On TV, he was played by Joop Doderer, who became so identified with the part that the Dutch expression for the most extreme form of typecasting, where an actor is identified with just one single character, is called the Swiebertje-effect.
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The books were adapted for television (Joop Doderer playing the title role), in a series of shows which aired on NCRV in the 1960s and 1970s, one of the longest-running and most popular shows in Dutch TV history.
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The character Swiebertje is a tramp, and is supposed to be inspired by a drawing by Tjeerd Bottema.
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Regular characters included, besides Swiebertje, the police officer Bromsnor (Lou Geels), housekeeper Saartje (Riek Schagen), and shopkeeper Malle Pietje (Piet Ekel).