Q & Q

Q & Q was a Dutch television series, broadcast by the Katholieke Radio Omroep (KRO) in 1974. With an average audience of three million viewers, the show is one of the highest-viewed programs in the history of Dutch television.

The first series of thirteen episodes came to be called A failed photograph. A second series, Kunst- en vliegwerk, also thirteen episodes, was made for the 1976 season; that series was later shortened and released in theaters as a movie.

The series was directed by Bram van Erkel and starred Lex Goudsmit and others. Harrie Geelen wrote the screenplay. Music for the series was written by Joop Stokkermans.

According to the KRO, the series was intended as a "comical detective series for a youthful audience". On the other hand, screenwriter Geelen, who had been working since 1972 on the highly successful series Kunt u mij de weg naar Hamelen vertellen mijnheer?, was looking for a different kind of challenge and intended to write a more down-to-earth show with blood and horror effects, as opposed to the fairytale-like Hamelen. The show did cause some mild controversy: a scene in which the housekeeper of one of the boys breaks a glass bottle over the head of a criminal led many adults to complain to the KRO in a series of letters quickly responded to by many of the young viewers who supported the show. The show was hugely popular with an average audience of three million viewers, and the two lead actors, Martin Perels and Erik van 't Wout, were showered with attention from female fans who followed them in the streets, sang them the theme song, and wrote love letters with enclosed locks of hair.

In the first series, two teenage amateur photographers, Aristides Quarles van Ispen (Erik van 't Wout) and Wilbur Quant (Martin Perels), see the body of a man on some photographs they took while in the forest of 't Gooi. When they return to the forest, the body is gone and nobody believes them except for grandfather van Ispen (Bob de Lange). With his help they investigate the case, which turns out to revolve around a smuggling ring.

The series continues to have its fans, groups of whom organize such things as tours of the locations where filming took place. The first series was rerun twice on Dutch television (in twelve rather than thirteen episodes), most recently in 1995, and released on DVD in 2004. The second series was never rerun, but appeared on DVD in 2005. Each of the series was published as a book as well.

...
Wikipedia