Ellen Jens

Ellen Jens (6 October 1940 – 17 November 2023) was a Dutch television director and producer, best known for her collaboration with Wim T. Schippers on VPRO television. She produced and directed a large number of other television shows, especially on literature and art, and was referred to as a "television legend".

Jens in 1974

Early life and career

Ellen Jens was born in Wassenaar on 6 October 1940.^[1] In the early 1970s Jens was a "scriptgirl" working for the VPRO.^[2] Starting in 1972 she began working with Wim T. Schippers, producing his shows from 1972 (De Fred Hachéshow) to 1994 (We zijn weer thuis);^[3] on many of the shows she is credited as a director and writer as well.^[4]

Jens produced and directed Hier is Adriaan van Dis, the talk show hosted by Adriaan van Dis (which ran from 1983 to 1992),^[5][6] and was the producer of the long-running VPRO TV show Jiskefet^[6][7] and the Schippers series on popular science Flogiston.^[8] For presenter Hanneke Groenteman, she produced the talk show on art De Plantage,^[9] from 1994 to 2001.^[10] From 2005 onwards she produced the TV show VPRO Boeken,^[11] a program on literature hosted by Wim Brands, for which she also designed the set (modeled on the set for De Plantage, taped in the Studio Plantage in Artis,^[6] in turn modeled on her own house); she was picked (as a "television legend") for her experience with literature, based in part on her work with Adriaan van Dis.^[12]

Personal life

In the early 1970s she dated Hugo Claus, at the time when he promoted his novel Het jaar van de kreeft; Claus and Jens were photographed together as part of a campaign to promote the book, which had Claus's love life as its main topic.^[2] She lived with Wim T. Schippers in the 1970s and 1980s^[5][13] and later married him.^[12]

Jens died in Amsterdam on 17 November 2023, at the age of 83.^[1]

Select filmography

Entries marked with an asterisk are with Wim T. Schippers

• Zomergasten^[14]
• Flogiston*
• We zijn weer thuis* (47 episodes, 1989–1994)
• De bruine jurk* (TV play, 1988)
• Sans Rancune* (TV play, 1987)
• Going to the Dogs* (TV production, 1986)
• Plafond over de vloer* (9 episodes, 1986)
• Opzoek naar Yolanda* (6 episodes, 1984)
• De lachende scheerkwast* (12 episodes, 1981–1982)
• Ramp Ahead* (TV movie, 1980)
• De dans der vierkanten waarin opgenomen Elly, of het beroemde stuk* (TV production of Holland Festival opening, 1980)
• VerhagenCadabra (5 episodes, 1979)
• Het is weer zo laat!* (10 episodes, 1978)
• Cross Now* (1977)
• Ninette de Valois (mag ik mijn grijze mapje terug)* (1976)
• Grote Genade* (1976)
• Echo's uit het alpendal* (1976)
• De ondergang van de Onan* (1976)
• Volk en vaderliefde* (1975)
• Het grote gebeuren (1975)
• Van Oekel's Discohoek* (1974)
• Barend is weer bezig* (5 episodes, 1972–1973)
• De Fred Haché Show* (1972)