Dave Mantel

On a cold November day in 1983, beer magnate Alfred Heineken and his chauffeur Ab Doderer are abducted. What follows is the most infamous kidnapping case the Netherlands have ever known.

It is the year 2027, eight years after the first outbreak of The Sickness, a highly contagious, adaptive and lethal virus. The world is now run by a pharmaceutical corporation called The Company, which distributes a treatment for the virus but charges a high price for it, putting the majority of people in a state of poverty and dependence.

One hour before the State Opening of Parliament, something very unusual happens. The Prime Minister appears and demands an adjustment to the Queen's speech. The speech concerns aid to Africa. Even with all the pressure around the State Opening, Beatrix goes back in time, and remembers her banishment to Canada, the visit to the victims of the Flood disaster and the turbulence suffered by her parents at Palace Soestdijk during the Hofman case.

A David's classmate, Jochem, is harassed by three bullies, but nobody does anything at school, not even David, who feels guilty for not pointing out the culprits.

What happens if you take the law into your own hands, start correcting the legal system on your own initiative? Hans Croiset, André van den Heuvel, Bram van der Vlugt and Kitty Courbois in their roles of aged resistance heroes do not think this is such a bad idea; in fact, it is what they already did during World War II. Back then, they formed a sworn resistance gang. The occasion for their renewed fighting spirit is the brutal robbery and murder of Marjan, one of the members of their former group. Past and present start blending. In a controlled tempo, alert to detail and acting, a story unravels that focuses on Hans Croiset in the role of Simon, a retired teacher of Dutch. He makes contact with the underworld, meeting the Slavic Goran, who starts feeling sympathy for the old man. Eventually, fate lies in Simon's hands.

Incredibly enough, one day before the start of his pension and just hours before his 65th birthday, window cleaner Alfred suddenly finds himself stricken by vertigo. A 64-year and 364-day journey through glass and lather reveals why he is afraid to either go up or go down the ladder. And whilst he finds himself to be an accidental Cupid by hitting anyone but himself with his arrows, it’s not until that particular day, 44 years after meeting Dirkje for the first time, that he realizes he has to point the arrow at himself.

A famous game show host is being harassed in a restaurant by a strange man who claims to have kidnapped his wife and daughter. A morbid game ensues in which the game show host turns out to be the contestant.

After bouncing back from leukemia, 10-year-old Mike is ready to leave the hospital, but his mother never arrives to take him home.