The Best TV Shows on VPRO

What do you do when you lose everything and have to start all over again? Ten-year-old Lucas, the middle child of a wealthy family, lives in an expensive neighborhood in a large house, equipped with every luxury. Everything changes completely when Lucas, while searching for his Sinterklaas surprise, finds a large box of unpaid bills. Father Maarten turns out to have enormous financial problems and the family loses everything. The family is evicted and, with the help of their cleaner Nina, finds shelter in an old office building among other new poor people. While father (Jeroen Spitzenberger) and mother (Hadewych Minis) have a hard time with themselves and each other, and big brother Thomas (15) and sister Emma (7) have a terrible time getting used to the new situation, Lucas tries to make the best of it with the highest goal: a Merry Christmas for the whole family.

Kreatief met Kurk was a satirical mockumentary by Arjan Ederveen, Tosca Niterink and Pieter Kramer (director), which was broadcast by the VPRO from January to March 1993 (lessons 1 to 13) and from January to June 1994 (lessons 14 to 26).

Pat & Mat is a Czech stop-motion animated series featuring two handymen, Pat and Mat. It was created by Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek.

Bernhard, schavuit van Oranje is a Dutch television program depicting the more than only turbulent life of a prince consort. It is a compelling drama concerning a man who tries to be himself, but must survive deep crises, finally to see the real meaning of love. Within the Dutch royal family there is actually no more talked about character than Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. Whether it concerns Greet Hofmans, extramarital affairs, or Lockheed, Prince Bernhard faced a lot of scandals throughout the course of his life. Besides this he was, and is a person, loved by many as a war hero. A man of extremes. In four parts Prince Bernhard tells the tale of his life. Not only through the spyglass, but especially to his grandson's wife, Princess Máxima of the Netherlands, who will be soon the Queen next to Prince Willem-Alexander. In a way, she takes the same position as Prince Bernhard did in his life. In their conversations and discussions it becomes clear how much they are different, but also how much they are the same. For Princess Máxima this is sometimes very confronting. The tale drags us throughout the course of the Prince's life, from Soestdijk, his beloved German Reckenwalde, Berlin, London, Argentina and Canada.

Tegenlicht in Dutch or Backlight in English is a series of television documentaries by the VPRO, a Dutch public broadcasting organisation. Backlight "aims to grasp the quintessence of prominent trends and developments" in the practice of critical journalism, and tries to improve understanding of the intricate inner workings of our modern society.

Fay (14) and Boris (10) discover that their parents secretly replaced themselves by robots. Claudia and Joost each have demanding jobs and even though they try very hard, they are not able to combine their jobs with spending quality time with their children. Boris, Fay, Claudia and Joost slowly realize they need each other as a family and when the robots become uncontrollable, they can only clear up the mess by working together.

Koolhoven's view is a series of film lectures given by film director and cinephile Martin Koolhoven. Using scenes from his favorite feature films, Koolhoven shares his love for cinema with viewers. No dry critiques and academic treatises, but enthusiastic speeches and inspired observations: Koolhoven is above all an enthusiast.

Margôt Ros and Maike Meijer play 40 different characters working in office tower Toren C, an office hell of eight flours, filled with a plethora of ridiculous situations.

Draadstaal is a satirical sketch comedy television program of the VPRO, and CCCP 2 Dutch production company and broadcaster. It was created by CCCP and Jeroen van Koningsbrugge and Dennis van de Ven. The show features lots of recurring stereotypical characters. The program is reminiscent of the work of Van Kooten en De Bie.