''De Luizenmoeder'' (literally: "The

Lice Louse ( : lice) is the common name for any member of the clade Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera has variously been recognized as an order, infraorder, or a parvorder, as a result o ...

Mother") is a Dutch comedy series broadcast by

AVROTROS AVROTROS () is a Dutch radio and television broadcaster that is part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. It was founded in 2014 as the result of a merger between the Algemene Vereniging Radio Omroep (AVRO) and the Televisie Radio Omroep Stic ...

NPO 3 NPO 3 (''NPO drie'', formerly Nederland 3 until 2014) is the third and youngest of the terrestrial television channels operated by the Dutch public-broadcasting organization NPO in the Netherlands. It carries programmes provided by member-based ...

. The series is about an

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

, called "De Klimop", its teachers, its principal, and the parents of its

first grade First grade (also called Grade One, called ''Year 2'' in England or Primary 2 in Scotland) is the first grade in elementary school and the first school year after kindergarten. Children are usually 6–7 years old in this grade. Examples by r ...

(group 3) students. The first season, which consisted of nine episodes, aired weekly on Sundays between 14 January and 11 March 2018. The season was followed by a special, that included

blooper A blooper is a short clip from a film or video production, usually a deleted scene, containing a mistake made by a member of the cast or crew. It also refers to an error made during a live radio or TV broadcast or news report, usually in terms o ...

s and

deleted scene A deleted scene is footage that has been removed from the final version of a film or television show. There are various reasons why these scenes are deleted, which include time constraints, relevance, quality or a dropped story thread. A similar o ...

s. The series became an unexpected success, reaching record-breaking ratings and receiving awards. A second season began on 10 February 2019. Belgian production company Lecter Media bought the rights to make a Belgian version directed by Maarten Moerkerke, which was broadcast on VTM starting in January 2019. The series was created by Jan Albert de Weerd and

Ilse Warringa Ilse Warringa (born June 1, 1975) is a Dutch actress and voice actress who has voiced for Dutch dubs of cartoons for Nickelodeon, SDI Media and Wim Pel Productions. Biography Ilse was born on June 1, 1975 in Dalfsen and followed her stage trai ...

, who also is one of the actors. Filming began on 5 October 2017 at a former elementary school in

Mijdrecht Mijdrecht is a town in the Netherlands with about 16,000 residents. It is located in the Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of De Ronde Venen, about west of the main A2 motorway (Netherlands), A2 motorway, between Utrecht (city), Utr ...

, called "Twistvliedschool". It was produced by Ingmar Menning and De Weerd of the production company Bing Film & TV. De Weerd also directed the first season of ''De Luizenmoeder''. Season two was directed by

Diederik Ebbinge Diederik Diederick is a Dutch male given name. People with the name include: * Diederik Aerts (born 1953), Belgian theoretical physicist * Diederik Bangma (born 1990), Dutch football goalkeeper *Diederik Boer (born 1980), Dutch footballer *Die ...

and Jelle de Jonge.

Cast and characters

* Jennifer Hoffman as Hannah – Hannah is the mother of Floor, a new student at the school. She is a

developmental psychologist Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, ...

, who just got divorced. *

as Anton – Anton is the principal of "De Klimop". *

Bianca Krijgsman Bianca Krijgsman (born 3 October 1968) is a comedian and Dutch actress. She won the prize for best actress at the 42nd International Emmy The International Emmy Awards, or International Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards fo ...

as Nancy – Nancy's children don't attend the school anymore, but she now helps as a volunteer. * Henry van Loon as Volkert – Volkert is the school's

janitor A janitor (American English, Scottish English), also known as a custodian, porter, cleanser, cleaner or caretaker, is a person who cleans and maintains buildings. In some cases, they will also carry out maintenance and security duties. A simil ...

. He is a veteran suffering from

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...

. * Vincent Rietveld as Pjotr-Jan – Pjotr-Jan leads the parent organization the school is part of. *

as Ank – Ank is a first grade teacher at the school. She suffers from

dyscalculia Dyscalculia () is a disability resulting in difficulty learning or comprehending arithmetic, such as difficulty in understanding numbers, learning how to manipulate numbers, performing mathematical calculations, and learning facts in mathematics. ...

and likes to sing songs for her students. * Leny Breederveld as Helma – Helma is a fifth grade teacher at the school, she is two years away from retirement. * Rop Verheijen as Walter – Walter is one of Rianne's adoptive fathers. He's married to Kenneth. * André Dongelmans as Kenneth – Kenneth is Rianne's other adoptive father. * Rian Gerritsen as Kim – Kim is Youandi's mother. She is friends with Mel. * Meral Polat as Mel – Mel is Shania's mother. * Arnoud Bos as Karel – Karel is the father of Maledief/Maledieve and Philippien. * Maaike Martens as Ursula – Ursula is the mother of Isa. * Dunya Khayame as Esma – Esma is Achmed's mother and was introduced in the second season. * Walid Benmbarek as Amir – Amir is Achmed's father and was introduced in season two as well.

Episodes

Season 1

Season 2

Reception

''De Luizenmoeder'' became a success unexpectedly. It was hailed for its recognizability and its

politically incorrect ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

jokes about, for example,

Zwarte Piet Zwarte Piet (; lb, Schwaarze Péiter, fy, Swarte Pyt), also known in English by the translated name Black Pete, is the companion of Saint Nicholas ( nl, Sinterklaas, fy, Sinteklaas, lb, Kleeschen) in the folklore of the Low Countries. The ...

and gay parents. The first episode was seen live (and online the same day) by about 750,000 people, but another 850,000 people watched the episode online in the following six days. Its ratings quickly rose and peaked at episode 4, "Laat ze maar glanzen", which had almost 3.5 million live views and almost 4.75 million including online watching. Six out of the nine first season episodes were the best watched television programs on Dutch television of the week (online watching included). ''De Luizenmoeder'' broke several records: never before was a television show watched online so many times in the Netherlands, and it was the program with the highest ratings on NPO 3 since a new measurement method was introduced in 2008. Several

parodies A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...

of the song "Hallo allemaal" ("Hello Everybody"), which is repeatedly sung by teacher Ank (Ilse Warringa), were created. One version was sung by comedian

André van Duin André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation o ...

, and multiple versions were created for the festival

Carnival Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typi ...

. ''De Luizenmoeder'' received the

Zilveren Nipkowschijf Zilveren Nipkowschijf (; "Silver Nipkow Disk", named for German television pioneer Paul Gottlieb Nipkow) is a Dutch television award that has been given out since 1961 by a selection of Dutch critics. The three founding critics were Henk Schaafsma ...

, a Dutch television award, in June 2018. Besides, actress Ilse Warringa was awarded the

Golden Calf According to the Bible, the golden calf (עֵגֶל הַזָּהָב '' ‘ēgel hazzāhāv'') was an idol (a cult image) made by the Israelites when Moses went up to Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as ''ḥēṭə’ hā‘ēgel'' ...

for Best Actress in a Television Drama in October 2018 for her role in the series as Ank. That same month, Warringa won the Silver Television Star during the Golden Televizier-Ring Gala for her role in the series. ''De Luizenmoeder'' was also nominated for the Golden Televizier Ring, but it did not win the award.

References

External links

*
De Luizenmoeder
' on the website of

(in Dutch)
''De Luizenmoeder'' fanpage
(in Dutch) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Luizenmoeder, De 2010s comedy television series 2018 Dutch television series debuts Dutch comedy television series Television shows filmed in the Netherlands NPO 3 original programming