Anyone watching KRO television on the evening of Tuesday 6 February 1996 could suddenly recognise a piece of Bredevoort. Garage Grijsen on Winterswijksestraat had been used as a location in Tijd van Leven, a ten-part drama series about forty years of change in the Dutch countryside.
The fictional village of Oud-Greffel
Tijd van Leven followed two families in and around the fictional village of Oud-Greffel. The story began shortly after liberation in 1945 and continued until 1985, using their lives to show changes in farming, prosperity, technology, transport and everyday life.
The series was directed by André van Duren and written by Albert ter Heerdt. The cast included Anneke Blok, Victor Löw, Daniël Boissevain and Ernst Daniël Smid.
A real garage in an invented village
Garage Grijsen at Winterswijksestraat 69 in Bredevoort was used for one scene. A recognisable Achterhoek location therefore became part of the fictional world of Oud-Greffel. For local viewers, the setting was rather less fictional than it was for the rest of the Netherlands.
The garage appears in episode 6, Sweet Sixteen, first broadcast on Nederland 1 on 6 February 1996. The relevant scene begins at about 7 minutes 38 seconds in the recording below.
The place remained, the set disappeared
Garage Grijsen itself has since become part of history. Auto Tiggeloven now occupies the same location. The television footage therefore adds another layer to the history of the site: it shows not only what the garage looked like, but also how an ordinary business in Bredevoort briefly became part of a national television series.
Sources
- Old Aalten, Garage Grijsen profile
- Netherlands Institute for Sound & Vision, Tijd van Leven
- TV en Radio DataBase, Tijd van Leven episode listings
- Video Tijd van Leven, episode 6