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Welcome to this website which takes a
look at the Belgian television classic, Kapitein Zeppos.
Written by Lode De Groof, directed by and starring Senne Rouffaer,
the series is fondly remembered by several generations of Belgians. It was
made for children, but it drew in nearly as many adult viewers as it
did the youngsters.
The series was made in Flemish by Belgian Radio
and Television (BRT) - now
Vlaamse (Flemish) Radio and Television
(VRT) - between 1964 and 1968. It saw broadcast in the original
Flemish in Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland. As Captain Zeppos,
it was dubbed into English by the
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC),
and transmitted just once between October 1966 and February 1967. The series also
went on to captivate and entertain
audiences in a number of other countries, too. Outside of Belgium and the
Netherlands, the series is pretty much forgotten today, and this website
aims to redress the balance a little.
Three serials were made, and although
they were not referred to as such on screen, are commonly referred
to as Belderbos, Eglantier and Tweng. Belderbos
is the castle and grounds which Zeppos and Ariane Despinal inherit
in the story. This first serial was made in sixteen episodes,
although the story draws to a close at the end of the fifteenth
episode, with the sixteenth being effectively a recap of the events
of the whole serial. This sixteenth episode does not appear on the
DVD and VHS edition recently issued in Belgium, but has been
included in repeat runs.
The second serial, De Eglantier,
was shorter than the first, being told across eight episodes. The
'Eglantier' of the title refers to a painting of a wild rose or
'Dog
Rose'. The third serial - Tweng - was also
told in eight parts, and the title is the name of a peace
organisation that works with Captain Zeppos in his fight with the
Sabos group.
All serials were made in half-hour
installments on black and white film and survive intact to this day.
Kapitein Zeppos was a great
success in Belgium and the Netherlands, both in the 1960s and the
intervening years. The series is however, receiving a revival of
interest now, following the series of repeats on VRT in 2004 to
celebrate fifty years of Belgian television. There have also been
Belgian home video releases of the series on VHS and DVD from Bridge
Pictures / in association
with VRT. You can read about these in our
Home Video
section.
The series also enjoyed forays into
print, with books published in Flemish and English. There is even a
Kapitein
Zeppos Cafe in Amsterdam, which you can also read
about at this site.
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