Opzet of ongeluk (Planned or Accident) is a 1986 Dutch television adaptation of the stage play The Patient. It was adapted by Hugo Heinen and directed by Frits Butzelaar and produced by Dutch broadcaster NCRV (Nederlandse Christelijke Radio-Vereniging) and aired on Dutch public channel NPO2 (Nederland 2) on 12 May 1986.[1] According to information on IMDb, the programme had already been recorded between 6 and 8 Oct 1982 as "De patiƫnte" but was not broadcast. It was finally broadcast in 1986 as "Opzet of ongeluk".
Synopsis[]
The show is a faithful adaptation of Christie's original stageplay. A woman, Jenny Greveling is severely injured after falling from a balcony. The shock has left her paralysed and unable to communicate. Unable to discover what happened, Dr Vreugedenhil and Inspector Tromp devise an experiment with a machine to get the truth from Jenny's relatives.
Comparison with the original play[]
(may contain spoilers - click on expand to read)
The adaptation is very faithful to the original. Much of the dialogue in Dutch is a translation of the original English. Like in the original, all the action takes take in a hospital room. A few small changes are made for dramatic effect. The show begins with the patient (Jenny Greveling) being wheeled into the hospital. A doctor who attends to her describes her condition, listing her physical injuries and also adding that she has paralysis due to shock. In the original, the scene begins with Dr Ginsberg preparing for a meeting with Inspector Cray and Mrs Wingfield's relatives. When the inspector arrives, the doctor describes Mrs Wingfield's condition to him by way of recapitulation. At the end of the show, when the nurse (Zuster Brands) is exposed as the killer, she tries to make a break for it and runs into the corridor but is stopped by police detectives who have been positioned there by Inspector Tromp.
There is an additional nurse character Zustter Haanstra whose is present at the beginning when the hospital staff are setting up the room for the experiment. She has a line or two but her present does not deviate very much from the prescribed action in the playscript.
Cast[]
- Lars Boom as Kieft (Lansen)
- Bert Buitenhuis as Egbert Vos (William Ross)
- Elfi De Mey as Betty van Ees (Brenda Jackson)
- Maxim Hamel as Bastiaan Greveling (Bryan Wingfield)
- Carla Hardy as Zuster Haanstra
- Beppie Melissen as Zuster Brands (Nurse Bond)
- Henk Rigters as Dokter Vreugedenhil (Dr Ginsberg)
- Dore Smit as Jenny Greveling (Jenny Wingfield)
- Lou Steenbergen as Inspecteur Tromp (Inspector Cray)
- Janine van Wely as TherĆŖse Vos (Emmeline Ross)
Research notes[]
According to a Dutch Agatha Christie researcher, NCRV commissioned scriptwriter Hugo Heinen to write the TV play in 1982 because it had a technical need to fill a gap in programming of about 45 minutes.[2]
References[]
- ā See entry on TVenRadiodb.nl here.
- ā See TV / De PatiĆ«nte (NCRV Televisie, 1982) (blog), www.queenofcrime.com, 6 Oct 2010 archived from the original here