The NPO has rejected the plan for the ‘successor’ to the hit series The Jewish Council. This was said by screenwriter Roos Ouwehand in the NPO Radio 1 program Met het Oog op Morgen. Ouwehand has been working for a year and a half on the scenario for the series De Return, which is set in the year after the Second World War ended.
“We heard last week that the NPO is not interested in the series,” said Ouwehand. “That is a very bitter pill and the last word has not yet been said about it. The NPO thought the series was too complicated because there were too many main characters. The viewer would not understand that.” The Return would follow ten characters. The hit series Oogappels, which Ouwehand also writes, follows more than twenty.
The Return would be made by virtually the same team as The Jewish Council, the series that attracted one and a half million viewers every week earlier this year. Mayor Femke Halsema referred to one of the main characters, Virrie Cohen, in her speech on Dam Square. The resistance fighter saved hundreds of babies from the crèche opposite the Hollandse Schouwburg, where Jewish people were brought together for transport.
“While making The Jewish Council, I came across many stories that I found increasingly interesting,” says Ouwehand. “The Netherlands was in ruins, it was a lot of chaos. I wanted to make a mosaic story about all the characters who return to the Netherlands. People who were employed abroad, for example.” Paula van der Oest would direct the sequel, just like The Jewish Council.
Ouwehand and Van der Oest developed De Return with the NTR. The NPO and NTR were not yet available for comment on Sunday.
Tags: NPO successor Jewish Council makers angry RTL Boulevard
