Binnelanders character Danny staying on-screen until November after Bradley Olivier’s death, Stark Films cast traumatised and sad.

by Thinus Ferreira

The Binnelanders character paramedic Danny Jantjes portrayed by actor Bradley Olivier will still remain on-screen on kykNET (DStv 144) until the end of October after which Danny will disappear following the death of the actor yesterday in hospital after his life support machines were switched off.

The producer and actor was hospitalised on Monday evening in the Flora Life hospital in Johannesburg after complaining of a headache earlier on Monday morning and was taken to hospital where his condition worsened. He was eventually placed on life support. 

The cause of his hospitalisation and what led to the 36-year-old's death is not yet known. 

Bradley Olivier leaves behind a 5-year-old daughter Kiara, girlfriend Candice-Ann Isaacs, mom Susan, sister Sheena-Kay Gouws and brother Armin.

According to insiders, the crew and cast of the Stark Films produced soap shot at Stark Studios in Randburg, Johannesburg, are distraught and sad following the popular actor's untimely death this week.

Insiders told TVwithThinus that Bradley Olivier's death coming so soon and also unexpectedly after the death at the same production of actor Ben Kruger who died from Covid in May 2021, has been traumatic for the crew and actors.

Bradley Olivier's untimely passing changes the emotional tenor of the blue carpet premiere and debut next month of Frankie & Felipe at kykNET's 11th Silwerskermfees film festival in Camps Bay, Cape Town - the first film that Olivier produced together with actor Solomon Cupido under their joint production company Sturvey Pictures.

Sturvey Pictures is producing three films for MultiChoice's streaming service Showmax.

Waldimar Pelser, M-Net director for premium channels, says that Bradley Olivier "was a beloved actor and valued member of the kykNET and Binnelanders family".

"His sudden passing is a big shock and massive loss for everyone who had been touched by his presence. Our hearts go out to his family, loved ones and friends".

Else Stark, Binnelanders producer, says "The shock and sadness after the sudden passing of Bradley is difficult to process - he was still so young and such a beloved member of the Binnelanders actors corps".

"Any interaction with Bradley, whether on a professional or a personal level, was always just a joy. He portrayed the character of Danny Jantjes for almost 8 years with total conviction. We will miss him terribly and our hearts go out to his daughter and next of kin."

Michelle Nortje, Binnelanders publicist, says the character of Danny will remain on-screen on kykNET for the next three months until the end of October - the period that Stark Films had already completed episodes featuring Bradley Olivier's character, for playout.

"The writers' room is currently very busy to decide how the character's exit will be handled. The final decision on how Danny will leave Binnelanders has not been made yet."

ALSO READ: Producer and Binnelanders actor Bradley Olivier on life support, family says 'recovery is no longer possible'.

ALSO READ: Producer and actor Bradley Olivier dead at 36.

Producer and Binnelanders actor Bradley Olivier on life support, family says 'recovery is no longer possible'.

by Thinus Ferreira

The well-known Binnelanders actor Bradley Olivier (36) who was also a producer, is on life support following an expected heart attack but according to his family recovery "is no longer possible".

It's not clear what led to Bradley Olivier's hospitalisation on Monday.

Namibia's Die Republikein newspaper on Tuesday afternoon first erroneously reported the "death" of Bradley Olivier who was known for his role as paramedic Danny Jantjies in Binnelanders produced by Stark Films at Stark Studios in Johannesburg.

That death report was then picked up by multiple other news outlets who referenced the original without getting their own confirmation.

TVwithThinus reached out to Stark Films, as well as kykNET for comment but kykNET didn't want to confirm Bradley Olivier's death and on Wednesday morning still didn't want to respond to basic media queries to confirm that the actor had died.

On Wednesday afternoon kykNET said that family spokesperson Solomon Cupido issued a statement.

Solomon Cupido in the statement on behalf of the family says that "It is with profound sadness that we confirm that Bradley Olivier is currently on life support after being admitted on Monday evening".

"Bradley Olivier has been an extraordinary presence in our lives, known for his talent, achievements, and dedication to his craft. He has touched the hearts of many around the county, leaving an indelible mark on the industry and the community."

"Over the past 2 days Bradley Olivier has been receiving the best possible medical care and attention from Life Flora hospital. Despite their tireless efforts, it has become evident that he has reached a point where recovery is no longer possible."

"We ask that you respect the family’s privacy during this immensely difficult time and allow us to grieve in peace."

"Bradley Olivier's legacy will live on through his body of work, which has touched countless lives and will continue to inspire future generations. We kindly request that you celebrate his life by remembering the joy and happiness he brought to the world."

"As we navigate through this trying period, let us stand together as a community, offering support, compassion, and understanding to one another. Together, we can honour Bradley’s memory and the positive impact he has had on our lives."

"We extend our deepest gratitude to the medical professionals who cared for Bradley during this challenging time. Their dedication and expertise have been invaluable."

"We kindly ask the media and the public to refrain from spreading speculation or engaging in sensationalism. We understand the interest in Bradley Olivier's condition, but it is crucial to prioritise compassion and respect for the family's wishes."

"We remember Bradley Olivier for his remarkable talent, passion, and the positive influence he had on our lives."

Bradley Olivier, who has a 5-year-old daughter Kiara, studied at the Tshwane University of Technology from 2005 to 2007 and got his first on-screen role in 2007 after he won a nationwide talent search to find new actors for kykNET's first Afrikaans soapie Villa Rosa in which he played the character JJ.

Other roles include 7de Laan on SABC2 and High Rollers on SABC3, 4Play Sex Tips for Girls, Roer Jou Voete, Rockville, Vlug na Egipte, Sokhulu & Partners, Let Heaven Wait, Rockville, MTV Shuga Down South, Father's Matter, and Die Kasteel.

He's been part of the Binnelanders cast on kykNET for at least eight years.

In film, Bradley Olivier appeared on-screen in Bakgat! II and Bakgat! tot die Mag 3, Draadloos, Ballade vir 'n Enkeling, Nul is nie Niks Nie and Vaselinetjie.

Olivier started his production company Sturvey Pictures together with actor Solomon Cupido and their first film, Frankie & Felipe will make its debut at this year’s 11th kykNET Silwerskermfees next month in Camps Bay. 

Their production company is also producing three films for MultiChoice's streaming service Showmax.

Toks & Tjops returns for season 12 on kykNET with a bar, new theme song and rotating co-presenters.

by Thinus Ferreira

A new 12th season of the Friday night Afrikaans sports talk show, Toks & Tjops starts on kykNET (DStv 144) tonight at 20:00 but it will be without its co-presenter Toks van der Linde who quit in October 2022 over a fight about looming producer changes, and with the addition of a bar.

Toks & Tjops will debut its 12th season tonight at 20:00 on kykNET (DStv 144), with co-presenters Breyton Paulse and Janina Oberholzer who will both be back.

Toks van der Linde is gone and is being replaced by a rotating carousel of new presenters including Afrikaans comedian Hamilton Wessels, Rika Nieuwoudt and the Afrikaans comedian Rikus de Beer, known as Jonathan of Radio Raps who did two seasons of Die Radio Raps Show on VIA (DStv 147) and MultiChoice's streaming service Showmax.

Braaimaster Tommy Dickson, known as Vaaitjie, is also back, but will now braai from behind a red corner counter next to a bar counter around which the presenters will now sit and interact.

The CSaw Media produced show with producer Liebie Opperman, done at Stark Studios in Johannesburg and where the Afrikaans soap Binnelanders is also filmed, will also feature a new set, a new show logo and a new opening theme sung by Robbie Wessels for the live broadcast of the show. 

For the show's new format, a panel of sports experts will be included like former Springbok captain Jean de Villiers, former Springbok player Dr Jannie du Plessis, as well as former rugby player Jonathan Mokuena.

"We're putting on a new jacket but the heart of the show remains the same," says Liebie Opperman.

In October last year Toks van der Linde abruptly quit Toks & Tjops after a behind-the-scenes falling out, saying that he was stabbed in the back by Liebie Opperman, is getting replaced by Rikus de Beer and that he is against Toks & Tjops adding a bar as a set piece and drinking on a show that is considered family viewing.

Toks van der Linde wrote on social media that he had "decided to call it a day" since "trust broke down between Liebie and me". He said "Sjoe, so you learn people with me for 12 years and then he stabs you in the back. New presenter is Radio Raps. Enjoy him you guys".

Coronavirus: kykNET's Binnelanders actor Reynardt Hugo opens up about getting Covid-19, says he was scared he wouldn't be able to breathe and sat outside for days in his underwear to soak up the sun.

by Thinus Ferreira

The singer and actor Reynardt Hugo, known for his role as Dr Tertius Jonker in Binnelanders on kykNET (DStv 144) is opening up about his experience of contracting Covid-19 as the first person at the Afrikaans weekday primetime soap to get the coronavirus, saying he felt awful, worried whether he would be able to breathe, and sat outside at home for days in his underpants to soak up Vitamin D.

Reynardt Hugo is one of a growing number of cast and crew who have contracted Covid-19 as the global pandemic continues to spread worldwide - including South Africa - and that has led to the ongoing shuttering of locally-produced TV series, the deep-clean of studio lots and sets, and workers in the industry forced to stay home and self-isolate.

Reynardt Hugo's positive Covid-19 result saw Binnelanders - produced by Stark Productions - impacted, as well as several other kykNET shows including KN Verslag and Kom Ons Jol produced from the same Stark Studios lot.

Reynard Hugo told presenter Suzaan Steyn of KN Pandemie on kykNET that on a Wednesday night last month he went to bed and "my ears started shivering and I started to feel bad".

"I thought it was exhaustion and I was busy writing a book as well during that time. The next day - the Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday I felt extremely bad - body ache. It felt a bit worse than the flu."

"At work I thought: Please just don't let me be the first one here to get Covid. And then it turned out to be me. But I suspected by the Saturday, Sunday when I lost my sense of taste - my sense of taste completely disappeared."

"On Monday I called my doctor and said can I make an appointment and she said it's fine. She asked me what's wrong and I said 'I'm feeling flu-like' and I said 'My sense of taste is also gone' and she said 'Aha, go test yourself.' Opposite my house there's a Lancet laboratory and I went and got tested."

Reynardt Hugo said "It was terrifying. Usually you go and do blood tests. But it was weird to go and test for Covid. I won't lie, I was scared."

"Then I told the production manager at Binnelanders that I went to go and get tested and this is what happened. For two days I didn't go in to film waiting for my results - they say 48 hours. I called the whole time and asked did you get my results? I'm on the app."

"By the evening around half past seven I got the SMS saying 'You've tested positive for Covid'. It's not nice getting a SMS like that. It really wasn't."

"I asked my fiance: 'Am I going to die? Will I be able to breathe? Won't I be able to breathe?' It wasn't nice. It was terrifying. You don't believe it until it you get the SMS." 

Reynardt Hugo said he was scared that he might not be able to breathe.

"I can sometimes get quickly anxious. I got very anxious during this period. It took a relative period of time for me to heal. I don't like to complain but I must say that while I had Covid and was still filming before I knew it, it was bad."

"My body took a bit of a knock but then the lockdown period returned for myself and I had to self-isolate."

He said "I read on Facebook and wherever I could - News24 - to drink zinc tablets and I must say I sat many days outside in my underpants, luckily I live in a place where people can't see me so I nicely baked in the sun and got Vitamin D and made sure I do that."

"The lockdown was already a big shock for everyone and secondly to test positive and having to stay home - you feel in quotation marks 'failure' isn't the right word. I thought that now I'm the first person to get it at Binnelanders, now everybody's going to look at me and go 'There's the guy now'. Now everybody's going to keep their distance from me."

"Psychologically there's a war in your head. You try to stand strong but there are always times when negativity kicks in and it is a reality - it is difficult. Sometimes for me, it was difficult. Sometimes for me it was tougher than other times to accept the situation as it was."

"I like to work. I like to be outside. Suddenly it was just cut off. I had to stay home for 21 days. kykNET said 2 weeks and MultiChoice said 21 days so we went with the 21 days just to be sure," he said.

About where he thinks he got Covid-19 Reynardt Hugo said "we're trying to backtrack it where I possibly could have gotten it from. I was twice in a Woolworths, CNA and a Clicks - and twice at Lifestyle Centre with the masks on."

"We went to Lifestyle Centre to go buy birds. We first went to just walk around and then I walked away with little birds. And then I thought maybe I got it from Lifestyle."

He said his fiance tested negative for Covid-19 twice "with me living in the house, so we can't explain that".

"It's difficult with the masks, right. It's difficult to get used to," he said. "A few times at the studio I've been berated because maybe I've been drinking coffee for too long and have been talking but everyone's trying their best to try and prevent this thing."

"The best you can do is to really just stick with the rules, to think about and to obey the rules that there are."

Shock at unexpected death of SA soap super producer Friedrich Stark (62) and Binnelanders writer Elsabé Roux.

Shock is reverberating through South Africa's TV industry following the unexpected death of Binnelanders and Generations producer and director Friedrich Stark and the Binnelanders plot outline writer Elsabé Roux.

The cause of death of neither is known and has not been released yet.

ALSO READ: An appreciation: Rest in Peace Friedrich Stark: South Africa's TV industry truly lost an 'Aaron Spelling'.

Friedrich Stark was 62 and passed away in Cape Town in Christmas Day. The couple has three adult sons, Human Stark (33), Ulrich Stark (29) and FW Stark (24). His sister Helena Stark died in August 1983 and was a production secretary who also worked for the SABC.

Friedrich Stark who was married to Elsje Stark were the courageous South African super producer couple behind Stark Films that Friedrich Stark started in 1985 when he left the SABC a  few years after he was appointed as the SABC's head of actuality programming.

He produced Generations on SABC1 in partnership with MMSV Productions and Binnelanders for kykNET since 2005.

They built and designed their state-of-the-art Stark Studios complex that opened in Fountainbleau, Johannesburg in 2010 where not just the Binnelanders sets are housed and the weekday Afrikaans soap is being filmed, but also several of kykNET's former and ongoing actuality and current affairs shows.

Friedrich Stark who started out as an actor had roles in Afrikaans films like Die Voortrekkers (1973), Môre, Môre (1973), Dingetjie is Dynamite (1975), Kiepie en Kandas (1981) and the TV series Net ’n Bietjie Liefde (1977) when television started in South Africa, in a career that spanned decades.

Friedrich Stark was an executive producer on the Afrikaans sitcom Parys, Parys that was broadcast on kykNET and SABC2, and his Stark Films is the name behind several other series like Vlug na Egipte and Terug na Egipte.

Karen Meiring, M-Net director of Afrikaans channels, in a statement called Friedrich Stark "a pioneer in the TV industry". "He was always warm, friendly and generous in sharing his knowledge and experience. It was a privilege to have had him as part of the kykNET channels".

On the Binnelanders website, Mitzi Booysen, head writer and co-producer of Binnelanders said "Friedrick was charming, friendly,funny, generous and very clever".

"When it was necessary, he'd let me laugh at myself and as a person you were always fully aware of his appreciation and support. I'm sure that everyone part of the extended Stark family are in shock about his untimely passing. I know that I'm going to miss him very much, not just as a colleague, but as a friend. RIP, Friedrich".

On the Binnelanders website Frans Kalp, a friend and co-writer said about Elsabé Roux that she was a talented scriptwriter who started her career at the M-Net soap  Egoli, and then moved on to write for Villa Rosa, Binnelanders and Generations. "Elsabé will always be in our hearts and will remain beloved by us".

The SABC didn't release any statement.

Elsje Stark told Eyewitnessnews (EWN) that everybody is in shock following the unexpected death of her husband on Sunday.

Generations in a statement says "Friedrich was an industry pioneer and active leader in the local television production industry and played a prominent role in the Independent Producers Organisation (IPO). He will be remembered for his entrepreneurship, vision and ability to inspire and lead".

On Twitter actress and producer Connie Ferguson said "So, so sad. Praying for strength for the Starks, friends and colleagues."

Actress and radio presenter Phemelo Motene said "he insisted I join the cast of Generations when I had no idea I could act".

Doreen Morris said "shocked to learn of the passing of Friedrich Stark, legend of film & TV. Condolences Elsje, Human, family & friends".

Veteran actress Florence Masebe said "Friedrich Stark had a huge impact on my career as a young actor. I'm finding it hard to process his loss. Condolences to the Stark family".