Some of my most cherished memories of Doordarshan (DD) from childhood to early teens were those of the West German TV series produced by Transtel and Cologne. I was a great fan of all of them and I still am. These series were usually dubbed in English and were played on DD1 and DD2, long before onslaught of cable and now satellite television. They had a certain charm to them, which captivated me, held me glued to the TV set and finally left me with a feeling of euphoria that lingered on… Yes, I am taking about TV series. I experienced a certain bonding with the characters and overtime it felt as if they were my good friends.
Thanks to Jetix, a rerun of "Didi's comedy show" brought back a flood of all those sweet memories. I vividly remember those animated discussions we had in school about didi's antics, how I used to roll on the floor and laugh at something that Didi did or said and how much my stomach would hurt from all the laughing. This time around at home, I was watching the same with father. Jetix had the show dubbed in Tamil which if anything made it even more hilarious not in an oddball kind of way, but in exactly the same way as a good comedian would perform. The best part of it all was watching it with father. It's sometimes astonishing to see how grown up adults, myself and father, could laugh our hearts out at a TV show.
Derrick was another series that I was really crazy about. It was set in Munich where two police detectives, Stephan Derrick and Harry Klein, would systematically solve murder cases by the sole power of their reasoning alone. Stephan Derrick played by Horst Tappert had a commanding screen presence and I still remember how calm and composed he was through out the entire series, how he would cross-examine and probe inconsistencies and finally how he would break the accused down, that in most cases they usually end up confessing to the crime. Later years when I had the opportunity to watch more such investigative TV series or movies, what struck me most was unlike others, Derrick didn't have any violence involved, no knives, no guns, and no blood, just Derrick's pure brilliance.
Der Fahnder or The Investigator as its called in its English version was another favorite of mine. Faber played by Klaus Wennemann plays the lead role in the series. This was another police investigative series that is fast paced, exciting, intense, riveting, exhilarating and what not. Faber is young, dynamic, impatient police detective always on the look out for action. Well yea, as a kid I sort of wanted to be like him. It's not just the action that made it appealing to me but Faber's brilliant investigative methods, his personality, the friendly nature of the other characters and a sort of attachment you feel with Faber and his family. The title music was one of the best I have heard for any TV series so far. Derrick and Der Fahnder both were sixty minute episodes with a murder, investigation and a conclusion.
Telematch contains a series of games that were played between two little German towns. I loved the series since they always came up with very interesting games to play. I also remember I generally had no penchant towards any of the teams. I would usually support the one that's having the highest points on the board and hence my support would vary several times during a single match.
I grew with these series and thinking about them engulfs me with a feeling of nostalgia. How I wish I could be a kid again. The feeling of watching one of these series while being papered by mom, well what can I say, is just priceless.
PS: I just googled for Klaus Wennemann and found that he left us on 7th January 2000. He will be sorely missed.
