Kapitein Zeppos

"Kapitein Zeppos" was one of the best loved series for children made in Flanders. In fact, it worked as a series for the whole of the family, with parents and children gathered happily on the same sofa : there were whole hours where Belgium could have been invaded by Martians without anyone noticing. Lead actor Senne Rouffaer played the hero (an elegant modern-day adventurer) with such success that whole generations of viewers automatically identified him with the character.

I do not know how large the production budget was, but the series looked remarkably sleek and expensive, with fine locations and stunts. To children it evoked a world of adventure, progress, style. To this day, it still stands as a quality benchmark for Belgian television series. And nearly all older Flemings can hum or whistle the rousing theme tune, Bert Kaempfert's "Living it up"...

We're speaking anno 2019 now and it is said that there is a Belgian "Kapitein Zeppos" movie in the works. I doubt that the result (good or bad) will be as striking and memorable.

The late Senne Rouffaer was an excellent dramatic actor. Grown-ups who appreciate a challenging psychological drama might want to watch him in "De man die zijn haar kort liet knippen" ("The man who had his hair cut short"). It's a subtle, mysterious movie about the downfall of a loner unable to get over his forbidden feelings for a younger female student.

Kapitein Zeppos was and still is one of the most popular Belgian television series made for the youth. Made in b/w 4 years before I even was born and in a time the Belgian Television (BRT) still had (or wanted to spend) budgets to make good television series for the youth.

When you look back at now it all looks very old-fashioned and the filming & acting is by times very clumsy (no slang language and every dialog is in perfect theater-dutch) but still it is and stays one of the best television series (Only 'De Kat' was better in my opinion) made for the youth although the story is a bit slow by times.

It's a bit strange to see all those actors who are now 60+ (some of them are even dead) in their younger years. Senne Rouffaer (who's also the director) plays Kapitein 'Jan Stephorst' Zeppos in such a great way that every time when I see him I ask myself the question 'Why didn't they made a movie of the Belgian cartoon character Tintin with him in the part of Tintin ???'

Kapitein Zeppos is a must see if you're thirty-something like me just for nostalgic reasons.