''Orkney Snork Nie'' was a popular

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

sitcom, originally broadcast by the

SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

between 1989 and 1992. The name translates directly into ''Orkney Doesn't Snore'', but the message being conveyed in Afrikaans is that the town isn't sleepy, there's always something happening. The series was written and directed by

Willie Esterhuizen Willie Esterhuizen is an Afrikaans actor, writer and director. He is known for his roles in the popular TV series ''Vetkoekpaleis'' and ''Gauteng-aleng-aleng''. Esterhuizen received dance training at the University of Cape Town, after which he ...

who was also involved in other popular South African series and movies. The series consists of four seasons, with two movies also produced (see below for more details). , the series was rebroadcast on the Afrikaans

DStv Digital Satellite Television, commonly abbreviated to DStv, is a Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service owned by MultiChoice and based in Randburg, South Africa. Launched on 6 October 1995, the service provides multiple audio, ...

channel KykNet.

Plot

The show was based in the mining town of

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

, near the city of

Klerksdorp Klerksdorp () is located in the North West Province, South Africa. Klerksdorp, the largest city in the North West Province, is located southeast of Mahikeng, the provincial capital. Klerksdorp was also the first capital of the then Transvaal Repub ...

(and not too far from

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

), and followed the exploits of an

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

family named ''Van Tonder'', a common Afrikaans surname. The head of the household, Hendrik (played by Zack du Plessis), worked on the mines and his wife, Maggie (Annette Engelbrecht), was a housewife. They had four children (oldest to youngest): Ouboet, Bennie, Hester and Wimpie. Ouboet ( Frank Opperman) was a car mechanic. He and his wife, Yolanda (Sally Campher), had a little baby of their own, named Hendrik after his grandfather. "Ouboet" is an Afrikaans term of endearment meaning "older brother", his name really being Neels. Hester (Clara Joubert) and Wimpie (Anrich Herbst) were both at school. The character of Bennie (Charl van Heyningen) was rarely seen as he first was in the army and later left the town of Orkney. Wimpie had an on and off relationship with a girl named Sonja (Carien Wandrag), and his best friend was named Koert (Rinus van Niekerk). From time to time other family members, such as grandfathers and grandmothers would stay over with the family and cause all sorts of mischief. Later the family also adopted two orphans, a young Afrikaner girl named Riekie (Bernice Du Plessis) and a coloured boy named Neelsie (Eugene Martin).

History

Esterhuizen had played around with the idea since the early 1980s, but the SABC rejected the proposal for five years claiming it was "in bad taste". The series was finally given the go-ahead in 1987, but only after it was laboriously rewritten several times, and even then the SABC held the view that very few Afrikaners would associate with the series. In May 1989 the first season of 13 episodes was finally broadcast. It was received extremely well, and led to two more seasons, the second being broadcast from August 1990 and the third and final one starting in April 1992. The success of the TV series, which occupied a top ten spot on ratings for most of its run and held the number one spot for weeks on end, lead to two movies also being produced. Both were extremely successful at the South African box office.

Controversy

Although the series was one of South Africa's best loved and most successful series at the time of its original screening, a small but vocal minority were critical of the show. Some of those opposed to it felt that the show contained too many English words and slang, so harming the Afrikaans language. Another group felt that the presence of Neelsie, the coloured orphan adopted by the family, was inappropriate, an issue arising from South Africa's status as an

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

state.

Season 1 (1989)

The first season contains a total of 13 episodes which were originally broadcast on

(TV1).

Season 2

Characters

{, class="wikitable" ! Picture !! Name !! by !! !!Picture !! Name !! by , - , , , Maggie van Tonder
(Season 1–3) , , Annette Engelbrecht , - , , , Bennie van Tonder
(Season 1) , , Charl van Heyningen , - , , , Wimpie van Tonder
(Season 1–3) , , Anrich Herbst , - , , , Hendrik "Hendrikkie" van Tonder
(Season 1) , , Ruan de Jager , - , , , Ouma Gouws
(Season 3) , , Dulsie van den Bergh , - , , , Koert Wessels
(Season 1–3) , , Rinus van Niekerk , - , , , Sonja Conradie
(Season 3) , , Carien Wandrag , - , , , Neelsie van Zyl
(Season 3) , ,

Eugene Martin Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...

, - , , , Hendrik "Hendrikkie" van Tonder
(Season 3) , , Frankie Opperman

Films

In later years two films were released based on the television sitcom. Many of the same actors were involved in the films, though Ouboet was portrayed by Marcel van Heerden in the first one since Frank Opperman was acting in the lead role of another South African series ''The Big Time''. The films were: * ''Orkney Snork Nie (Die Movie)'', tagline "Dis Lekker By Die See" (translation: It's Fun At The Sea), released November 27, 1992 * ''Orkney Snork Nie 2'', tagline "Nog 'n Movie" (translation: Another Movie), released December 24, 1993

Trivia

* Riekie was played by Bernice du Plessis, she is the daughter of Zack du Plessis (Hendrik). * Anrich Herbst, Carien Wandrag and Rinus van Niekerk all attended Hoërskool Randburg.

External links

*http://152.111.1.251/argief/berigte/dieburger/1989/04/25/8/2.html 1989 South African television series debuts South African television sitcoms Afrikaans-language television shows South African Broadcasting Corporation television shows Television shows set in South Africa 1980s South African television series 1992 South African television series endings