Bassie en Adriaan

Who are Bassie and Adriaan?
First I want to tell something about who they are.
Bas van Toor was born in Maassluis, on the 17th September 1935. He always wanted to be an artist but his father and mother didn’t agree. He has to work because his father and mother were poor.
He had eleven different jobs. When he was ten, his mother gave him an harmonica and he started to play on parties and marriages. Now something about Adriaan. Aad van Toor was born in Maassluis, on 30th October 1942. He went to a college. In the fifties he and his brother Bas worked in a circus. They had an acrobat act. In 1987 Bas and Aad came together as ‘Bassie and Adriaan’. During their journeys with the circus they had many experiences. In 1962 they started to write texts for other artists. In 1975 they met Joop van den Ende, a theatrical producer. He gave Bassie and Adriaan their own television program: ‘Bassie en Adriaan en de Plaaggeest’. This programme is broadcast by the TROS. That was the begin of their great carrier, because they became a big success on the Holland and Belgian television till 1996.

How came Bas and Aad van Toor on the idea of Bassie and Adriaan?
Bassie and Adriaan came into being 45 years ago. Bas van Toor (because he wasn’t very big, everyone called him Bassie) always wanted to be an artist. When he was young he started performing. When he was 19, he decided to join a circus like a tent builder. All he learned was a flip. When he came home, he convinced his brother Adriaan (13) to start an acrobat performance. They did not have enough money to rent a sports hall so they trained in the kitchen. A year later they had their first performance and at that moment they knew that the wanted to be acrobats. They discharged their job to join a fair theatre in 1959. After the fair, everything went very fast, they were asked to perform abroad. Bassie en Adriaan performed for 10 years in Europe and South-America.

In January 1978 the show "Bassie en Adriaan en de Plaaggeest" came on TV. It was a success and the next show "Het geheim van de sleutel" was created. A new producer directed ‘’Het geheim van de sleutel’’ But the changes were no improvements so Adriaan started to direct the show of ‘’De Diamant’’ It was a very big success.
That show was recorded in Circus Renz for the biggest part, and there the idea of ‘’Circus Bassie en Adriaan" is born. They bought a tent, grandstands, caravans and circus-artists. In 1982 they decided to stop the circus because there were some problems with the producer Joop van den Ende.
Because they stopped cooperate with Joop they started their own production company called “Adrina Produkties” and “Bassie Produkties”.

Which figures also play in the series, and what was their job?

Handige Harry: Handige Harry is the handyman in the Bassie and Adriaan series. His real name is Paul van Soest. He makes the bombs for De Baron, to kill Bassie and Adriaan. But it usually fails because the bombs explode by themselves. De Baron gets very angry at Harry because of that. He also played in the popular TV-series “Toen Was Geluk Heel Gewoon” and ‘’Zeg eens AA”.

B100: Hans Beijer was the unlucky person in the film. And not only in the film, but in real life too. In England he was overwhelmed with melting snow. In Greece he was trailed behind a boat, which was supposed to be save but the boat sailed through a group jellyfishes.

De Baron: Paul van Gorcum played “De Baron”. He tried to bring Bassie and Adriaan in trouble. B100 and Handige Harry are his assistants. He became famous because he always says: Frikandel! Bamihap! Loempia! Zak Patat! And then he breaks his phone.

De plaaggeest: Jaap Stobbe played de plaaggeest. He always teased Bassie and Adriaan. For example, he stole Bassie and Adriaan's truck. When they started their new job, he let a tyre explode.

Vlugge Japie: Vlugge Japie was played by Bas van Toor. Vlugge Japie was also a assistant from “The Baron”.

Something about their work
Bassie and Adriaan made a lot of series. They started with an acrobat act. The first serie is called: ‘’Bassie and Adriaan en de plaaggeest.’’ In this story, Bassie and Adriaan did some different jobs and ‘’de plaaggeest’’ teased them. The second serie is called: ‘’het geheim van de sleutel’’. Here, Bassie and Adriaan are on holiday in Spain and find some stolen diamonds. Then there arised some other series where they went on holiday and experience adventures with thefts and disappeared crowns or diamonds. There is another story called: ‘’De huilende professor’’. This story is about a professor who wants to make all people cry. Then, in 1991 the ‘’Reis door Europa’’ started. Bassie and Adriaan visted 12 countries of Europe to learn children a lot about languages, countries, landscapes and so on. An unknown person asks them to find packages in the 12 countries. Of course in this film there are scoundrels. Bassie and Adriaan took ‘’the baron’’ in prison so now he wants to kill them. B100 has to find Bassie and Adriaan and Handige Harry makes the bombs. De Baron, B100 and Handige Harrie make the series very funny. In the film of ‘’de reis door Europa’’ the scoundrels play an important role, in the other series the scoundrels are not so important, except for the movie of ‘’Bassie and Adriaan en de Plaaggeest.’’ A continuation on ‘’De reis door Europa’’ is ‘’de reis door Amerika’’. Here, the scoundrels follow Bassie and Adriaan to America. Bassie has won a trip to America. They visit a lot of places in the US. In 2003, Adriaan got cancer so they stopped performing and making series.

Wij hebben veel van de webstie gehaald:
http://www.bassie-adriaan.nl/