Böhmermann is bringing “Hello Spencer” back – but without a remake

There was once – few people will remember – a time when when you heard the name “Poldi” you didn’t think of a footballer with a powerful shot from Cologne, but rather of a dragon with poor grammar. In the children’s series “Hello Spencer” several decades ago, strange dolls populated a village – such as the eponymous Spencer (a toad-like television presenter with a flat cap), the peaceful tree house resident Kasimir and the bookworm Lexi. And “young dragon” Poldi, who clumsily threatened: “I want to eat you!” What happened to them? This is something that few people probably asked themselves and knew. One of them is: Jan Böhmermann.

The satirist, who deals with more adult topics in his show “ZDF Magazin Royale”, chose a half-forgotten children’s series to make a full-length feature film. After a premiere at the Munich Film Festival in the summer, “Hello Spencer – The Film” will be available to a larger audience from December 13th – in the ZDF media library.

It will be broadcast on television on December 25th (8:15 p.m., ZDFneo) and December 27th (11:45 p.m., ZDF).

It’s about the inventor

Anyone who, based on the film title, expects a remake of the series produced from 1979 to 2001 (NDR/ARD) that is both easy to consume and fluffy will be in for a surprise. As is his style, Böhmermann puts two or three foils on top, through which you can then look at the fluffy dolls. There are also numerous allusions, satirical elements and a kind of musical interlude with Tocotronic singer Dirk von Lowtzow. Sometimes it seems as if ideas are scurrying around like the dolls once did in the “Hello Spencer” village.

At its core, the film revolves around the “Spencer” inventor, who is called Jakob Sesam in the film and is played by Rainer Bock. It is not difficult to interpret the figure as Winfried Debertin, the real inventor of the puppet show. It shows how this man fights for a comeback after all his fame is over.

In an old large disco he hoards paraphernalia from his long-discontinued series. For him, the dolls live – and that’s how they are shown. But if Sesame doesn’t raise any money, they will face the end. The disco is to be demolished.

Sesame therefore delves into the modern entertainment world. He encounters very interchangeably staged streaming services and a pair of publishers who have obtained the rights to the doll universe in a roundabout way.

“We stood there and couldn’t believe it.”

Even if you think you hear the typical Böhmermann comment on the German media business, money and power in these scenes – the satirist himself calls the film a “fairy tale”. “The film is the way it is because it can’t be any other way,” he tells the German Press Agency.

What he means by this is also the absurd origin story of the production. A contact with Winfried Debertin was made through his show. As a result, they visited the “Spencer” creator, reports Böhmermann – and actually ended up in a dilapidated large disco, the “MicMac” in Moisburg. Since there was no longer any electricity, people went into the building with flashlights.

“It was like entering Winfried Debertin’s head,” remembers Böhmermann. “He had guarded his treasure like a dragon over the years.” At the same time, it was clear that the dolls, props and scripts he had collected were in acute danger. “It was said: The disco is going to be torn down, everything has to go because a retirement home is going to go there,” says Böhmermann. “We stood there and couldn’t believe it.”

It quickly became clear that a supposedly cult “Hello Spencer” revival could not be the solution. “The whole story was too sad and dramatic and somehow bizarre for that. And also a bit funny,” says Böhmermann. It was therefore a film about Debertin – but with the puppets, renovated original sets and many original puppeteers.

Böhmermann himself also plays a small role that only those familiar with the matter can recognize. If you want to do some research, you should take a look at the lanky plasticine man from the old series opening credits.

Life’s work is thrown out the door

For the presenter, born in 1981 and therefore fully in the “Spencer” target group at the time, it was also a confrontation with his own history. The series is also part of his childhood. And suddenly he looked at the legendary pneumatic tube of “Hello Spencer”. “It was standing there and had a marten bite on the bottom,” says Böhmermann. That does something to you, as people would say on talk shows today.

On the other hand, Böhmermann and his colleagues (screenplay: Jan Böhmermann, Elias Hauck, Tim Wolff) are themselves part of the media mill, from which no one knows in what condition he will leave it. Böhmermann practically bursts out: “Imagine you are an artist and then at some point your art is over and every month a delivery truck comes from the station and dumps your life’s work in front of your door.”

The dolls are now in a reasonably safe place. “We now have six overseas containers in Hamburg with props, backdrops and files from “Hello Spencer,” he says. We’ll see more after the film.