Pelle Hermanni (translates to Hermanni the Clown) is a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

children's

TV show A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed bet ...

from 1978–1988 shown on

Yle TV2 Yle TV2 ( fi, Yle TV Kaksi; sv, Yle TV Två) is a Finnish television channel owned and operated by Yle. TV2 was launched in 1965 as the successor to the former television channels TES-TV (Tesvisio) and Tamvisio, and broadcasts public service ...

in the

Pikku Kakkonen ''Pikku Kakkonen'' (Finnish for "the little number two") is an ongoing Finnish magazine-type children's TV show shown on Yle TV2. The first episode aired on January 11, 1977. It finished with a bedtime story read by the late Lasse Pöysti (1927-20 ...

children's program. The show's main character is Pelle Hermanni, a

clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...

who lives in his own trailer at a

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...

trailer park. He was played by

Veijo Pasanen Veijo Antero Pasanen (14 October 1930, Muuruvesi – 17 February 1988, Tampere) was a Finnish actor. He was related to director and inventor Pertti "Spede" Pasanen. Pasanen is perhaps best remembered for his role as Pelle Hermanni (Herman the C ...

. There is no major continuing plot, instead the episodes consist of Hermanni talking about his life and daily events in a funny, clownish, somewhat childish way. His comedic antics are further increased by the comically misproportioned props and his way of fumbling over difficult words. Hermanni would often ask questions from his children audience, and then pretend to actually hear what they answered, saying such things like "Right, Annika there knew the answer!" In by far the most of the episodes, Hermanni is the only human

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

shown. Other characters include Vekkari, Hermanni's large alarm clock which starts ringing when Hermanni least wants, and Kepakko, a wooden teacher's staff who feels intellectually superior to Hermanni and often insults him by laughing at him. Hermanni is especially fond of his dear old mother and the pancakes with

strawberries The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...

she makes, and he often

phones A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into ele ...

her to see how she's doing. Hermanni's telephone is a large, complex contraption with its own

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...

communications screen. Because the show predates actually feasible real-world video communication by more than a decade, this only adds to the comedy. Hermanni is in love with Sylvia, the circus's

fortune teller Fortune telling is the practice of prediction, predicting information about a person's life.J. Gordon Melton, Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling ...

, but she has a rival suitor in Max, the circus magician. For by far the most of the show, both Sylvia and Max remained

unseen character An unseen character in theatre, comics, film, or television, or silent character in radio or literature, is a character that is mentioned but not directly known to the audience, but who advances the action of the plot in a significant way, and w ...

s, with Hermanni only visiting their trailers where they were not present. In later episodes, both Sylvia and Max were briefly seen. In September 2022, it was reported that Pelle Hermanni will make his first

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

debut, with

Timo Koivusalo Timo Johannes Koivusalo (born 31 October 1963) is a Finnish actor, director, writer, composer and musician. His most successful film to date was '' Rentun Ruusu'', released in 2001. Life and career Koivusalo was born in Pori, and trained as a ...

directing the film and

Vesa Vierikko Vesa Tapio Vierikko (born 24 May 1956 in Lappeenranta, Finland) is a Finnish actor. Vierikko began acting in 1978 on television working consistently throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He starred in the 2003 film ''Sibelius'' working with Finnish d ...

acting as the title character.IS: Pelle Hermannin tarina päättyi traagisesti, kun Veijo Pasanen menehtyi kesken kuvausten – näyttelijän sanat viimeisessä jaksossa saivat pysäyttävän merkityksen
(in Finnish)

References

External links

''Sirkuspelle Hermanni'' (TV Series 1978–1988)
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IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

Yle Elävä arkisto: Sirkuspelle Hermanni
(in Finnish) Children's television characters Fictional clowns Finnish children's television series Television shows about clowns Male characters in television {{tv-char-stub