from such long forgotten TV show as "Wij en de Wereld", "De Panorama Woensdag Show" (including one of the first appearances of Wieteke as Tante Lien), "Het Hof van Holland" and the comedy show for seniors "Dat Ik Dit Nog Mag Meemaken".
This means that some of the Netherland's funniest and most versatile performers appear on screen in quick succession, including Johnny Kraaykamp & Rijk de Gooyer (but not as their usual double act), Adèle Bloemendaal, Coen Flink, Leen Jongewaard, Luc Lutz, Lou Landré and many more. However we learn very little about the celebrated writers themselves, not even how they got together and became a collective in the first place. Only near the end do we get a close-up glimpse of each one of them as Wieteke takes note of every member's specialties. Hans Dorrestijn and Willem Wilmink both excelled at writing songs, Jan Riem was a master of sketch comedy, Ries Moonen wrote brilliant scenes and Karel Eijkman the best monologues. The writers probably didn't want to give away any more of their secrets than that, but it's a shame that this retrospective didn't provide any more details, for 30 years later there is very little information to be found about the Collective online.
8 out of 10
These writers were never afraid to touch on sensitive subjects, a fact which is made clear right of the bat with the controversial 'Poep en Pies Minuet' from the third episode of "De Stratenmaker Op Zee Show" (1972). This song humorously teaches young viewers not use dirty words, but in doing so is filled to the brim with off limit words itself. Up next is a montage of clips from the longest running VARA children's program 'De Film van Ome Willem", who's title character was famous for asking for 'poop sandwiches'. After this Prinsen tells the viewers at home to put the children to bed, as the rest of the show is 'from before their time'. And while it's true that most of the sketches that follow are from more grown up programs (and even include brief nudity), there are also more clips from the Stratemaker coming up. Interestingly, most of these clips from De Straat (a show which has been mostly wiped from existence) do not appear on any of the other compilations of surviving material.
Some (if not all) of the writers in the Collective suffered from depressions, and this showed in their writing. Luckily they always managed to see the funny side of difficult subjects such as death, fear, violence and loneliness (the last three being the top three favorite subjects according to Wieteke). Luckily love always remains thankful subject to write about. Over the course of 90 minutes we are treated to a wide selection of sketches and songs from such long forgotten TV show as "Wij en de Wereld", "De Panorama Woensdag Show" (including one of the first appearances of Wieteke as Tante Lien), "Het Hof van Holland" and the comedy show for seniors "Dat Ik Dit Nog Mag Meemaken".
This means that some of the Netherland's funniest and most versatile performers appear on screen in quick succession, including Johnny Kraaykamp & Rijk de Gooyer (but not as their usual double act), Adèle Bloemendaal, Coen Flink, Leen Jongewaard, Luc Lutz, Lou Landré and many more. However we learn very little about the celebrated writers themselves, not even how they got together and became a collective in the first place. Only near the end do we get a close-up glimpse of each one of them as Wieteke takes note of every member's specialties. Hans Dorrestijn and Willem Wilmink both excelled at writing songs, Jan Riem was a master of sketch comedy, Ries Moonen wrote brilliant scenes and Karel Eijkman the best monologues. The writers probably didn't want to give away any more of their secrets than that, but it's a shame that this retrospective didn't provide any more details, for 30 years later there is very little information to be found about the Collective online.
8 out of 10
