De brekers

One thing that always stuck in my mind about the comedy series De Brekers which debuted on AVRO television in 1985 was it's funny theme song. It featured lyrics by Ivo de Wys and music by Joop Stokkermans and was performed by the four protagonists Johnny Kraaykamp, Adèle Bloemendaal, Rijk de Gooyer and Sacco van der Made. In it, they claimed that De Brekers was a much more exciting show to watch than that 'homely' program Dynasty. The joke here being that the two series are totally incompatible. It still makes me crack a smile when thinking about it.

De Brekers was a sit-com about a lower class family living on the edge of the wrong side of the law in Amsterdam. It reunited comedy duo Johnny & Rijk as two brothers, Peek & Fokke de Breeker. Peek was quite happily married, to Trees (Adèle) and with them lived her depressed brother Harrie (Sacco). Fokke on the other hand couldn't stand Trees and had a particular aversion of Harrie. This went so far that Harrie only had to enter a room and Fokke would claim his nostrils were instantly blocked. Peek was always drawn into shady deals by his pal Huipie (Ben Hulsman) whom he usually met in the local café owned by Toon (Ab Abspoel). In the first episode, Huipie sold an empty shack to Peek, who managed to turn it into a reasonably successful bicycle-stall over the rest of the series (aftera ll, nearly everybody in Amsterdam uses a bike).

In typical sit-com fashion, the characters were supplied with silly wigs (Fokke & Huipie) and mustaches (Peek). Adèle Bloemendaal even managed to put on an almost unbearable high shrieking voice over the course of two seasons. They also wore the same clothes in nearly every episode. Each episode, Peek would try to get a free diner from his brother and sister in law, usually at the expense of Harrie. Meanwhile, Peek would fall for another scam of Huipie's design, which usually ended up with Trees being angry at all the men in her household simultaneously.

The series returned for a second season in 1988. Unfortunately the song during the opening credits was replaced by the instrumental version from the closing credits, this time with a model of a street in Amsterdam and a painting of the four leads instead of a compilation of scenes. Johnny Kraaykamp, who was obviously the star of the show, took the opportunity to do even more ad-libbing and breaking of the fourth wall this time around. According to the Dutch Wikipedia, Johnny's character Fokke even spawned his own 'Fanclub Fokke' complete with the occasional convention. On one such occasion, in 1993 Kraaykamp went on record to say that a third series of De Brekers was shot but never broadcast by the AVRO. However this has never been confirmed. Seeing as the majority of the second series carry a 1986 production date but were not shown until two years later, it is possible Kraaykamp may have been talking about the second season instead of the third.

One thing that remains certain, is that the AVRO and director Rob Herzet teamed up with Johnny, Rijk & Adèle again in 1989 for the musical comedy 'Beppie'. Ironically, the title role went to Sylvia de Leur who appeared with all of them in the final episode of the second series of De Brekers. However, as was the case with another couple of series starring Adèle Bloemendaal, Citroentje Met Suiker/Durmazon a decade earlier, the television audience proved far less interested in seeing Kraaykamp, De Gooyer and Bloemendaal moving up to an upper-class milieu (this time around Rijk was a psychiatrist). Perhaps the AVRO would have been better off had they gone a third season of De Brekers after all.

8 out of 10