Albert Cornelis "Appie" Baantjer (16 September 1923 – 29 August 2010) was a

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

author of

detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal investigation, investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around ...

and police officer. Baantjer is mostly known for his commercially successful detective series surrounding police inspector De Cock and his assistant, sergeant Vledder. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the series was adapted to television as ''

Baantjer ''Baantjer'' is a Dutch television programme which was broadcast by RTL 4 from 6 October 1995 until 1 December 2006 for a total of 123 episodes in 12 seasons. It stars Piet Römer as Jurriaan 'Jurre' de Cock, a police detective, and Victor Reini ...

'' and won the 1997 Gouden Televizier-ring, the most important Dutch television prize.

Early life

Baantjer was born in 1923 on the Dutch island of

Urk Urk (; ; ) is a municipality and a town in the Flevoland province in the central Netherlands. Urk is first mentioned in historical records dating to the 10th century, when it was still an island in the Almere, an inland sea that would become par ...

as one of the three children of Aaltje Bos (1905–1996) and Albert Baantjer (1901–1965). Baantjer's paternal family is from

Sliedrecht Sliedrecht () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is covered by water. Sliedrecht is known for the many large dredging companies (including Boskal ...

and

, while his maternal family had settled on the island as early as the seventeenth century. He is direct descendant of Pieter Lubbertsz Cremer, one of the first-known mayors of the town. Baantjer initially worked as an oil seller at the age of sixteen, but moved to Amsterdam in 1945 to work for the police. He became a detective at the police office at the

Warmoesstraat Warmoesstraat ('Chard Street') is one of the oldest streets in Amsterdam, running parallel to Damrak from Nieuwebrugsteeg to Dam Square. Its origins are in the 13th century. In the 16th and 17th century it was the shopping street. During the Du ...

. One of his most noteworthy cases in the 1950s was the , for which he was lead detective and which received wide media attention.

Career

In 1959, Baantjer, now working as a detective, and his head inspector Maurice van Dijk wrote a book titled ''5x8... grijpt in''. The novel received media attention from ''

De Volkskrant ''De Volkskrant'' (; ), stylized as de Volkskrant, is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium- ...

'' and ''De Maasbode''. Baantjer is mainly known for his large series of

detective novels Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal investigation, investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around ...

revolving around police inspector De Cock (also translated as DeKok) and his side-kick, sergeant Vledder. The name of the protagonist simply means "cook" in Dutch, but has an unusual spelling which is at the heart of a

running gag A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling. Though they are similar, catchphrases are no ...

that involves De Cock spelling out his name every time he introduces himself to someone. The novels have spin-offs in the form of a motion picture and a long-running TV-series entitled ''

''. Both are named after the author, rather than the main character(s). This led to

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

Berend Boudewijn's bitter statement in a Dutch TV guide (''VPRO Gids'', 11 November 2005) that "''Baantjer'' is the only TV series in the world that is named after a writer, even though it is not written by him." (This is not entirely true: The Belgian TV series ''Aspe'' is also named after its writer,

Pieter Aspe Pieter Aspe (officially ''Pierre Aspeslag''; 3 April 1953 – 1 May 2021) was a Belgian writer of a series of detective stories starring Inspector Pieter Van In. These were adapted for the long-running TV series (2004–14) starring . He died ...

, who wrote the first season but not the second.) Baantjer's novels have made their way into the English language through the publishing house Speck Press. De Cock's name has been translated as DeKok. There are approximately 23 of the 60 published Baantjer titles available in English. His books have also been translated into Spanish, French, Russian, Korean, Estonian and Esperanto.http://ester.utlib.ee/search*est/a?SEARCH=baantjer&searchscope=1&SUBMIT=OTSI

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baantjer, A. C. 1923 births 2010 deaths People from Medemblik People from Urk Police detectives Dutch police officers Dutch crime fiction writers Dutch male screenwriters Deaths from esophageal cancer in the Netherlands Writers from Amsterdam Dutch male novelists 20th-century Dutch screenwriters 21st-century Dutch screenwriters 20th-century Dutch novelists 21st-century Dutch novelists 20th-century Dutch male writers 21st-century Dutch male writers