''Opzoek naar Yolanda'' was a Dutch dramady television show by Wim T. Schippers, consisting of six episodes aired by the VPRO from October to December 1984. The show (a parody of sitcoms and

soap operas A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

, like most of Schippers' shows) was a continuation of sorts of Schippers' ''

De lachende scheerkwast ''De lachende scheerkwast'' ("The laughing shave brush") is a Dutch television show written and directed by Wim T. Schippers, who also plays one of the lead characters, Jacques Plafond. It ran on VPRO television for six episodes in 1981 before bei ...

'' (1981-1982) and featured some of the same characters. In turn, it was a kind of prequel to ''

We zijn weer thuis ''We zijn weer thuis'' (''Back home again'') is a Dutch dramady-series broadcast by VPRO from 1989 to 1994. It was written by Wim T. Schippers and co-directed with Ellen Jens as his swansong-series for VPRO. The series was released on dvd in Oct ...

'', which ran from 1989 to 1994. Story and script were written by Schippers, who directed the show with his longtime associate Ellen Jens. Schippers himself portrays Jacques Plafond.

Plot

Photographer Rik Rollinga ( Kenneth Herdigein), on his way to take a formal portrait of the Dutch queen (the invitation turns out to be a practical joke), catches a glimpse of a beautiful young woman, Yolanda, on the Baarn train station. He snaps a quick photograph of her and falls in love. For the rest of the series he tries his best to find her again. Along the way, he falls into one comical situation after another. He hires alcoholic private investigator Rein Schaambergen to help him, but Schaambergen is too drunk to be of any help. In desperation he turns to Jacques Plafond and plans to make a hit record (arranged by Jan Vos) to make her fall in love with him, but sings so poorly that he is replaced by a better singer—his neighbor Victor van Vliet records the song, "Smoke, Gammon and Spinach", which becomes a hit, and Rik is kicked out of the studio. He flees to the Bahamas but is tracked down by Schaambergen and returned to the Netherlands, with the promise that Yolanda is found. Unfortunately, Schaambergen has failed and presents the wrong Yolanda (the ugly daughter of the baker, Ruud van Hemert). In the end it turns out that Yolanda lives upstairs from him and is Victor's girlfriend. The basic storyline is larded with skits involving many of Schippers' characters from previous shows.

Cast

* Kenneth Herdigein as Rik Rollinga * Adriaan van Dis as himself * Wim T. Schippers as Jacques Plafond * Ruud van Hemert as the baker *

Lex de Regt Lex or LEX may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lex'', a daily featured column in the ''Financial Times'' Games * Lex, the mascot of the word-forming puzzle video game ''Bookworm'' * Lex, the protagonist of the word-forming puzzle video ga ...

as Hein Schaambergen *

Clous van Mechelen Clous van Mechelen (born Jacob Philip (Jack) van Mechelen; 12 March 1941 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch musician, arranger, and actor. Van Mechelen scored a minor hit in 1969 with his band The Butlers, and became widely known through the radio and telev ...

as Jan Vos *

Dolf Brouwers Dolf Brouwers (31 August 1912 – 23 September 1997) was a Dutch comedian, singer, and television actor who rose to fame late in life playing the character Sjef van Oekel in the 1970s satirical television shows aired on VPRO, written and directed ...

as Sjef van Oekel/himself *

Herr Seele Herr Seele, the pseudonym of Peter Van Heirseele (Torhout, Belgium, 13 April 1959), is a Flemish cartoonist, author, actor, piano tuner and piano collector. He is mainly known for the absurd humor comic strip ''Cowboy Henk'', for which his col ...

as Rodolfo Smit

DVD release

The six episodes were released in 2008 on two DVDs, which also included the Schippers plays ''

Going to the Dogs ''Going to the Dogs'' is a 1986 play by Dutch writer, artist, and television director Wim T. Schippers. It premiered on 19 September to a sell-out audience in the Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam, with six German Shepherds, allegedly trained as acto ...

'' (1986), ''Sans rancune'' (1987), and ''De bruine jurk'' (1988).

References

Footnotes

Reference notes

Reference bibliography

External links

*
"Smoke, Gammon and Spinach"
{{authority control 1984 Dutch television series debuts 1984 Dutch television series endings 1980s Dutch television series Wim T. Schippers Dutch-language television shows Dutch comedy television series Dutch drama television series Surrealist television series Surreal comedy television series