- Kopspijkers
Kopspijkers was a talk show that has been running on Dutch
public television from1996 to2005 . A recipient, in2003 , of the annual "Zilveren Nipkow " best-show award from Dutchtelevision critics, the programme was produced by the left-of-centre public broadcasterVARA . It was hosted byJack Spijkerman , hence the title.Humorous in style, the show was particularly noted for its satirical sketches. Until
2001 it was 'normal' cabaret, but in September2001 (which happened to be the week of the9/11 terrorist attacks ) the show started withimitation s of famous people. These were much like those featured in the British TV programme "Spitting Image ", but used realactor s. Political leaders likeJan Peter Balkenende ,Wouter Bos andGerrit Zalm were frequently impersonated. At first only Dutch people were impersonated, later also foreign celebrities (includingTony Blair ,Nelson Mandela ,John Kerry andViktor Yushchenko ) were impersonated. In recent episodes even historical characters, likeNapoleon Bonaparte ,Anne Frank ,Plato andJoseph Stalin were imitated. "Kopspijkers" was amongst the most viewed programmes in the Netherlands.On several occasions, the imitations have caused controversies. The first imitation episode showed sensationalist TV presenter
Willibrord Fréquin chasingOsama Bin Laden asking "why he had been so cowardly" and "why he sent thousands of people into death".Pim Fortuyn was often imitated, which led to accusations against Kopspijkers after he was assassinated. In November2003 Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and MinisterPiet Hein Donner complained about the 'tasteless' imitations of members of the Royal family. Queen Beatrix later said she had no problems with being imitated. In2005 , Jack Spijkerman decided to cancel his contract with VARA and sign with the newly formed channel Talpa. Though Spijkerman intended to finish the running season, VARA cut it short and cancelled the 4 remaining shows. Spijkerman made a similar (but commonly deemed of less quality) show on Talpa, calledKoppensnellers but after bankruptcy of the channel it disappeared of the Dutch TV.In
2004 similar shows were broadcasted inGermany andBelgium , but they weren't very popular.External links
* [http://www.talpa.tv/koppensnellers.html Official site of the new show]
* [http://www.omroep.nl/vara/kopspijkers/ Official Kopspijkers website]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385430/ IMDB entry for Kopspijkers]
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