It's funny the things you discover while browsing the IMDb. Having already reviewed (formerly known as commented on) the short-lived, almost forgotten 1963 series "Herrie om Harrie", which was a Dutch version of "Here's Harry", it now turns out there were at least two earlier attempts to adapt 'Harry' for the Dutch public. This first one was a standalone adaptation of episode 3.7 The Last Train and the second (broadcast a month later) of episode 4.1: The Rally. Both of these 'pilots' featured different actors playing Harry (Leen Jongewaard and Rijk de Gooyer) and different casts (with the exception of Ben Hulsman and Rien van Nunen who appeared in both). Neither version spawned a series for VARA television, as the show was picked up a year later by broadcaster NCRV, casting Johan Kaart in de title role.
It's New Years Eve and the second to last train is 45 minutes late. Harry van Tuntelen (Jongewaard) gets off at the wrong station and for some reason has picked up a sailor's duffel bag from the train, which he leaves with the found objects department. Frits the grumpy station manager (Van Nunen) takes an immediate dislike towards Harry.
Harry wants to get some chocolate out of the machine. He manages to con a police officer (Sven Smeele) out of 15 cents but he can't work the machine properly and assistant station manger Kees (Ben Hulsman) ends up with a lovely bar of toffee instead. Later on, Harry splashes water on Frit's coat for reasons known only to him and douses the fire in the stove instead of the other way around. This entices Frits to call the police and Harry in turn to phone his long suffering (and ill) lawyer out of bed.
Meanwhile sailor Michiel (Rudi Falkenhagen) has walked all the way back from the next station in order to fetch his duffel bag. Like some kind of complete idiot, Harry keeps grabbing the bag away from him (thinking it's a case of three separate duffel's) and returning it to the office. Sighs for all round. After several more misunderstandings, Michiel and Harry form a truce, manage to catch the last train, but end up back at the station once again for some unexplained reason. Fade out.
Apart from a few shots filmed on location, the entire show was filmed on a simple series of sets. All the doors seems to lead to black rooms and the train station instruments are drawn on the wall. The brief scene in Harry's lawyer's bedroom features nothing more than a bed in a black surrounding (probably part of the same blackness that surrounds all the rooms at the train station). Harry's bumbling way of causing trouble for everyone around him doesn't seem to have gone over well with the studio audience either, for the few times they are heard to laugh can be counted on the fingers of one hand. It's a miracle there eventually was a series at all, short lived though it was.
5 out of 10
It's New Years Eve and the second to last train is 45 minutes late. Harry van Tuntelen (Jongewaard) gets off at the wrong station and for some reason has picked up a sailor's duffel bag from the train, which he leaves with the found objects department. Frits the grumpy station manager (Van Nunen) takes an immediate dislike towards Harry.
Harry wants to get some chocolate out of the machine. He manages to con a police officer (Sven Smeele) out of 15 cents but he can't work the machine properly and assistant station manger Kees (Ben Hulsman) ends up with a lovely bar of toffee instead. Later on, Harry splashes water on Frit's coat for reasons known only to him and douses the fire in the stove instead of the other way around. This entices Frits to call the police and Harry in turn to phone his long suffering (and ill) lawyer out of bed.
Meanwhile sailor Michiel (Rudi Falkenhagen) has walked all the way back from the next station in order to fetch his duffel bag. Like some kind of complete idiot, Harry keeps grabbing the bag away from him (thinking it's a case of three separate duffel's) and returning it to the office. Sighs for all round. After several more misunderstandings, Michiel and Harry form a truce, manage to catch the last train, but end up back at the station once again for some unexplained reason. Fade out.
Apart from a few shots filmed on location, the entire show was filmed on a simple series of sets. All the doors seems to lead to black rooms and the train station instruments are drawn on the wall. The brief scene in Harry's lawyer's bedroom features nothing more than a bed in a black surrounding (probably part of the same blackness that surrounds all the rooms at the train station). Harry's bumbling way of causing trouble for everyone around him doesn't seem to have gone over well with the studio audience either, for the few times they are heard to laugh can be counted on the fingers of one hand. It's a miracle there eventually was a series at all, short lived though it was.
5 out of 10