Ellen Jens was a director, also of her own life

Ellen Jens was not a big celebrity for television viewers. But behind the scenes, since the 1970s, she has played a key role as director and producer in high-profile programs such as The Fred Haché Show, Van Oekels Disco corner, Here is Adriaan van Dis, The Plantation and Jiskefet. Ellen Jens passed away this Friday at the age of 83.

“She looked frail – you could almost overlook her – but she was a substantive powerhouse,” says Hanneke Groenteman, who worked with her from 1994 to 2001 for The Plantation, the program that Groenteman presented and Jens directed. In response to her death, the VPRO, the broadcaster for which she made many iconic programs, calls Jens a “humble director who made many great”. According to the VPRO, the roles of director and producer were “a bit mixed up” for Jens.

Actor and artist Michiel Romeyn especially remembers how Jens always took him seriously during the hilariously chaotic recordings of Jiskefet. “Then she said ‘yes, of course we will arrange that for you!’, while she looked over her glasses with a script on her lap from that day’s broadcast.

“Nothing was too crazy for her, everything was possible. And then it turned out fine.

“She could get everything done in a very friendly, charming way. With a verve that I have never encountered since. She never spoke an unruly word. That is very special, especially in Hilversum. We from Jiskefet were like younger brothers that she took care of.”

Jens grew up in Wassenaar, attended grammar school there and wanted to become an actor or writer. She went to study law in Leiden. Via an advertisement in the program magazine Free Sounds from VPRO, Jens ended up at that broadcaster, initially as a production assistant.

In a rare interview, from 1974, Jens himself said: “I had more than enough candidates, but I started to get fed up with Leiden. I participated in everything, with the theater club, with Paul van Vliet’s lustrum cabaret and with the musical No Bed for Bacon, which Berend Boudewijn directed. In addition, I did what I felt like doing. That wasn’t possible, there was so much gossip.”

All doctors

Jens came from the Leiden student world and her friends at the time were all married to doctors, while she hung out with crazy artists. “She actually liked that,” says Rene Verhagen, recording director Jiskefet. He especially remembers her genuine affection. “She was a very modest person, you would not easily see her walking on the red carpet. She had taken on a serving role. She had the gift of putting everyone at ease. She arranged guests for the programs that she also directed, and she had a huge network in the book world. She was truly interested in everyone she worked with.

“Not many people knew her, but everyone in the world understood how important she was. She would chat with everyone on set, then ask about their families. I think all the men of that time were a little bit in love with her.”

In the 1970s, Ellen Jens had an affair with Wim T. Schippers, with whom she made many successful programs and who would remain her partner. She also had an affair with Adriaan van Dis until her death.

Speechless

Wim T. Schippers said in a written response: “I am now simply speechless.” Van Dis writes by email: “Ellen managed to achieve a lot with gentle forces. In the nine years that she was the director of our book program, she managed to win over the most difficult writers. She was a marvel in tact, yet decisive as a director. Also director of her own life. For 37 and a half years we celebrated our love in semi-public. She was far from frivolous – but it is what it is: she knew how to live with two men. Sincere and magical. Only stuffy people don’t understand that.”

She was strong on content but also focused on details, says Cornald Maas, who worked with her for The Plantation. “During the recordings, she clearly noticed that the look of the guest who said nothing had to be captured. She liked unexpected things, as a director she allowed that to happen.

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“I remember a broadcast with Kader Abdolah, with his thick mustache. Another guest then put on a sticky mustache as a joke. She loved those kinds of moments, the unexpected. She was elusive, did not allow herself to be fooled and always did exactly what she wanted.”

That Ellen Jens made absurd, hilarious as well as serious programs The Fred Haché Show and Jiskefet to Books and Here is Adriaan van Dis, not only illustrates the versatility of her talent, but also her character. “She could be deeply humorous and unexpected,” says Hanneke Groenteman. “She could effortlessly switch from a substantive serious conversation to her cat’s bladder problems and the discussion about it with the vet.

Girl

“There was something vulnerable about her, she could look at you with her big chocolate brown eyes and you could just never get angry with her. At the same time, she was a content powerhouse, always informed and she knew how to create the right atmosphere so that everyone in the program flourished.

“Yet she has always remained a mystery to me, even though I have known her for years. She remained a girl, with fluttering summer dresses, very delicate, slender, idiosyncratic and beautiful. Maybe I was a little jealous of her.”